Strategy in Action: Leadership Lessons from Building and Leading a Global Business

Greg Roberts, CPA, CA, LL.D. (h.c.)
Founder, Roberts Family Office | CEO, MBI Brands

Greg Roberts is a Newfoundland and Labrador entrepreneur, business leader and investor with nearly three decades of experience building, acquiring, investing in and transforming businesses across a range of industries.

Greg grew up in Triton Island, a small community on Newfoundland’s northeast coast, as one of eleven children. After high school, he left Triton to attend Memorial University of Newfoundland, where he earned a Bachelor of Commerce degree. He subsequently qualified as a Chartered Accountant and CPA and later graduated from Harvard Business School’s President’s Program in Leadership through the Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO). He has been a member of the YPO and World Presidents’ Organization for 18 years.

Greg began his entrepreneurial career in 1998 with a single small retail operation. Over the following decades, he built and acquired businesses across a diverse range of industries, evolving from an owner-operator into the leader of a broader investment and operating organization.

Today, his principal business is Roberts Family Office, a privately held family investment organization with interests across Canada and internationally. The Family Office invests across multiple asset classes and industries, with significant activities in real estate, angel and private-company investing, health care, consumer brands and operating businesses.

Its principal operating platform is MBI Brands, a restaurant organization led by Greg that includes Mary Brown’s Chicken and FB Burrito Company. Mary Brown’s has grown from its Newfoundland roots into a major Canadian quick-service restaurant brand, with more than 320 locations across five countries. FB Burrito Company has approximately 100 locations across Canada. Together, the brands represent more than 420 restaurants and provide a platform for continued Canadian and international expansion.

MBI Brands has received numerous business and industry distinctions, including recognition as Canada’s Hospitality Company of the Year. It is a Platinum Member of Canada’s Best Managed Companies program and has received the Canadian Franchise Association’s Franchisees’ Choice recognition for fourteen consecutive years from 2012 through 2025, along with multiple Best Places to Work awards.

Throughout his career, Greg has been recognized for his leadership and entrepreneurial accomplishments. His honours include Canada’s Top 40 Under 40, BDC Young Entrepreneur of the Year, Atlantic Canada CEO of the Year and the Restaurants Canada Leadership Award. In 2019, he was inducted into the Newfoundland & Labrador Business Hall of Fame.

In 2023, Memorial University conferred upon Greg an honorary Doctor of Laws degree in recognition of his entrepreneurial accomplishments, philanthropic contributions, leadership, and commitment to rural Newfoundland and Labrador.

Despite the scale and geographic reach of his businesses and investments today, Greg has maintained deep ties to Newfoundland and Labrador. Much of his career has been built around a simple conviction: ambitious businesses and investment organizations can be built from Newfoundland and Labrador, compete nationally and internationally, and remain firmly rooted in the province.

For Strategy in Action: Leadership Lessons from Building and Leading a Global Business, Greg will draw on nearly 30 years of experience as an entrepreneur, CEO, investor and business owner. He will share lessons from starting with a single small business, building and acquiring companies, scaling national brands, expanding internationally, allocating capital across different industries, navigating periods of disruption and uncertainty, and learning from both successful decisions and mistakes along the way.