The architect of student entrepreneurship in Sackville is leaving town.
Dr. Nauman Farooqi, Mount Allison’s Dean of Business and Social Sciences has been offered the position of president and vice-chancellor at St Thomas University in Fredericton, a job he will start on July 1 this year.
Farooqi has helped quite a few student businesses get started in Sackville through a class he has been teaching since 2002 called Entrepreneurship and New Venture Creation.
One of the better known successes to graduate from that class is Bagtown Brewing, run by Mount Allison grad Anthony Maddalena. “I guess the entrepreneurship class is the sole reason why Bagtown exists,” says Maddalena. “If it wasn’t for that class, you know, I had no plans to start a brewery at all.”
Students pitch different ideas at the outset of the class, and then select one to work on. Maddalena says because he had been experimenting with brewing, and had a brother in the business in Halifax, it seemed like a venture that could work.
Maddelena recalls that Farooqi’s class was different right off the start, with a retreat for class members at Centennial Park in Moncton. He says that first experience set the tone for Farooqi’s class, which was very hands on.
When Bagtown was launching in 2016, Farooqi told CBC that he and the entrepreneurship students didn’t have classes, but rather meetings where the students run a company, and Farooqi provides advice.
Maddalena recalls that the course was popular. “It was almost a competition to get into the class,” says Maddalena, “because there’s only like 15 or 16 spots available.” He says the minute registration opened up, he had put his name in. He attributes the popularity to the fact that students know the course was “something that was going to be hands on… With a tight knit group, you’re going to be creating something new, which was sort of exciting.”
Not all businesses created by Farooqi’s classes continue past graduation, but in the case of Maddalena, his experience working on creating Bagtown set the course for his career so far. “I took it on beyond Mount A after I graduated,” says Maddalena, but “if it wasn’t for that class, and for all the work of my classmates, and Nauman [Farooqi’s] guidance through it all, we would not have Bagtown today.”
After he graduated, Maddelena says he continued to interact with Farooqi, getting called in to speak to new classes on occasion. And Farooqi would always reach out with advice for the still young business. “Anything that he thought was relevant to myself or to Bagtown, you know, he didn’t hesitate to fire it my way,” says Maddalena. “You never really expect or anticipate that, once you graduate… But you know, Bagtown sort of still being closely tied to Mount A, it was really, really nice that Nauman kept reaching out.”
Maddelena says he’s very happy for his former professor, but also sad to see him leave Sackville.
“I’m really glad he’s making that step. But he’s definitely going to be missed at Mount A,” says Maddalena. “Even though I’m not necessarily interacting with Nauman on a day to day basis, it still feels like we’re losing something in the Mount A and Sackville community.”
