Noted international business leader, academic and public speaker Sir Graham Day will be the keynote speaker at an inaugural dinner which begins a four day tour of New England states by Team Atlantic, a trade delegation representing the four Canadian provinces of New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island.
At the dinner, Sir Graham will speak about regional cooperation and longer term economic trends influencing trade patterns between coastal trading partners.
From 1983 to 1986, Sir Graham was Chairman and CEO of British Shipbuilders and, from 1986 until 1991, Chairman and CEO of the Rover Group, a major automotive manufacturer. Appointed to these positions by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, his task was to restructure and privatize these government owned companies. Also in the early 1990s, including during the Gulf War, he was Chairman of British Aerospace during a period of management and strategic realignment.
Sir Graham Day currently serves as Counsel to the Atlantic Canada law firm Stewart McKelvey Stirling Scales and is Chancellor of Dalhousie University where he also holds the Herbert Lamb Chair in Business Education. He is a director of several Canadian and international companies including the Bank of Nova Scotia, Sobeys Inc. and The Laird Group plc. Recently he has been appointed Chairman of Ontario Hydro Services Company which operates the electrical transmission grid and much of the related distribution in Ontario.
In 1993, Sir Graham Day retired as Chairman of Cadbury Schweppes plc, the global confectionery and soft drinks company and as Chairman of PowerGen plc, an electricity generating company, where he led the privatization. On his retirement, he returned to his home province of Nova Scotia.
Sir Graham was knighted by Queen Elizabeth ll in 1989 for services in British Industry and has receive eight honourary doctorate degrees.
The purpose of the Team Atlantic trade mission is to establish new business partnerships, increase trade and investment, and build strategic alliances between businesses in Atlantic Canada and companies located in the New England region. The four-day mission will begin in Boston, Massachusetts on April 12 and then travel to Burlington, Vermont; Manchester, New Hampshire; and Portland, Maine.
Team Atlantic is an initiative of the Conference of Atlantic Premiers and is being funded by the Canada/Atlantic Provinces COOPERATION Agreement on International Business Development, a pan-Atlantic trade agreement between the federal government — represented by the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA), the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade and Industry Canada — and the four provincial governments.
The inaugural dinner will be held at the Boston Park Plaza Hotel on Monday, April 12 at 6:00 pm. Members of the media interested in attending the dinner are welcome and requested to contact the trade mission's Media Relations Officer in advance to confirm their attendance.