They called him the Codefather: business journalist Gordon Pitts gave Gerry Pond the name in 2020, calling him "the most influential networker, mentor, and technology power player in the province." Pond, the former chief executive of New Brunswick Telecom who spent his second career building the investor networks and startup accelerators that reshaped Atlantic Canada's technology sector, died on July 8, 2026. He was 82.

Pond's career in information and communications technology stretched more than 45 years, beginning at New Brunswick Telecom (NBTel), where, according to a 2022 profile of him, he started out in the mid-1960s fielding complaints about rural party lines. He rose to chief executive of NBTel and later served as president of its successor, Aliant Telecom, through the deregulation of Canada's telecommunications industry. Under his leadership, NBTel earned an international reputation for adopting new technology, BetaKit reported following his death.

When Pond stepped back from telecom leadership, he became an angel investor, backing two Fredericton startups that would prove Atlantic Canada could produce companies worth acquiring: Radian6, a social media monitoring platform, and Q1 Labs, a cybersecurity firm. Both sold in 2011. Salesforce.com agreed to acquire Radian6 for US$326 million in cash and stock, TechCrunch reported at the time; the deal closed that May, while IBM's purchase of Q1 Labs closed months later for an undisclosed sum.

Pond did not simply cash out. In 2003 he co-founded Mariner Partners, a Saint John technology consultancy where he served as chairman and later chair emeritus, and Propel ICT, a startup accelerator he built with Curtis Howe and Jeff White to give early-stage founders the mentorship and financing structure the region had never had. He also co-founded East Valley Ventures, an investment arm that Mariner Partners has described as connecting more than 30 Atlantic Canadian companies to seed capital and experienced operators. In 2012 he partnered with Gururaj and Jaishree Deshpande to found the Pond-Deshpande Centre at the University of New Brunswick, a social-innovation hub that has since taken on projects ranging from civic innovation to workforce development.

The recognition followed the work. The Canadian Information Productivity Association named him Innovator of the Year in 1997, and the New Brunswick Knowledge Industry Recognition and Achievement Awards named him Person of the Year in 2002. New Brunswick inducted him into its Business Hall of Fame in 2007. Techvibes and KPMG named him Canadian Angel of the Year in 2011, the same year his two biggest investments paid off, and the Canadian Startup Awards gave him its Wolf Blass Lifetime Achievement Award in 2014. The province appointed him to the Order of New Brunswick in 2013. In 2016, Canada's Governor General announced his appointment as a Member of the Order of Canada, a citation from the Governor General of Canada crediting him as "a champion of entrepreneurship in the information and communications technology sector" who "tirelessly encourages emerging entrepreneurs and innovators to create sustainable, scalable enterprises." He was formally invested the following November. The National Angel Capital Organization gave him a career Lifetime Achievement Award at its 2020 Atlantic Summit, the same event where Pitts introduced him as the Codefather, and InnovateNB named him an inaugural inductee to its Hall of Fame in 2022.

Claudio Rojas, chief executive of the National Angel Capital Organization, called Pond "one of my earliest mentors" in a statement to BetaKit, adding that "he cared deeply about entrepreneurs and gave generously of his time and experience to help founders grow their companies." New Brunswick Premier Susan Holt wrote that Pond "was a pioneer and leader in the ICT sector" whose "impact on New Brunswick and Canada was profound." Chris Keevill, founder of Versos AI, told Entrevestor that Pond was "widely known and loved" and "an inspiring leader to many people in New Brunswick and across the Maritimes." Propel's own chief executive, Barry Bisson, once summed him up more simply: "Everyone who knows Gerry is well aware of his passion for three things: entrepreneurship, sales and Atlantic Canada."

Pond earned a Bachelor of Arts from the University of New Brunswick and later completed executive programs at Harvard, McGill, and the University of Western Ontario. Born in Quebec and raised in New Brunswick, he made his home in Rothesay. He is survived by his wife, Anne, his daughter, Suzanne, and his son, Gregory.

What Pond built does not need his name to keep running. Propel ICT still operates the accelerator he helped design, and in 2019 it created an annual sales award in his name for its portfolio companies. Mariner Partners still works out of Saint John. The Pond-Deshpande Centre still sends University of New Brunswick students into the province's hardest civic problems. And the entrepreneurs he mentored and the angel investors he championed carry forward the instinct that defined his second career: find the person with the idea, and make sure they are not building it alone.