We’re proud to announce that Bill and Ed Barrett are this year’s inductees into the Gerry Pond Innovation Hall of Fame, presented by Mariner. The brothers will be honoured at the 2026 InnovateNB Awards on November 26 in Fredericton, in the spot usually held by our keynote.
From their roots in Woodstock, New Brunswick, Bill and Ed Barrett have spent nearly five decades demonstrating that globally significant companies can be built from a rural community with big ambitions. Through vision, perseverance, and an unwavering commitment to New Brunswick, the Barrett brothers have become two of New Brunswick’s most influential entrepreneurs and business leaders.
Beginning with the growth of Barrett Corporation in 1976, they built a diversified group of companies spanning telecommunications, distribution, consumer products, and technology. Over the years, their businesses created employment opportunities, attracted investment, and established New Brunswick as a place where entrepreneurial success could flourish on a national and international scale.
Their most transformative achievement came in 2004 with the founding of Xplornet Communications. Long before broadband access became recognized as essential infrastructure, Bill and Ed identified a critical challenge facing rural Canada: a growing digital divide that threatened to leave rural communities behind. With Xplornet, they set out to solve that problem.
Over the next sixteen years, Xplornet evolved from a regional telecommunications startup into Canada’s largest rural-focused broadband provider, delivering high-speed internet service to underserved communities across every province and territory. Built and led from New Brunswick, the company became a national success story.
The 2020 sale of Xplornet marked one of the most significant technology and telecommunications exits ever associated with New Brunswick. With a reported transaction value of approximately US$2 billion, the sale represented far more than a successful business outcome. It validated a vision first championed by the Barrett brothers nearly two decades earlier: a New Brunswick-based company could address a national challenge, create substantial economic value, and become a transformative force in Canada’s digital economy. The transaction also provided the capital and scale needed to accelerate broadband expansion across rural Canada, extending the impact of the company well beyond its founders’ ownership.
For New Brunswick’s innovation community, the significance of the Xplornet exit cannot be overstated. It provided a powerful example of how ambitious entrepreneurs from this province can build, scale, and successfully realize world-class companies while remaining rooted in New Brunswick. In doing so, Bill and Ed Barrett created a blueprint for future generations of innovators and founders.
Tickets and tables for the 2026 InnovateNB Awards are available here.
