by Lincoln DePradine
Entrepreneur and philanthropist Dr Nicholas Earle Brathwaite, who delivered 2 formal speeches at McMaster University this week, left his student listeners with several messages, including the need to “leverage” their education “to make a difference.”
“Deploy it,” he told students on Tuesday while giving the keynote address at the 5th Annual Black Excellence Graduation Celebration.
The celebration was organised by McMaster’s Black Student Success Centre, which is “dedicated to supporting and championing the academic, personal and professional success and overall well-being of Black/African descent students” at the university.
“Education is not a one-time payoff. It’s an asset. Invest it wisely,” urged Brathwaite, who was appointed McMaster University’s chancellor last October. On Wednesday, Grenada-born Brathwaite was formally installed as chancellor at a convocation ceremony at the Hamilton-based university.
Both events, on Tuesday and Wednesday, were witnessed by numerous people from Canada, the United States, Africa and the Caribbean who were specially invited by Brathwaite and his family. The invited guests included champion Grenada 400-metre runner Dr Kirani James and Grenadian-Canadian award-winning musician Eddie Bullen.
Brathwaite used both speaking opportunities to outline his humble beginnings, born to grandparents and parents from Barbados and Grenada.
During a reception on Tuesday, video tributes were offered to him by several people, including Grenada’s Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell and Mia Mottley, Prime Minister of Barbados.
To be appointed and installed as university chancellor, “this is the greatest gift that you could have given me,” said Brathwaite, who co-founded the PETNA Foundation in 2007 with his wife Janice.
The foundation was established to provide financial support for a range of initiatives in the Caribbean, African and North America, focusing on education, youth, and community development.
According to Brathwaite, the new McMaster graduates are the products of “an extraordinary investment” that was made in them and their education, and they ought to put it to work for their family, community and “the next generation.”
Jamaican-Canadian Donette Chin-Loy Chang commended Brathwaite at his chancellor-robing ceremony and installation on Wednesday, noting that he is now one of 5 Caribbean-born people to hold such a position at an Ontario university.
Chin-Loy Chang herself is chancellor of Toronto Metropolitan University. “If you want a roadmap for what a life well-lived looks like, you don’t have to look much further than Nicholas Brathwaite. His career, his philanthropy, his relentless focus on our young people, that’s not just a success story; that is an instruction manual for what it means to be a citizen and a friend.” Chin-Loy Chang described Brathwaite as someone for whom she has “profound respect.” “Let’s big up Chancellor Brathwaite. We are so proud of you. And, to the graduates, as you leave this hall, I ask that you go out into the world and strive to make it a better place as Nick has.”
Brathwaite is one of 4 siblings, whose parents were educators. His late father, Sir Nicholas Brathwaite, also served as Prime Minister of Grenada, Carriacou and Petite Martinique.
Brathwaite said he was humbled at his appointment as chancellor of McMaster, where he earned a degree in Applied Chemistry and Polymer Engineering. He received an honorary doctorate from the university in 2018. “It is with profound gratitude and a deep sense of humility that I accept this great honour of serving as chancellor of McMaster University. I am a dreamer by nature; yet, not in my wildest dreams that I imagined that one day I would stand here as chancellor of one of the most prestigious universities in Canada and, indeed, the world,” said Brathwaite, who was a founding member of nCHIP — a company that specialised in developing an industry-leading, multi-chip module assembly process.
He was named chief technology officer when nCHIP was bought in 1995 by Silicon Valley-based Flextronics. Brathwaite, in 2013, became one of the founders and managing partners of Celesta Capital, a global deep tech venture capital firm.
“McMaster is not only a national treasure; it is also a global asset. It is an engine of global impact,” said Brathwaite, who reflected on the emphasis placed on education by his parents. “They started their careers as educators, which is a profession I think is the most noble of all. Throughout my career I have been blessed to earn various titles across tech and business worlds. But knowing how deeply they believed in the power of education, and their reverence for the role of academic institutions, I know for a fact that of all my titles, chancellor would have been their absolute favourite.”
