Chancellor Emeritus Jim Leech, MBA’73, has been honoured with the 2024 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Ontario Chamber of Commerce (OCC). He will receive the award as part of the Ontario Business Achievement Awards’ (OBAAs) televised celebration on TLN on Nov. 16-17.
For more than 40 years, the Ontario Business Achievement Awards (OBAAs) have celebrated the achievements of Ontario businesses of all sizes and from all sectors. The Lifetime Achievement Award is presented annually to a businessperson who demonstrates leadership in a particular Ontario industry that has a significant positive impact on the province and beyond.
“On behalf of the entire Queen’s community, I would like to extend our heartfelt congratulations to Chancellor Emeritus Leech on this tremendous honour,” says Principal and Vice-Chancellor Patrick Deane. “At Queen’s, we have seen firsthand how Jim’s leadership can transform an institution. He’s left a lasting legacy at the university and across the province.”
Chancellor Emeritus Leech’s 45-year career as a military officer, business leader, and philanthropist has had a positive impact on the lives of countless people.
He was president and CEO of Unicorp Canada Corporation, one of Canada's first public merchant banks, and Union Energy Inc., then one of North America's largest integrated energy companies. He retired as president and CEO of the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, which greatly benefited from his leadership.
Since retiring, he has focused on philanthropic leadership and non-partisan public service. He helped the UHN Foundation raise $2.5 billion to enhance medical research in Ontario. During his time as of the chair of the Mastercard Foundation, he oversaw transformative investments in the livelihoods of youth in Africa and in First Nations, Métis, and Inuit communities in Canada.
The Jim Leech Mastercard Foundation Fellowship on Entrepreneurship gives African students and recent graduates the opportunity to access training, resources, financial support and a network of mentors to develop their entrepreneurial skills and start building their own venture.
Throughout his life, Chancellor Emeritus Leech served in governance roles with Queen’s, including University Council, the Board of Trustees, and Smith Business Advisory Board, culminating in his two-term tenure (2014-2022) as the university's 14th chancellor.
He also created two bursaries at Queen’s to assist today’s students. The Jim Leech - CFPDP Bursary was established in partnership with the Canadian Foundation for Physically Disabled Persons (CFPDP) and is awarded based on demonstrated financial need to students with a physical disability. In 2017, he personally established the Chancellor Leech Bursary, a $15,000 need-based bursary for Indigenous students.
Additionally, the university’s largest MBA bursary, the Jim Leech MBA Scholarship, has been awarding scholarships on the basis of academic excellence to students entering the full-time MBA program since 2015.
The televised Lifetime Achievement Award will air on Nov. 16-17 on TLN TV.
