New Board of Governors chair weighs opportunities and challenges ahead for NAIT

In June, barely two months into her appointment as chair of NAIT’s Board of Governors on April 30, Melanie Bayley was thrust into the spotlight.

Or, rather, she stepped into it eagerly, and literally, as she happily shared it with the several thousand NAIT students who crossed the stage at Convocation and shook her hand as they became graduates.

“The energy around that is just awesome,” says Bayley.

It’s the type of volunteer opportunity she’d been seeking in an effort to give back to Edmonton, where she was born and raised, and to Alberta, where she’s made her career.

Before becoming CEO and managing partner of the energy and utilities consultancy Energex Advisors in 2025, Bayley was president of ATCO Electric. That role also placed her on boards dedicated to community and industry initiatives. She’d missed that since moving on.

“I needed to do something else to ‘fill my cup’ – to do something bigger,” says Bayley.

Then NAIT came calling, looking for a replacement for previous chair Yasmin Jivraj (Honorary Bachelor of Technology ’11), who’d stepped down after serving in the role since 2022. Though Bayley had no previous experience with post-secondary institutes she knows industry, and so she knew the impact of those grads whose hands she’d shake at Convocation.

With half a year of settling into her three-year term behind her, we talked to Bayley about what it means to give back by helping to advance the polytechnic during a pivotal moment in its history.

Techlifetoday: You weren’t a NAIT board member previously. Did that make taking on the role of chair difficult?

Melanie Bayley: When I was running a large utility at ATCO, we had hundreds of NAIT grads from trades, like power line technicians, electricians and electrical techs, and business analysts, human resources people, and more. So we were always a big supporter of NAIT. Those graduates are extremely important for prosperity and economic development in our province. That's something that I was interested in helping with.

If you have the opportunity to be a board member first, you get to know the organization. I had to get up to speed really quickly. The team at NAIT walked me through a great orientation. President and CEO Laura Jo Gunter has been really great at helping me learn.

And it helps that I was a president of a company. I get what that means and how Laura Jo is doing that at NAIT.

You’re joining NAIT as construction starts on the Advanced Skills Centre, set to open in fall 2030. What impact do you think that will have on NAIT and Alberta?

It's the biggest project we've ever done. The impact on Alberta is huge.

We're going to have 5,500 more people coming out of the technologies and trades at the completion of that project. Those are the people who we absolutely need to get things built. And our province has some lofty goals for growth and economic development across all industries.

That's where Alberta relies on NAIT so much. We need to increase the number of trades that are being trained in the province. And the Government of Alberta has entrusted NAIT to do that by contributing a large sum of money toward this facility and all the new things we'll be able to do with it.

In the meantime, there are many other aspects of NAIT to focus on.

We have so many programs in health sciences and business. They're just as important. To get a pipeline built or an oil and gas facility or whatever it may be, a very broad spectrum of people are needed. As a board, we're making sure that we're focused on all of that.

What challenges do you see for the polytechnic?

We’re expecting a change in the government funding model. We don't know a lot about it yet. It's in progress. But the one thing we do know is that it will change. We're working with the provincial government right now so that there's no unintended consequences.

We can handle whatever the change is going to be. But it takes thought, planning and leadership.

What gives you confidence?

Laura Jo, earlier in her career, comes from Ontario, where they have a funding model similar to where we think Alberta is going to go. So she has some really good experience in that. We're very lucky to have one of the few people in Alberta who has worked in that environment.

Laura Jo has announced her retirement in October of 2027. In her remaining time at NAIT, she’ll help us so that we are well positioned for that change.

What are you enjoying most about this role so far?

When you go to campus and you see all these people who are either very early in their careers or maybe they're upskilling, but they're doing something good for themselves and for the province and for society, there's a wonderful energy around it.

That's why I say it fills my cup – because it makes you feel good to be part of that. It's very uplifting work. So I’m really enjoying it. And I'm very honoured and privileged to get to be part of it.