Sally Ng, formerly COO of the Tribe Network for BIPOC entrepreneurs, has been tapped to head the University of New Brunswick’s Wallace McCain Institute for Business Leadership.

Ng spent less than a year at the recently created Tribe, where she was tasked with encouraging innovative companies to create corporate governance structures that are more welcoming to the BIPOC — Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour — community.

At the McCain Institute, her work will be focused on training senior business leaders via a slate of program offerings ranging from intensive educational cohorts to one-off seminars.

“As a first-generation immigrant, who grew up in Nashwaak Village, NB, I believe all entrepreneurial organizations and programs need to dig into how to create more inclusive environments for entrepreneurs and businesses to thrive as our region continues to grow and become more diverse,” said Ng in a statement.

Ng will take over from retiring executive director Nancy Mathis, who has led the Wallace McCain Institute since its founding in 2008. Mathis previously had been the CEO of Mathis Industries, one of the key companies in the Fredericton startup community in the first decade of the century.

Ng’s career so far has centred largely on startups and the innovation economy.

She was previously the founding Executive Director for Fredericton startup hub Planet Hatch, before being hired by Innovation PEI to help launch the Startup Zone incubator in Charlottetown.

She also spent just under three years working for Toronto business innovation firm Highline Beta. During that time, she also became an angel investor, backing two startups and eventually joining East Valley Ventures as Executive in Residence last November. The New Brunswick angel group is part of Mariner Partners.

The McCain Institute, meanwhile, describes its mission as “shifting the business culture of the province and advancing the values of entrepreneurship and innovation.” The organization further adds on its website that, “The development and deepening of relationships and networks is fundamental to how the Institute delivers on its mandate."