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While immersion might prove the best path to truly understanding NAIT,
the approach is also indicative of an enthusiastic, unapologetic extrovert,
eager to be amongst staff and students.
“People have to get to know me,” says Feltham.
As the tests wrap up and Telford and her staff have the information
they need to plan the president’s eight-week personal training program,
he assures them he’ll do whatever they ask of him.
“I think this is going to be fun,” he says with a smile.
despite being new to campus, Feltham comes to NAIT familiar with its
reputation. After seven years in Winnipeg, his trip from one end of the
Prairies to the other represents a homecoming. Feltham was born and
raised in southern Alberta. His father was a school board administrator;
his mother was involved in construction and development, and politics
as a reeve and then Member of Parliament.
“So I grew up in a family where we talked a lot about business and
about politics,” says Feltham, “and an awful lot about community.”
Building on those early lessons, Feltham amassed an education that
includes two bachelor’s degrees, an MBA, a law degree and a PhD in
taxation and finance. All of it helped shape the Asper School of Business
into an economic centre of gravity for Manitoba with strong links to the
real world of commerce.
“The dean of a healthy business school has one foot firmly
planted within the school and the other firmly planted in the business
community,” says Reg Alcock, the former MP and Treasury Board
president who served as Feltham’s associate dean and is now the
school’s executive in residence. “That defined Feltham to a T. . .
Glenn believes that being responsive to the community is one of the
responsibilities of a post-secondary institute.”
“YOu COuld fEEl
jusT As muCh
AT EAsE wiTh
him in A sOCiAl
sETTinG As in
ThE bOArdrOOm.”
- GEORGE ONYSCHUK,
NAIT RESPIRATORY THERAPY INSTRUCTOR
Following his parents’ lead, Feltham ensured that he, too, was
responsive. In Winnipeg, he contributed by chairing the Royal Winnipeg
Ballet and serving on the boards of the Winnipeg Airports Authority and
Manitoba’s Crown Corporations Council.
Though he’s still identifying similar roles to play in Alberta, he’s already
had a strong impact on building community on campus. While cheering
on NAIT in a variety of sports – even before his first day on the job – he
introduced himself to the men’s Ooks basketball team by awarding gold
medals for its Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference championship win in
early March. In free moments, he tours campus to meet staff, ready with
new steel-toed shoes for viewing shops and labs. And, in those instances
when a connection can’t be made in person, he picks up the phone.
Leading up to NAIT’s Instructional Excellence awards, an annual
recognition of teachers by students, Feltham called to personally
congratulate each of more than 30 nominees, including George Onyschuk.
“It’s not every day that the president calls you,” says the Respiratory
Therapy instructor. “I’m very impressed with the personal, human touch
Dr. Feltham brings to our institution. He seems very genuine – and very
interested in and concerned about NAIT students and staff. You could
feel just as much at ease with him in a social setting as in the boardroom.”
that’s not to say Feltham is a pushover in the latter. About two weeks
into the job, the president encounters his first trial-by-fire at a senate
meeting of the NAIT Students’ Association. Following a congenial
get-to-know-you dinner (keeping with his new diet, he skips the crème
brûlée), Feltham delivers a state-of-the-institute presentation on
funding and tuition. News of a deficit tips off a heated discussion of
increased athletic fees that bring NAIT in line with Alberta’s other
post-secondary schools.
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