Dear Board of Directors, Advisors, Staff and Partners,

My last four years as the Executive Director of the NB Social Policy Research Network have been a tremendous time of growth, collaboration, and fulfillment. During this time I have had the great fortune of being part of a unique organization with a timely and important mission, surrounded by a phenomenal team and partners. Today though, I am writing to let you know I have accepted a position working with the Province of New Brunswick as the Director of Innovation. In my new role I will be supporting the work of staff across departments to integrate efforts for public innovation and innovation policy development. My last day will be Friday, February 17th, 2017.

While this is a fantastic opportunity that promises to be challenging, exciting and consequential, it is personally difficult leaving my colleagues and this organization. Happily, I will be in a position to continue to support and enhance the work started by the Late Honourable Andy Scott, to build on these rich experiences, and bring innovative approaches to the public service.

The NBSPRN Team at GovMaker III

Over the last several years we have accomplished extraordinary things. We made great progress in how government-academia-citizens work together, introduced New Brunswick to open government, and put the province on the national social innovation map. I am most proud of our flagship events (the GovMaker Conference & the Policy Research Forum), The 2016 Canadian Open Data Summit, the NouLAB initiative, the network governance model and the knowledge mobilization capacity we developed. I am confident that, while not always recognized, our work will have cascading and lasting effects in government and academic culture in this province and beyond.

I owe a great deal of gratitude to the Late Honourable Andy Scott, and the Board of Directors for the opportunity to work in this position for the past four years. I’ve greatly enjoyed and appreciated the opportunities I’ve had to learn about and advance citizen engagement, build a high performing team, grow an international network of experts and practitioners, and connect unusual suspects around common passions and shared value. I’ve learned about the importance of ecosystem building, openness, and the discipline of innovation, all of which I will carry with me throughout my career.

In executing my duties I have always aimed to be a good public servant and steward of Andy’s legacy. When faced with ego and territorialism in our work, Andy once said that the only way to combat territorialism and ego is to not be territorial and to not have ego. Those words of wisdom have guided our work over the years and as a result we built a truly collaborative team and boundary-less organization, leading to innovative partnerships with organizations such as the Pond Deshpande Centre and the NB Institute for Research, Data, and Training. I leave the organization in the hands of a highly competent, outstanding and dedicated staff, surrounded by a vibrant ecosystem, and a growing, committed Board of Directors.

During my final weeks, I will do everything possible to ensure continuous coverage of my executive duties, and the ongoing operations and sustainability of NBSPRN. As part of this commitment I am willing to provide training and support to the interim Executive Director and support staff post-departure if that is deemed desirable. Please let me know if there is anything else I can do to aid during the transition and the future success of the organization.

Thank you for this most rewarding opportunity.

Sincerely yours,

Nick Scott