This episode of the Insights Podcast features an interesting conversation with Mike Cassidy, the CEO of the Cassidy Group which owns Coach Atlantic, Maritime Bus and T3 Transit. The Cassidy Group is the largest family-owned motorcoach company in Canada and has more than 250 pieces of equipment in its fleet of buses and more than 800 employees. Coach Atlantic is a dominant player in the chartered bus sector in the region, while Maritime Bus provides regularly scheduled bus service on 14 routes to 40 communities across the three Maritime Provinces. If you noticed any of Coach Atlantic or Maritime Buses, the fleet is virtually new, with most buses in their fleet being less than five years old. This is part of the company's strategies to manage capital efficiently. To that end, in 2024, Cassidy committed to buying 100 buses from Prevost, the Quebec based bus manufacturer. The cost of each bus today is $800,000. Cassidy also serves the cruise ship business in both Charlottetown and Halifax, has interests in agriculture through Van Kampen Nurseries and real estate development in Charlottetown. His entrepreneurial story is very interesting as a Halifax born, Saint Mary's graduate who began his career as a chartered accountant in PEI. Enjoy!

This week on the Insights podcast, Don and David spoke with Dr. Wendy Rodgers, the President and Vice-Chancellor at University of Prince Edward Island. Dr. Rodgers discusses the important role the university plays in the Island economy as well as the direction of the new strategic plan. She talks about the federal changes to international student attraction and how that damaged Canada's brand as a destination for international education. UPEI has a new Faculty of Medicine and other interesting initiatives underway. To get a good primer on UPEI and its future listen to this week's Insights episode.

Our guest on this episode of the Insights Podcast is Mike Whittaker, until recently the CEO and Co-Owner of TruCorp. TruCorp is the Truro based holding company that was owned by Mike and his partner Bill Hay until he sold his shares. Trucorp had two main holdings Bonte Foods, the federally certified meat manufacturer in Dieppe and Grinner's Food Systems, which owns Greco Pizza, as well as Captain Submarine and Frozu Frozen Yogurt. Mike has an interesting personal story, joining Trucorp as a marketing specialist, before over time becoming a 33 percent equity owner of the company. Under his leadership, Greco Pizza grew from less than ten outlets to 120 outlets around Atlantic Canada and became the number one pizza brand in the region with annual sales of over $50 million and more than a thousand employees. He introduced Grecoville and the thirty minute delivery promise and the memorable marketing tagline "Greco 310-30-30" that is still being used thirty years after its introduction. At the same time, Mike helped expand Bonte Foods through the acquisition of the Chris Brothers brand of deli meats. TruCorp sold its interest in Bonte in 2020 and Mike sold his equity in TruCorp a couple of years ago. It is a fascinating story of business success that is mostly unknown. Enjoy!