Calvin Ayre

When I started my first real business (the HQ Vancouver tech hub), I was so broke I did most of the work myself, even teaching myself how to rewire servers from borrowed Cisco manuals. Later, when my online gambling tech business took off, I had to teach myself how to delegate. Hard to keep your eye on the big picture when you’re crawling around on the floor connecting patch cables.

Some people are great strategists but lousy tacticians, others vice versa. Either way, knowing when to delegate part of a plan to someone whose knowledge/skillset is more granular than your own can be the difference between success and failure.

It may sound counterintuitive, but decisiveness and flexibility are two sides of the same leadership coin. You need to be able to quickly formulate strategies to capitalize on opportunities, as well as being able to adjust strategies on the fly to account for ‘unknown unknowns’ as they arise.

Adjusting your strategy as the situation warrants requires both humility and confidence. Humility, to admit that clinging to your original strategy because it’s yours and therefore perfect is a recipe for disaster. Confidence, that people will have enough faith in you to know you’re changing course because it’s the correct approach, not because you don’t know what you’re doing and are now just flailing away.

Being born in Canada, I played hockey growing up. Running a business is a lot like coaching a team, at least in terms of managing people. If a player screws up, he expects a harsh reception when he skates back to the bench. But good coaches help the player understand why they screwed up and what to do next time.

And when that player does something good, a good coach will give them an ‘atta boy’ (or girl) at the same volume they bollocked them, so everybody knows your anger was based on the error, not the individual.

From an organizational perspective, what’s the most important question a leader should ask themselves? For me, it’s ‘what does this company and this team need from me in this moment.’ Understanding what that is can be half the battle.

This is the moment to renew my commitment to my vision: to empower human progress by building a better connected and prosperous world for all.

I remain confident that Emerging Technologies are the engine that will power a more inclusive future where data, value and opportunity move freely.

That is why I have donated my BSV to BSV Association to help further their mission, and have announced the creation of the Ayre Think Tank to drive my vision forward.

We are moving from belief to execution by backing the ideas, companies and people who can build a better world for all.

Ayre Group’s development of the Nikki Beach Resort & Spa Antigua will see vertical construction commence towards the end of Q1 ‘27. I can’t wait to see this project’s silhouette emerging on the nicest beach on the island, possibly the nicest in the Caribbean, with its backdrop of tropical mountains overlooking Jolly Harbour.

This project, the total price tag of which has risen to $550 million, will give Antigua’s high-end tourism market a serious shot in the arm. This resort will not only be the first Nikki Beach property in the Western Hemisphere with branded residences and a hotel, it will be doubly unique given guests can take advantage of harbour access for private yachts, allowing them to travel directly from their vessels via tenders to the resort’s back door.

The fact that this project is not an all-inclusive resort will ensure that guests spend more time off the property, patronizing shops, restaurants and nightlife, pumping more money into the broader Antiguan economy. My hope is that the example we set here will encourage other developers to consider similar projects, bringing lasting positive change to my adopted homeland.

Antigua is a small nation with limited natural resources, but its beaches are among the finest in the world. Its people are similarly peerless when it comes to their energy, ingenuity and eagerness to welcome new arrivals as old friends, just as they welcomed me when I moved here two decades ago. It’s time for the rest of the world to discover tourism’s best kept secret!

The final day of #CHOGM2026 in Antigua brought constructive discussions on how to expand economic opportunities for the youth of Commonwealth countries, as well as boosting the local economy in my adopted home of Antigua.

Day 3 saw Commonwealth Youth Forum (CYF) delegates present the results of the previous day’s Innovation Challenge. The theme of this year’s CYF was ‘Investing in youth agency: Co-creating Pathways towards Shared Prosperity,’ and the resulting policy document’s priorities include growing economic opportunities and future economies, in particular by expanding “meaningful digital access and skills.”

That theme mirrors the findings of the Ayre Think Tank’s first white paper, the Ayre Index, that ranks each Commonwealth nation on their efforts to ensure local youths have access to artificial intelligence (AI) tools. AI-related skills are no longer optional for today’s young people, so they must have equal access to these tools, for their sake as well as the future economies of their home countries.

Serving as one of the Innovation Challenge judges was Ayre Think Tank chief Oliver Poole, who announced that the winning team and some other AI enthusiasts would be invited to London (at no cost to themselves) for a follow-up event on Commonwealth Day in London in March 2027 to ensure their important message reaches the widest audience possible.

Back at the Commonwealth Business Forum, Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Gaston Browne was in attendance at the Tourism for a Changing World roundtable session, where Nikki Beach Hospitality Group’s Nicholas Ferrer offered details of the $550 million in-development Nikki Beach Resort & Spa Antigua.

Patrice Jacobs, representing the project’s developer (Ayre Group), was also on hand to explain the significant economic opportunities the project is bringing to the island in both the short-term (hundreds of construction jobs) and long-term (hundreds more permanent positions, as well as a steady stream of high-net-worth guests venturing beyond the non-all-inclusive resort and pumping money into local businesses).

This week has been a whirlwind of activity, but I’m proud of how smoothly everything went, as it’s a real testament to the can-do spirit and capabilities of the people of the host nation, my adopted home. I look forward to CHOGM member states carrying on that spirit of collaboration by transforming all these good discussions into relevant actions.

Let’s get to work!