I-Manager

Dr. Brent Mainprize, MBA, PhD, is an award-winning professor at the University of Victoria’s Gustavson School of Business where he teaches entrepreneurship and Indigenous economic development. Brent has over 17 years' experience as an entrepreneurship educator, academic, and facilitator of economic change in Indigenous communities. 

Barbara began her career in tourism and hospitality, and studied Hospitality Management at Vancouver Island University. She has held positions in major hotels, resorts and country clubs in Canada and the US, primarily in Event Management. For the past 10 years she has held positions as a program and event manager for training companies in BC and Alberta. Barbara has successfully led onsite training programs in remote Indigenous communities across Canada in industries from tourism training, to heavy equipment operator training, to entrepreneurship training. She has also managed several of the Aboriginal Canadian Entrepreneur (ACE) programs, Empowering Aboriginal Generation of Leaders and Entrepreneurs (EAGLE) programs under UVic Executive Programs, and the new I-Manager - Energy Sector program under NCIED. Barbara is a highly effective grant writer, having generated successful applications for over $5M in funding for various training programs.