A Grenada-born entrepreneur and philanthropist has formally taken up his post as Chancellor of Canada’s McMaster University, capping a week of celebratory events that saw him deliver a rousing call to action for new graduates to harness the power of their education to drive meaningful change.
Dr. Nicholas Earle Brathwaite, who was first appointed to the honorary leadership role last October, was officially installed at a convocation ceremony held on the university’s Hamilton campus on Wednesday. The milestone followed his keynote address a day earlier at the 5th Annual Black Excellence Graduation Celebration, an event organized by McMaster’s Black Student Success Centre — a campus body focused on advancing the academic, personal, and professional growth of Black and African descent students at the institution.
During his keynote, Brathwaite emphasized to graduating students that education is far more than a short-term credential. “Education is not a one-time payoff. It’s an asset. Invest it wisely,” he told the crowd, urging young alumni to “leverage” their degrees and “deploy” that knowledge to make a tangible difference for their families, communities, and future generations. Brathwaite noted that new graduates are the product of extraordinary collective investment in their growth, and carry a responsibility to pay that investment forward.
A wide range of distinguished guests from across North America, the Caribbean, and Africa traveled to McMaster to attend the two days of celebrations, invited by Brathwaite and his family. Attendees included Olympic champion Grenadian sprinter Dr. Kirani James and award-winning Grenadian-Canadian musician Eddie Bullen. During a Tuesday reception, pre-recorded video tributes were shared by two regional heads of government: Grenada Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell and Mia Mottley, Prime Minister of Barbados.
Brathwaite, who traced his roots to working-class beginnings with family connections to both Barbados and Grenada, called his appointment as chancellor the “greatest gift” he has ever received. The new chancellor has deep existing ties to McMaster: he earned his undergraduate degree in Applied Chemistry and Polymer Engineering from the institution, and was awarded an honorary doctorate in 2018. “It is with profound gratitude and a deep sense of humility that I accept this great honour of serving as chancellor of McMaster University,” he said. “I am a dreamer by nature; yet, not in my wildest dreams did I imagine that one day I would stand here as chancellor of one of the most prestigious universities in Canada and, indeed, the world.”
His path to the chancellorship is rooted in both business success and a lifelong commitment to public good. Alongside his wife Janice, Brathwaite co-founded the PETNA Foundation in 2007, a nonprofit that provides funding for education, youth empowerment, and community development projects across the Caribbean, Africa, and North America. His business career includes founding early-stage tech firm nCHIP, which pioneered a leading multi-chip module assembly process before its acquisition by Silicon Valley’s Flextronics in 1995, when he was named the company’s chief technology officer. Today, he serves as a founding managing partner of Celesta Capital, a global venture capital firm focused on deep tech innovation.
Speaking at Wednesday’s installation ceremony, Donette Chin-Loy Chang — Chancellor of Toronto Metropolitan University and a Jamaican-Canadian community leader — praised Brathwaite as a model for purpose-driven leadership. She noted that Brathwaite is one of only five Caribbean-born people to ever hold a chancellorship at any Ontario university. “If you want a roadmap for what a life well-lived looks like, you don’t have to look much further than Nicholas Brathwaite,” Chin-Loy Chang said. “His career, his philanthropy, his relentless focus on our young people, that’s not just a success story; that is an instruction manual for what it means to be a citizen and a friend.” She urged graduating students to follow Brathwaite’s example and work to leave the world better than they found it.
For Brathwaite, the role also carries deep personal meaning, rooted in his family’s legacy. Both his parents were educators, and his late father, Sir Nicholas Brathwaite, previously served as Prime Minister of Grenada. Brathwaite said that given his parents’ lifelong belief in the transformative power of education, the title of chancellor would be their favorite of all the professional accomplishments he has earned across his tech and business career. “They started their careers as educators, which is a profession I think is the most noble of all,” he said. “Throughout my career I have been blessed to earn various titles across tech and business worlds. But knowing how deeply they believed in the power of education, and their reverence for the role of academic institutions, I know for a fact that of all my titles, chancellor would have been their absolute favourite.” He added that McMaster itself stands as a “national treasure” and a global asset that acts as an engine for positive global impact.