Wayne and Nigela Purboo open doors for college & university graduates to connect to corporate world

February 22, 2023

In his first football training camp at Queen’s University in 2019, Jaden Bailey, nephew of Olympic gold medalist Donovan Bailey, suffered a bad concussion that ended his season.

With the 2020 season cancelled because of COVID and looking forward to getting on the field the next year, the running back tore his Achilles tendon in training camp.

Disappointed and frustrated after another setback, Bailey quit the sport he played since age seven to focus on a professional career.

While coping with the psychological and physical tolls of the injuries, he learned of the Onyx Initiative launched by entrepreneurs and philanthropists Wayne and Nigela Purboo to help bridge the gap in the recruitment and selection of Black college and university students and recent graduates for roles in corporate Canada.

“That came at the perfect time for me,” said the Applied Economics major who is graduating this year and plans to become an Investment Banking Analyst. “The first thing I noticed was that this was a very supportive and welcoming community and that really appealed to me. I wanted to be part of this initiative because, as I was navigating university, I didn’t feel I had a strong network around me to facilitate a successful transition to the corporate world.”

Far too many Black and racialized students are missing out on professional opportunities in corporate Canada because of a paucity of social networks and mentorship.

On the flip side, those occupying executive suites must accept that qualified and ambitious young Black candidates exist.

The Purboo’s started the groundbreaking program three years ago after the unprecedented social unrest wave following George Floyd’s murder in Minnesota in May 2020.

Wayne & Nigela Purboo (Photo contributed)

“Typically, we would make a donation to a cause that is doing the work,” Nigela said. “In this case, we felt that given our experience, networks and resources, we could do more. Our philanthropy revolves around youth, education, health care and social justice. We gave a lot of thought to what we wanted do and how we could be more effective.”

Just to be sure they were heading in the right direction, the Purboo’s engaged a global management consulting company to do the research. After confirming what they already knew, the couple created a working group comprising representatives from corporate, educational and community institutions as well as surveyed students to help create Onyx.

The black Onyx gemstone is the most popular colour and is celebrated for having many positive qualities, including absorbing negativity.

“We worked with a local team in Oakville and they came up with some great ideas,” Wayne pointed out. “We considered many different names, but Onyx is the one that stuck. We like that the stone represents strong support, stamina and determination in addition to the name being short and memorable.”

Since October 2020, Onyx has received more than 800 applications for its comprehensive personal and professional development Scholars Program, and has welcomed more than 500 participants from across the country. The program includes personalized training and career coaching, mentorship, interview preparation and other job-readiness resources.

Through the Ten Thousand Coffees talent experience platform for inclusive mentoring, employee connectivity and skills development, Onyx has secured 110 mentors that are paired with its scholars and are continuously welcoming more applicants.

“These are not only Black professionals and senior executives, but also our non-Black allies,” said Nigela who completed an undergraduate degree in Sociology and a Master’s in Cultural Anthropology at Western University.

Working with a career mentor and coach to accelerate his career is one of the things that excited Bailey who was recently hired as Queens University Campus Ambassador as a part of Onyx’s newly launched Scholar Ambassador Program.

“These are two incredibly valuable resources,” said Bailey. “I was super excited to build relationships with them and leverage their experiences and expertise in order to create the best possible career outcomes. With my career mentor, one of the first things he did was provide me with his cell phone number, saying I can call or text anytime. During the holiday season, he sent me text messages wishing me a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. We are genuinely invested in each other.”

A participant in Onyx’s second scholar cohort, Chelsi Campbell discovered the program just before starting her university studies and agrees the career coach and coffee conversations with her mentor were very beneficial.

Chelsi Campbell (Photo contributed)

“I got a broader vision of what it is like to be in a career,” said the Toronto Metropolitan University third-year Media Production student. “My career coach gave me insights about work-life balance and opportunities I could look out for. I get a sense that most of the cohort members are pursuing business-related careers. I am a bit different as I am in the creative sector. The practical advice about how to get into the workplace, managing my time and cold emailing was of great value.”

Scholars have access to personal and professional development courses via a curated LinkedIn Learning Path, engage in executive fireside chats with successful Canadian and American entrepreneurs and take part in employer discovery sessions with recruiters and executives from some of Canada’s largest firms, including Bell, Amazon, Walmart, PwC and TD.

