Profiles

STU Alum Says Recruitment Firm is Matchmaking for Professionals

Three years into his teaching career, Guillaume Miszczak missed the competitive edge he enjoyed during his hockey days with the St. Thomas University Tommies. A three-time Canadian Interuniversity Sport Academic AllCanadian, Miszczak graduated from STU with a Bachelor of Arts (2010) and Education (2011) and began teaching around the region, at Fredericton High School, Leo Hayes High School, and Nashwaaksis Middle School. “But the more I was teaching, the more I realized it was not satisfying my competitive edge,” he says. A friend convinced Miszczak to move to Toronto for an entry-level job at a corporate recruiting fi rm. Through sales and recruitment, Miszczak found his competitive spark again and quickly moved up the ranks, taking on a portfolio of national clients including Fortune 500 companies. After fi ve years, the natural next step in his career came in early 2021 when Miszczak and his colleague Stacy Towers decided to leave the fi rm and launch MT Talent Solutions, a recruitment agency “with a focus on a consultative and holistic approach” with candidates and clients across Canada. “It’s matchmaking for professionals,” Miszczak says. The business partners launched MT Talent Solutions in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, when hiring was not a priority for many corporations. Whether working for his previous employer or launching a new business, Miszczak knew rebuilding was in his future. “I felt that if I had to do that, I’d rather do it on my own,” he says with a laugh. “Worst case scenario, I fail and I can go work somewhere else. We both had a high level of confi dence in our abilities even though the market was not the best. We felt our knowledge on industry trends and insights on hiring practices would prevail.” Through a strong network built over time on platforms like LinkedIn and with many client referrals, the new business was able to grow quickly, hitting over $1 million in revenue and hiring 10 people in its fi rst eight months. Miszczak was named Canada’s #1 Agency Recruiter for 2021 by Top Recruiter Awards, an organization that recognizes and elevates the best recruiters in over 30 industries and 50+ cities across North America. “We’re very compassionate people,” Miszczak says about his company’s approach. “We have integrity and empathy with people we hire. We are always looking for people who are curious in nature and are passionate about helping people secure their dream career. “In the current job market, it’s necessary to learn more about you, the job seeker, and fi nd the best way possible to place you in a position that would work best for your skill set. We’re also focusing on the soft skills that you have that might be transferable to different companies. When a company hires us to recruit for them, we do a lot of research to fi nd out about the company and the people within the team and then we fi nd the people that match.” MT Talent Solutions has plans to grow to 25 employees this year with a long-term plan of launching branches around the country. Miszczak looks back fondly on his STU days, both in the classroom and on the ice. He credits his professors for teaching him life skills, critical thinking, and relationship building and his hockey teammates for team-building skills. •

From Criminology to Software…and Oysters

WWhen Luke Megarity began university at St. Thomas in 2006, he envisioned a career ahead as a police offi cer. Today, he is the president and chief operating offi cer of a successful technology company in Fredericton with a “hobby project” selling oysters around the world. It wasn’t the journey he anticipated, but Megarity today beams with pride talking about his roles at iTacit and the Boss Gibson Oyster Company. “Days are challenging and long, but it’s all worth it when you really enjoy doing what you do,” the Fredericton native says. While studying Criminology at STU, Megarity landed a job as campus brand ambassador with PMA Canada. He quickly developed a passion for business and, upon graduation, was offered a full-time job with the company. Over the next few years, Megarity worked in sales and business development for a variety of organizations in manufacturing and technology, traveling to more than 30 countries in the process. Wherever he traveled, he proudly stated that he was from the east coast of Canada. “Most people around the world don’t know where New Brunswick is… but if you tell someone you’re from the east coast of Canada, their eyes light up,” he says. “They say, ‘you guys have amazing seafood.’” Those frequent comments about New Brunswick seafood combined with a love for food and food culture sparked an idea that, in summer 2017, Megarity and fellow Criminology graduate Andrew Hadley turned into the Boss Gibson Oyster Company. They sourced oysters farmed in northern New Brunswick and developed wooden packaging produced by small sawmills across the province. By the end of the year, Boss Gibson began selling oysters around the world. “You can market an oyster like you can market a nice wine or a nice whisky,” Megarity says. The business nearly closed its doors when the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020 as restaurants across North America shut down virtually overnight. “Oysters are a type of food that a lot of people don’t eat at home,” Megarity says, noting that Boss Gibson went from shipping thousands of oysters a week to zero. The business partners maintained good relationships with clients throughout the pandemic and when restaurants began to reopen to full capacity again, Boss Gibson was “back with a vengeance.” The company’s products are now available throughout Canada and the United States and were recently introduced in Singapore. “We started Boss Gibson with a $2,000 investment, and we’re very proud of where that $2,000 has taken it,” Megarity says. “We’re just having an absolute ball. We get to travel, we get to meet people, and we get to talk about New Brunswick.” Selling oysters is a passion for Megarity, but it remains his “hobby project.” By day, he is the president and chief operating offi cer of iTacit, the Fredericton software development company. Megarity was hired in 2018 to turn the struggling company around. At 30 years old, Megarity was iTacit’s youngest employee and its new president. “I’ve rebuilt, restructured, and reorganized the company,” he said. “We rebuilt some of the technology. We took it from a diffi cult spot to a great spot in about 3.5 years. We’re not just in health care anymore; we’re in logistics, banking, insurance, retail and pretty much everything else.” iTacit’s front-line employee platform and learning management system was recently named a Top Ten Mobile LMS and Compliance Training LMS by eLearning Industry for 2022. While he ultimately didn’t pursue a career in policing, Megarity says the liberal arts education he received at St. Thomas taught him “to think outside the box,” how to research, and how to build relationships – all essential for his entrepreneurial success. “STU is where I created some of the best relationships I have,” he says. •

