Trent Alumna Named to Federal Industry Strategy Council

AVIT Manufacturing president and chief operating officer, Rhonda Barnet, will help advise Ottawa of the COVID-19 impact on manufacturing

Photo courtesy of AVIT Manufacturing

Calling upon leadership and collaboration skills discovered and honed during her time as a Trent student, alumna Rhonda Barnet' 87 will sit as a member of the federal government’s new Industry Strategy Council.

The president and chief operating officer of AVIT Manufacturing, the Peterborough native is one of nine Canadian business leaders entrusted with informing the federal government on the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on industry and the unique challenges that have resulted.

The appointment was announced on June 2nd by Innovation, Science and Industry Minister, Navdeep Bains. The council’s intent is to provide industry leaders with the opportunity to share the pandemic-related pressures they are experiencing directly with Ottawa.

“I’m extremely honoured,” says Ms. Barnet, who is chair of the advanced manufacturing sector for the council. “It will be a fair amount of work, but I’m very excited to have the opportunity to serve.”

Come autumn, Ms. Barnet will chair a group of manufacturing CEOs from across the country, but more immediate is the establishment of a council framework, followed by each council member meeting with major players in each defined sector and reporting back.

“The federal government wants to discover what the real issues are for each sector and they want that in a coordinated response,” explains Ms. Barnet.

“My job is to listen and pull together what I hear, then find common threads and bring that back to the council. Each company may have its own issues, but there will be some commonality that we can focus on and bring to the government’s attention. This will help inform the next moves to rebuild our economy.”

Ms. Barnet is no stranger to working at the federal level, being the first woman to become chair of the national board of directors of Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters (CME).

While her experience as a business leader helps inform her work, Ms. Barnet says her time as a Trent student – and her degree in Mathematics – continue to be major influencing factors.

“It was a foundational education for me; it rooted me with confidence, as well as the knowledge to go and start my career,” she says, referencing her 30-year career working in the local manufacturing sector and founding Steelworks Design (re-named AVIT Manufacturing in 2002), with her husband, Don.

“My academic colleagues and I had a very small, tight group. There were not a lot of math majors at the time. We actually started the Math Society of Trent. That was a great segue into leadership. That’s a legacy piece that still exists today.”

While she has addressed Trent students several times over the years, one particular moment has stayed with her.

“I was asked to speak about my journey,” she recalls. “How I came to Trent as a really shy person, and how I developed this amazing career. A young woman studying mathematics came to me with tears in her eyes, saying how much my talk inspired her. She was looking to have that confidence. Often smart girls aren’t encouraged to have outgoing confidence. It’s something that has to be fostered and built. That happened for me at Trent.”

Early on during the pandemic crisis, AVIT Manufacturing contemplated the mass production of face masks, but didn’t have the machinery required to do so. Looking ahead, Ms. Barnet suspects that one positive outcome of the COVID-19 experience may be more co-operation between companies in terms of sharing technology and expertise to overcome common challenges.

Locally, an online portal has been developed and promoted by Peterborough and the Kawarthas Economic Development, the aim being to help connect manufacturers with one other and foster collaboration on the manufacturing of personal protective equipment.

“There are very few companies that have been untouched or undamaged by this,” says Ms. Barnet.

“A few companies have actually grown, but I think they’ve grown through enormous strain, like 3M in the mask making business. I’m sure that was not an easy challenge put in front of them.”