SFU builds a program for busy Aboriginal business executives

In response to widespread growth of Aboriginal economic development strategies and self-governance initiatives, one Vancouver university has launched the Executive Masters in Business Administration in Aboriginal Business and Leadership [EMBA] Program tailored to the unique needs of executives working within Aboriginal business and governance.

“I haven’t found another program like it,” said Dr. Mark Selman, program director. “There are other Masters of Business Administration [MBA] programs focused on Aboriginal business, but this program is unique as it is an executive MBA program and it will focus on the building of skills and the knowledge of leaders,” he said.

Selman said the program, provided through the Simon Fraser University [SFU] Beedie School of Business, is open to Aboriginal [First Nations, Métis and Inuit] and non-Aboriginal participants.

“Not everybody in the program will be Aboriginal, but everyone will have had some experience in dealing with First Nations administration and the Aboriginal community,” he explained.

Anyone with previous management and leadership experience can apply,” he added.

The idea to create the program came to Selman eight years ago while worked with the Haisla First Nation of Kitamaat village, Kitimat BC. There he helped develop a community learning plan to assist the community in economic development strategies.

Though he’s not an academic professor, Selman has created programs for business executives and large mining companies, including Alcan and Cominco.

He said the program couldn’t come at a better time.
“It is important because of the changes that are going on in Aboriginal communities and society at large,” he said, pointing to the fact that BC First Nations passed a historic resolution May 26 to assume greater control and decision-making over their healthcare and wellness.

“Right now we have very few trained Aboriginal health administrators and we are going to need a lot of people in that area,” he noted.

“The Aboriginal Executive Master of Business Administration program reflects SFU’s commitment to using its education and research resources to support Aboriginal peoples and communities,” Andrew Petter, SFU president, said in a statement.

“This program is particularly needed at a time when Aboriginal peoples are striving to overcome longstanding challenges and seeking to take advantage of new opportunities,” he added. “Through it and other initiatives, SFU intends to be part of the process of helping Aboriginal peoples to benefit from a new era of reconciliation and prosperity.”

“It’s an idea whose time has come,” William Lindsay added.

Lindsay, director for the Office for Aboriginal Peoples at SFU, agrees that the program will only better ongoing and future business relations concerning Aboriginal people. He said First Nations communities are in a powerful position when it comes to formulating business connections and securing economic ties and the EMBA program is a shot in the arm for First Nation communities and those who work for them.

“We’ve reached that stage now among our people,” he said. “We’re in these executive positions now and we could use some extra training to hone our skills,” he explained.

Lindsay’s role in the program is to consult with various external First Nations business people and assist in constructing the Aboriginal EMBA advisory board; which consists of knowledgeable First Nations business leaders. The role of the Aboriginal EMBA advisory board is to assist program participants as they merge their extensive business savvy with greater knowledge of First Nations protocol and cultural sensitivity.

The three Advisory Board members for the Aboriginal EMBA program are Wendy Grant-John, former chief of the Coast Salish Musqueam Indian band and first woman elected as regional chief of the Assembly of First Nations; Herb George [Satsan] hereditary chief of the Wet’suwet’en First Nation and key figure and strategist in the historic Delgamuuk land claims court case of 1997; and Mark Podlasky, a First Nation Harvard graduate and business owner with 20 years experience in† strategic planning, organizational design and management consulting.

The three-year program will begin in September 2012 and tuition will be in the low $40,000 range, Selman said.
The program will feature 12 courses and topics will include: Orientation of business in Aboriginal communities, leadership skills, marketing, policy and governance and strategies for sustainability, to name a few.

Because the program is tailored to busy business executives, it will be delivered in block intervals totalling 14 weeks of courses in SFU’s downtown Vancouver campus.

This tailoring of studies is fitting for adult executives, explained Dr. Michelle Corfield, executive-in-residence.
“Most working Aboriginal adults are extremely busy and have a desire to further post-secondary education but don’t necessarily have time to do an MBA,” she pointed out.

“This condensed program allows participants to be present in learning [and] it will give Aboriginal people the tools to do business on an equal playing field. And that is the whole point of the program, to help Aboriginal people be equal at the table,” she said.

Selman said he has already begun to receive applications. He said that approximately 90 per cent of those interested are First Nations or Métis, and interest in the program is shared equally between the sexes.

There are 25 to 30 seats available for the program. Individuals are encouraged to apply as soon as possible as applications will be reviewed on an ongoing basis.
Deadline to apply for the program is January 2012.
The next information session about the Aboriginal Executive Master of Business Administration is October 12th.

For more information visit www.beedie.sfu.ca/AboriginalEMBA/about/
Or contact Aboriginal EMBA Program, Dr. Mark Selman/Director, at 778-782-5070 or email at Aboriginal-emba@sfu.ca