Championing Diversity

and Inclusion Dr. Manju Varma, BA’90, BEd’92 Dr. Manju Varma Works to Foster an Anti-Racist Society

Dr. Manju Varma spent decades championing diversity and inclusion to foster an anti-racist society. Despite growing up in New Brunswick as one of the only visible minority children in her school, it wasn’t until she was a teacher that she realized the importance of diversity and inclusion in the classroom. “I taught at the school at Elsipogtog and realized the provincial curriculum was at odds with these children’s experiences. The curriculum ignored their struggles, whether it was around poverty or high suicide rates.” She became interested in how culture and curriculum intersect. “When you’re part of the dominant white population, it’s a privilege to be able to have your culture and your curriculum mesh. For a lot of people, and in retrospect for me, I realized it wasn’t the case.” She followed this interest to the University of Toronto where she completed her PhD in Education, focusing on diversity and antiracism. She returned to New Brunswick to work for the Department of Canadian Heritage in the Government of Canada. “The research I was reading was about Toronto or Vancouver, places where there is huge visible diversity. I was thinking ‘that isn’t my experience at all.’ So my work – even now – has been on anti-racism in ‘predominantly white areas’ such as New Brunswick.” She taught in the Faculty of Education at the University of New Brunswick for eight years before returning to government. She worked for the Department of Canadian Heritage, Corrections, and most recently, for the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, where she is the lead for the Offi ce of Inclusion, Equity and Anti-Racism. The Province of New Brunswick appointed Varma its Commissioner on Systemic Racism in 2021 with the mandate to report on the nature and impact of systemic racism in the province and make recommendations for improvement. It is the fi rst role of its kind in Canada. She has undertaken public consultations and will be releasing a report in September that will have recommendations to address issues like barriers to opportunity; equitable access to programs and services; and systemic racism in health care, education, social development, housing, employment, and criminal justice. Varma is hopeful that more discussion around systemic racism will show the importance of diversity and inclusion in society. “From an economic perspective, we need to attract immigrants. We need to think of ways to diversify our talents and to be innovative and think in different ways. From a social justice perspective, we need an equitable society where people can work to their potential. From a public safety perspective, every time there’s someone advantaged, there’s someone disadvantaged. If we don’t help, if we don’t work on those issues, then that can become problematic with violence, with growth of drug use and gangs,” she said. “Think about what it is that you feel is the most important part of society, and I guarantee you there is a critical role for diversity and inclusion to play in that.” •

Profiles by Jacqueline Cormier, BA’08 Evacuated Overseas

Dr. Bernard Mooney Refl ects on his Time at St. Thomas during World War 2

Dr. Bernard Mooney remembers the exact moment his life changed. He was walking from the St. Thomas College campus towards downtown Chatham when he heard church bells ring. “It was my birthday – May 8th – and I remember thinking ‘How do they know it’s my birthday?’ I thought, ‘What on earth is going on?’ When I got back to the college, it was the end of the war in Europe. It was May 8, 1945. That is etched upon my mind.” The bells meant Bernard could go home to his family in England. He was one of the millions of children who were evacuated from England during World War 2. As part of Operation Pied Piper, approximately 3.5 million British citizens – most of them children – were evacuated from urban centres that risked being bombed to rural areas in Britain, as well as overseas to Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and the United States. Bernard and his younger brother Ged were sent to live with the McLellan family on Cameron Street in Moncton, NB. There, he learned to skate and play hockey on the family’s outdoor rink. Two years into his stay in Moncton, the family had another baby and they no longer had space for Bernard to stay, so he moved to Chatham where he lived in the St. Thomas dormitories despite only being in Grade 8 and attending the local school. He attended St. Thomas College the following two years. Because he had learned to skate and play hockey in Moncton, he wanted to continue in Chatham. “St. Thomas College had a hockey team. But I was too young to play with them, so I got permission from the priest in charge to start a junior team. We managed to get permission to go with our team to play a team in town. It got us out of study periods, so I was the very popular captain of the junior team!” A budding chemist, young Bernard had the priest’s approval to spend his money on chemicals and supplies to make homemade fi reworks. “I had all this in my locker in the basement. When I think about it now, it shouldn’t have been allowed. But I was extremely careful. I used to just blow up jars and make fi reworks,” he recalls. “There was a chemistry lab for the older students in the same building and I remember standing outside there thinking, ‘Oh I wish I could go in there’.” His love for chemistry continued once he returned home to England. He eventually got his doctorate and became an Electroanalytical Chemist. Later in life, he became a therapist who specializes in hypnotherapy and was a founding member of the British Association for the Person-Centred Approach. Though he returned to England after the war, his connection to Canada remained strong. For many years, he kept in touch with some of the boys he met at St. Thomas and with members of the McLellan family. •