University of Saskatchewan

Murray Lyons
The StarPhoenix

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

University of Saskatchewan alumnus Brett Wilson came through for the province he grew up in and his alma mater on Monday, announcing donations of $1 million for the college of commerce and $500,000 for Persephone Theatre's capital campaign.

The $1-million donation establishes the Wilson Centre for Entrepreneurial Excellence, which will focus on research, teaching and outreach to the business community.

Wilson, a co-founder of a firm that has raised more than $47 billion for oil and gas patch projects, says he hopes to change undergraduate thinking at the U of S on entrepreneurship versus a career in an established business.

"Students graduate the University of Saskatchewan and immediately look for jobs," he said. "In other parts of the world, they immediately look to start their own business and get going.

"We should do both."

Wilson says he hopes the new entrepreneurial centre within the university will help give students confidence in their ability to manage a business.

"There is a perception entrepreneurs are risk takers. I don't believe that," he said. "I believe entrepreneurs view risk differently. They are comfortable with it and not afraid of it."

College of commerce dean Grant Isaac says the new centre's teaching, research and outreach to the local business community will cover a broad range of entrepreneurial activity.

The Wilson centre will also focus on challenges specific to Saskatchewan's economy, including business succession planning.

"Certainly, there will be a small-business focus and a family enterprise focus," Isaac said. "One of the major challenges facing the province right now is owner-operators who are nearing retirement who don't have a succession plan."

The university also plans to use some of the money generated by the Wilson gift to help advance the creation of viable business enterprises from science and technology research.

Isaac agrees a focus by the college of commerce on entrepreneurship is overdue.

The college has tended to focus on wealth management, he said.

University president Peter MacKinnon notes a good number of U of S graduates have made their mark over the years as entrepreneurs, although many have done so outside the province.

He notes the Wilson centre will reach beyond the college of commerce and will also allow students from the colleges of agriculture and bioresources, engineering and others to connect with business stakeholders across sectors.

"It will not only develop their business capabilities, but we also make them part of the economic development of the city and the province, giving them reason to stay in work in this beautiful province of ours," MacKinnon said.

The $500,000 donation to the Persephone Theatre capital campaign will help pay for the smaller of the performance spaces being built at the new complex. Bill Wilson, Brett's father, is a longtime patron of Persephone performances, driving in from the Battlefords.

Wilson graduated from the U of S in 1979 in civil engineering, but went to work in Alberta as a petroleum engineer before changing his focus to raising capital for the oil patch.

In 1993, Wilson, Jim Davidson and Murray Edwards founded FirstEnergy Capital Corp., which has been the lead broker for raising more than $47 billion in deals to fund startup oil and gas projects.

Now that he is approaching 50, Wilson says he feels the need to diversify and will step back this summer from his role as managing director and chair of FirstEnergy. He's doing that partly to put more emphasis into philanthropy, but partly to become a "merchant banker" to a wider variety of business sectors that interest him.

Philanthropy in the Calgary area is not new for Wilson, but he has turned his attention in the past few years to his home province. Before making the U of S and Persephone donations, Wilson caused a bit of a revolution in philanthropic thinking in the Battlefords. He is supporting a number of individual charities through a $400,000 donation to the Battlefords United Way.

In memory of his mother and grandmother, he promised the Battlefords Union Hospital Foundation dollar for dollar if the community responded. As a result, the foundation was able to unleash a flood of giving in the Battlefords, and Wilson's matching funds amounted to $500,000.

"I didn't realize the difference I could make in stirring up some of the older, more well-heeled money that was just sitting under the mattress," Wilson said.

"I think it's a shame. Giving while living is such an inspiring opportunity."

© The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon) 2007