U of R bestows Indigenous business leader with young alumni award

As a business leader in Saskatchewan, Thomas Benjoe has a piece of advice for young people: "Find your mentors."

Growing up, he was raised by his grandfather, who he says had a strong work ethic and encouraged him to go to school, so Benjoe remembers hardly missing a day.

Picking up on his grandfather's work ethic paid off — after working as an Aboriginal banking specialist with the Royal Bank of Canada, Benjoe went on to become the CEO and president of FHQ (File Hills Qu'Appelle) Developments.

It's a partnership formed by 11 First Nations in the File Hills Qu'Appelle Tribal Council that seeks out investment opportunities to support each community's economic development.

Benjoe was also named as one of CBC's Future 40 and more recently, he won the outstanding young alumni award from the University of Regina, where he studied business administration from 2007 to 2011 through the First Nations University of Canada, an independently administered university-college at the U of R.

He acknowledges that his home neighbourhood of North Central has changed since he was young, but there are still teens there who lack familial support systems, which is why he believes mentorship is so important.

"Some of our youth are not fortunate enough to have the family support systems at home and those play a very vital part in our ability to learn and to grow. If you don't have that at home, find it in others," he told CBC Radio's Saskatchewan Weekend.

Award shared with community

As for the award itself, Benjoe said it's a nice milestone, but it's not his achievement alone.

"It's also something that I share with the community because it takes a community to raise a child, and so for me being able to obtain an award like this, it's sharing that with the community, and sharing that hard work with the community and showing that if you support someone and see through that they're able to accomplish their goals, good things come of it."

Benjoe said today, he's still connected to his North Central community, regularly attending events and offering help when he thinks it's needed.

"I'm still connected to the community in different ways. I still partake in a lot of the events that go on in the community. You don't shy away from where you come from and you always go back and support so I've always been focused on how can I help."