In addition, they can go to a job board with hundreds of co-op placements, internships and full-time opportunities offered by Onyx’s partners and a LinkedIn group that is exclusively for scholars to engage with each other and share insights, information, advice or inspiring personal stories.

Participating in webinars and interactive sessions focused on resume writing, honing interview and pitch skills, mental health and wellbeing and transitioning into the workforce, among other things, are also part of the unique experience.

Wayne Purboo said the program is continuously evolving to reflect the needs of their scholars and partners.

“For us, Onyx is a work in progress and we will learn more about what is working and what is not for our corporate partners and scholars as we go along,” said the media & telecom industries serial entrepreneur. “We did not come into this with a preconceived notion of ‘here is the fix’.  There have been a lot of challenges over the years with other endeavours to bridge the gap for this demographic, but we believe that it requires a different solution.”  

Close to 400 students applied to be a part of the first cohort.

“We brought in the cohort just three months after we launched,” said Nigela. “Having that large number of applications really confirmed the need for Onyx.  For privacy reasons, the educational institutions could not provide us with race-based data, so our solution had to be more grassroots. We went to career centres, community organizations and Black, African and Caribbean student associations to make presentations and raise awareness. It is challenging, but we’ve made a lot of headway.”

Being able to leverage their partner brands helped kickstart the program.

“It is always difficult to bootstrap programs like this where we don’t have a history,” said Wayne. “Building a brand takes time, but we were fortunate because we leveraged our partners’ brands with that first cohort and that really worked well in attracting scholars and other corporate partners.”

The Onyx Initiative premier and founding partners are Bell, TD, CiLAR, PwC, and Amazon.

Since diversity and inclusion are fundamental to the core values of many of Onyx’s partners, they are proud to collaborate with the organization to find meaningful solutions.

“The Onyx Initiative's unique blend of recruitment, retention and mentorship for Black university and college students is supporting the next generation of Black leaders in Canada,” said former TD Bank Group Global Head of Diversity & Inclusion Girish Ganesan.

At scale, Onyx will enroll 1,000 scholars annually while returning 2,000 legacy scholars since they are provided support for three years.

“We have made a lot of progress in closing the gap thus far,” said Wayne. “Our corporate partners are now able to connect with Black talent in a more personal manner than they were able to before. We just want to keep opening that door. Over time, we will measure the overall impact.”

Yearly, more than 400 students apply to be part of the program.

There were concerns, Wayne noted, after Onyx’s launch in 2020 amid the surging social unrest that it would be a moment in time and people would move on with their lives.

“That has not happened for us,” the Amazon Shopping Video Vice-President said. “From a corporate standpoint, we were worried they would see this as a one-year thing and jump off the bandwagon. But our renewal rate is almost 100 percent. Onyx is funded through corporate subscriptions and we don’t depend on government funding and donations. Because of this, we have to deliver for our corporate partners and scholars in order for us to survive. That renewal rate is really important to us along with getting new applicants annually.”

Students and recent graduates interested in applying to the program can go to https://onyxinitiative.org/applyen/scholarsignup/.

The deadline to apply for the next cohort is March 31, 2023.

Giving back comes easy to the Purboo’s who met 33 years ago through a mutual friend.

Wayne & Nigela Purboo with their sons Christian second from left), Camden & Cole (Photo contributed)

“Born into families of Caribbean descent, our parents had a strong work ethic that was instilled in us,” said Nigela whose Jamaican dad and Antiguan mom met in England in their late teens and came to Canada in 1973. “We were taught that education is important and it is a great equalizer. In addition, they taught us that to whom much is given, much is expected and that has been a core aspect of our upbringing. I and my husband have continued this tradition of compassion, kindness and generosity and we do the same with our three sons.”

Wayne, the recipient of an honourary doctorate from McMaster University where he also earned his MBA, said his family is blessed.

“Given our own journey and how many people have helped us, we felt compelled to do the same,” he added. “We believe we have a part to play and it took some time to figure out what that is. What we are doing now is just a narrow scope as we are not going to solve all problems. But we are going to do the best that we can for this particular demographic.”