Myrna Gillis ’88 spent 25 years mostly as a disabilities lawyer. Then she took a big roll of the dice, leaving her law practice in 2014 to found and become CEO of Aqualitas Inc., one of Canada’s first sustainable cannabis companies, focusing on organic and environmentally responsible production.
The year before, Ms. Gillis had been following the Canadian court system as it created conditions for a commercial industry responsible for producing and distributing cannabis for medical purposes. From clients, she knew about the positive impact some of these medical benefits held.
“I saw change coming. I saw an opportunity to do something different,” says Ms. Gillis, an Antigonish, NS native, who in 2024 took on a new role and responsibility as CEO of Onda, a global leader in aquaculture research in Stratford, PEI.
“It was exciting, exhilarating, and intellectually challenging to learn something new, to create this startup with zero revenue,” says Ms. Gillis, who notes she’d been at a point in her career, a point in reflection, where she knew she had a second and maybe a third act.
She wanted to take her entrepreneurial background and her lifetime advocacy in the disabilities field and in rural economics and help.
For years, she’d provided counsel to individuals and boards with a focus on labour and human rights law in the vulnerable services sector, supporting communities with disabilities, homelessness, and those escaping domestic violence.
She saw opportunity to contribute in this new way.
“Business could be done in a certain way. It would do good and also be able to be financially successful and help rural communities,” she remembers thinking.
At that time, cannabis was legal purely for medical purposes. It was a fast growing industry with both good and bad actors. And it was a real social justice story that now needed boots on the ground, she says.
She founded Aqualitas, a multi-use license holder and manufacturer of cannabis products and active pharmaceutical ingredient manufacuters, with her law partner Barbara Darby and with fellow StFX graduate Michael O’Keefe ‘89 (who grew up a street over from her and once delivered the newspaper to her parents’ home.)
“Do work that has a purpose and surround yourself with a team who also believes. Otherwise. when the tough times come, you won’t get through.”
~ Myrna Gillis ’88
“Aqualitas has been very, very successful, which is particularly impressive as it is one of the hardest industries to have success with a lot of regulatory and other hurdles. It’s very difficult. Very few companies are able to navigate the process.”
Ms. Gillis said she took a holistic approach to the business, wanting to create a company that aligned with the founders’ values.
“We didn’t take one step that has been easy,” she noted, relating how they strived for the highest standards of ethics and environmental responsibility.
And they did some incredible things. Ms. Gillis says they’ve actively helped shape industry standards and have been committed to medical advancement. They’ve exported all around the world and performed exceptionally well. Aqualitas has been named Canada’s grower of the year, and they’ve been recognized for excellence and social impact, with consumer, retail and industry awards for product quality, sustainability, social good, and environmental impact. Ms. Gillis has been named a Top 50 Cannabis Leader.
“Access to cannabis has been and continues to be very stigmatized. I know thousands of people who benefit from it, and it’s life-changing,” she says.
That’s been part of the air under their wings.
She says wanting to grow cannabis in the best way possible and to make sure it was as clean as it could be and organic, they started another company. In 2016, Ms. Gillis became CEO and founder of Finleaf Technologies Inc., an agtech company specializing in disruptive technology by converting aquaculture waste into phosphorous rich organic fertilizers with bio stimulant properties.
She assembled and led interdisciplinary teams to design and implement groundbreaking environmental technologies, creating a way of growing that was really unique. “It’s why the product won all those awards.”
Diversity and inclusivity were central to the company, she notes. Women comprised two-thirds of senior management. The work force was gender balanced, and included 20 per cent BIPOC representation, 43 per cent representation of persons with disabilities, and five per cent of LGBTQIA2S+ representation.
Although Ms. Gillis has recently pursued a new career opportunity, she remains on the board of both Finleaf and Aqualitas, recently acquired by a multinational.
Taking that leap back in 2014 wasn’t totally out of character for Ms. Gillis, who notes she’s been running under her own steam since her mid-twenties.
After graduating from StFX with an English degree (formative in her communication and critical thinking skills, she says), she went on to Dalhousie Law School. As a lawyer working in the vulnerable population section, she created a practice that hadn’t existed and she had to market it and generate business.
Over the years, Ms. Gillis has returned often to StFX to speak to business classes as an entrepreneur and as a women entrepreneur.
Back at StFX in November 2024 for Impact X, she said she could empathize with the students pitching their ventures. She knows what it’s like to stand on your own feet.
She helped raise one third of the $35 million capital needed for Aqualitas in a pitch competition in Las Vegas. She remembers standing on a stage in front of thousands, with the ‘sharks’ asking hard questions.
You have to have passion, she says. “You have to convince other people that you’re worthy of their investment and their time.”
If she had to give a single piece of advice, it’s not just to work hard. “I always thought that was the golden ticket. It certainly is a big part of the equation. A bigger part of the equation is the quality of your thinking. You need to always be the Sidney Crosby or Wayne Gretzky. You need to go where other people aren’t. You need to see the play 10 steps ahead, where you’re going and the steps you need to get there and to anticipate the roadblocks. That’s what makes the difference.
“Do work that has a purpose and surround yourself with a team who also believes. Otherwise, when the tough times come, you won’t get through.”
Ms. Gillis says she was quite impressed with the students at Impact X and their connection to a sense of purpose.
“Every single student had a personal connection. That’s exactly what you need. That you see you can make a difference, that you have empathy, and you understand the problem and you are uniquely positioned to come up with a solution.”
