The Latest

Contribute. We love to hear your thoughts, your musings and your latest work. Please share with us!
Write a post

David Alston

David Alston
David Alston is a repeat tech and marketing startup entrepreneur, and the Chief Entrepreneur in Residence for the New Brunswick Government. He is widely celebrated in the industry, including: KIRA Award's Industry Champion for 2015, a Forbes top 50 CMO in social media, co-winner of a 2014 EY Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year Award for Atlantic Canada, 2015 winner of Entrepreneur of the Year, and co-winner of Enterprise Promotion for the Atlantic Region from Startup Canada. David is co-chair of LivingSJ, a local movement creating pathways out of poverty; a member of the Business Community Anti-Poverty Initiative (BCAPI); and has recently been involved with two documentaries, Code Kids, which follows the journey to get coding back in the classroom; and The Millennial Dream, a documentary questioning whether the values of “The American Dream” have now been replaced with those more aligned with the passions of the Millennial generation.

Recent Posts

Defying ‘Generational’ Gravity

Posted by David Alston on January 29, 2018

In one of my volunteer roles, I co-chair LivingSJ—a collective impact movement in Saint John with a goal to end generational poverty. What many may not realize is that generational poverty is a much more stubborn and complex problem to solve than situational or temporary poverty. When a person or family with a job/house/car/etc… gets into dire straits after suffering a catastrophic financial event, they are often privileged to have friends and family with assets to lean on temporarily, with their gravity typically pulling them upward towards recovering to their norm. However, with generational poverty, the gravitational pull is often reversed, continually holding people down, generation after generation, because in many respects the knowledge of what heights can be reached gets lost to the collective conscience.

Read More