Don Wishart

Don Wishart has been Director of the Centre for Financial Studies since June 2019 and served as Executive-in-Residence for UNB’s Student Investment Fund since 2014. As Executive-in-Residence he mentored students in the Student Investment Fund class by sharing his experience and offering career advice. He has also provided support and advice to staff members with the Centre for Financial studies.

As Director he oversees the development of the Centre’s flagship program, the Student Investment Fund, to ensure the program continues to prepare students for the challenges and needs of the investment industry. He also manages the Centre’s stakeholder relationships. Don also serves as President of SEAMARK Asset Management, a Halifax based investment management firm. He has been with SEAMARK since 2002 where he has held a variety of senior roles, including CFO and COO when it was publicly traded.

Don graduated from Mount Allison in 1979 with a Bachelor of Commerce after which he earned the CMA and CFA accreditations in 1983 and 1986. He began his career as a Management Trainee and Accounting Systems Analyst at NBTel, moving rapidly up the ranks of the company, and its parent Bruncor, and serving as both its Treasurer and Comptroller before becoming general manager of its equipment leasing subsidiary. He left Bruncor to establish companies in equipment leasing and information technology, before joining SEAMARK in 2002.

Don has assisted a variety of charitable organizations. He has served as a member of the investment committee of the IWK Hospital Foundation; director of the charitable organization Chalice Canada; member of the Financial Executives Institute’s pension committee; and member of the Finance Committee at Oakfield Golf Club.

In the past he has been a director of companies in the equipment leasing, semiconductor, and real estate industries, and the Pension Investment Association of Canada. His greatest joy as a volunteer was in 1994 when he led the construction and initial operation of the Imperial Theatre in Saint John, NB; he also created a Foundation to support the theatre and led a successful effort to raise its first 2 million dollars. In 2019 he received the CFA Society of Atlantic Canada’s Terry Milne award, which is presented annually to an individual for his/her extraordinary contributions as a volunteer either in his/her profession or community. In 2020 CPA Nova Scotia awarded him the Fellow (FCPA) designation, the profession's highest mark of distinction.