User:Hummingbirdblue/sandbox

Brian Gregory Dobbin is a entrepreneur and businessman born in Dublin, Ireland (July 8, 1964). The youngest of eight children, Brian moved to Newfoundland, Canada at the age of two and grew up living in some of the Province's small communities as well as the capital city St. John's where he attended school. His father is Dr. Patrick Dobbin (b. December 16, 1931 d. June 14, 2002)

Early Career
After attending Memorial University in Newfoundland, Brian's career began in 1985 when he went to work for his uncle and mentor Craig Lawrence Dobbin, OC, who was an industrialist and the Founder, Chairman and CEO of the world's largest helicopter company CHC Helicopter Corporation, a public company traded on the Toronto and New York Stock Exchanges. Brian worked under his uncle's tutelage and became his executive assistant with responsibilities across regional domestic airlines, large commercial and residential property developments, and the international helicopter business. Throughout the six-year apprenticeship, Brian witnessed the strategic growth of numerous companies under Craig Dobbin's management. The company was sold after Craig Dobbin's death in 2007 for $3.7 billion.

In 1991, Brian went to work for one of eastern Canada's largest construction and development companies N.D. Dobbin as the Vice President of Property and Development. For the next four years he was immersed in the building and property business. During this time, he had the opportunity to develop his first projects including commercial rental properties across Canada. These were concept to design to finance to construction deals and gave Brian his first true understanding of the economics of property development.

Another very large project during this time was the Hibernia Platform project in Newfoundland, at the time the world's largest construction job at over $6 billion. Brian oversaw seven contracts with international partners during his five years in this role ranging from building accommodations on site to doing the post-tensioning of the concrete on the platform, with a combined value of over $200 million.

Individual Achievements
In 1996, Brian left the family businesses and started his own called Newfound Developers. With ideas and energy and no investment capital, Brian went to Asia and over the first years of the company raised in excess of $45 million through investors using the Newfoundland Immigrant Investor Program, and also through a partnership of the Newfoundland and Taiwan governments called Newfoundland and Labrador Development Corporation of which he was CEO and a shareholder.

With office in St. John's, Hong Kong, and Taipei, Brian was able to initiate numerous projects including international tourism resort development; fish farming operations, including hatcheries and plant processing for salmon and cod which at that time were the largest in Canada; and the development of a large scale planned residential community in southern Chile called Primavera built with Newfoundland-manufactured homes.

In 2002 Brian started The Independent newspaper. In 2005, the two-year-old "Indy", as it was known, was awarded a citation of merit from the prestigious Michener Awards Foundation – an organization established to recognize excellence in public service journalism. A survey in 2006 estimated The Independent had a regular readership of 40,000 Newfoundlanders. The publication was shut down in 2008 amidst the financial crisis and the economic impact of the global shift in the news industry to digital platforms, and away from printed newspapers. In 2011, Brian re-launched the Indy in a multi-media digital format online at TheIndependent.ca.

By 2003, Brian had built the Newfound group of companies into one of the Canadian province's largest private employers. Amongst varied projects in the late 1990's he had built his first resort development of 8 chalets and a luxury lodge nestled on the banks of the Humber River called Strawberry Hill Resort in Newfoundland, Canada.

The success of this project led to a 600-acre development named Humber Valley Resort. With over 200 second home sales in its first two years, Humber Valley was a development and marketing phenomenon given its location and challenges.

Brian rebranded his resort developmet team as Newfound Resorts and in 2004 began large-scale community development projects in western Ireland and the Caribbean islands of St. Kitts and Nevis, and also took on third party development clients with projects in North America, Europe, Africa and the Caribbean for the company's sales subsidiary Newfound Property International.

In late 2006 Brian split the resort business from his other interests and led the private Newfound Resorts in a $180 million reverse into an existing publicly traded company and became its major shareholder. One year later he resigned as CEO of the corporation and created a private, international development, sales and marketing company called Elmsbridge Property International.

Current Business
In 2010, Elmsbridge Property International entered into partnership with the Walter family of Antigua with a plan to create a low-density international residential community including: up to 80 home sites averaging 2.5 acres in the 1000-ft hills; a 50-acre organic reserve behind the 2000-ft white sand beach; a working organic farm; a boutique, bungalow-style hotel; and wildlife interpretation park at Barter's Estate in Rendezvous Bay, on the south coast of Antigua and Barbuda in the Caribbean. Rendezvous Bay is adjacent to Falmouth and English Harbour and is regarded as having one of the best beaches in Antigua. The project is due launch in early 2012.