Back

Eric Joseph Christmas

Eric Christ­mas has ded­i­cat­ed the entire­ty of his pro­fes­sion­al career to the advance­ment of abo­rig­i­nal com­mu­ni­ties, cor­po­ra­tions and insti­tu­tions through a vari­ety of private/​public sec­tor engagements.

In 2011, Mr. Christ­mas led the efforts to devel­op and exe­cute the Mi’kmaq Renew­able Ener­gy Strat­e­gy (MRES). He led the project teams respon­si­ble for devel­op­ing an ener­gy invest­ment and ener­gy effi­cien­cy plan for the Mi’kmaq of Nova Sco­tia via the Assem­bly of NS Mi’kmaq Chiefs. He also secured and deliv­ered the required equi­ty funding.

Includ­ed in MRES effort was the devel­op­ment of two major wind farms for the Mi’kmaq of NS, both of which are now oper­a­tional. Mr. Christ­mas also led the team to design and deliv­er a major ener­gy effi­cien­cy project for the 13 Mi’kmaq com­mu­ni­ties. In 2012, he led the devel­op­ment team to launch a 13 Mi’kmaq com­mu­ni­ty devel­op­ment cor­po­ra­tion, known as Beaubassin Wind Ener­gy Man­age­ment Ltd.

Mr. Christ­mas also has an exten­sive busi­ness devel­op­ment back­ground. Pre­vi­ous engage­ments have been with Mem­ber­tou First Nation (Direc­tor Cor­po­rate Affairs), Wag­mat­cook First Nation (Cor­po­rate Direc­tor), Nation­al Cen­tre for First Nation Gov­er­nance (Gov­er­nance Advi­sor) and Exxon-Mobil Cana­da (Abo­rig­i­nal Liaison).

Cur­rent Engage­ments

Mr. Christ­mas cur­rent­ly has engage­ments Big­Moon Ener­gy, Pic­tou Land­ing First Nation and Tobique First Nation.

With Big­Moon Ener­gy, a com­pa­ny seek­ing to devel­op tidal ener­gy in Nova Sco­tia and abroad, Mr. Christ­mas is design­ing a tech trans­fer and com­mer­cial­iza­tion process for First Nations in the Nova Sco­tia tidal industry.

With Tobique First Nation, Mr. Christ­mas is realign­ing the band’s cor­po­rate fish­eries and com­mer­cial acqui­si­tion pro­gram (includ­ing aqua­cul­ture) and redesign­ing their fish­eries train­ing through vir­tu­al real­i­ty (Vir­tu­al Nation).

Mr. Christ­mas is cur­rent­ly devel­op­ing Pic­tou Land­ing First Nation’s Devel­op­ment Cor­po­ra­tion includ­ing select­ing a BOD for the Dev­Corp, build­ing a Mi’kmaq tem­po­rary employ­ment agency, devel­op­ing part­ner­ships for Boat Har­bour clean up project and land man­age­ment, and a First Nations mod­u­lar home company.

Entre­pre­neur­ship: At present, Mr. Christ­mas is devel­op­ing a vir­tu­al real­i­ty com­pa­ny (Vir­tu­al Nation) whose long-term objec­tive is to devel­op First Nation busi­ness skills and capac­i­ties. Mr. Christ­mas also owns a farmer’s mar­ket in Syd­ney and, until recent­ly, a restau­rant in Cole Har­bour (sold in April 2017).

“I joined the Board of Learn­Sphere because the oppor­tu­ni­ty to work with a non-prof­it orga­ni­za­tion that behaves and oper­ates very much like a for-prof­it ven­ture and in turn sup­ports the SME com­mu­ni­ty was over­whelm­ing. Learn­Sphere tru­ly draws upon the entre­pre­neur­ial skills and spir­it of its board mem­bers and I am very excit­ed to play a role in its con­tin­ued suc­cess. I bring a unique skill set to Learn­Sphere that pri­mar­i­ly includes direct busi­ness devel­op­ment with­in the First Nations com­mu­ni­ties. I view my indi­vid­ual role as enhanc­ing the out­reach of Learn­Sphere to the abo­rig­i­nal com­mu­ni­ty and per­haps one day repli­cat­ing the mod­el for our community.”

Next