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TORONTO, ON, March
11, 2009 –
Richard J.
Currie, Past Chairman, BCE Inc. and
former President, Loblaw Companies
Limited and George Weston Limited will
receive this year's Ivey Business Leader
Award at a gala dinner on October 14,
2009.
From
transforming Canada's retail landscape
to putting his stamp on BCE, Canada's
most widely-held company, Mr. Currie's
achievements and contributions to
Canadian business are exemplary. He was
President of Loblaw Cos. for 25 years,
from 1976 to 2001 and of George Weston
Limited from 1996 to 2002.
Mr. Currie
most recently served as Chairman of the
Board of BCE (Bell Canada) Inc.,
retiring in February 2009, after a
business career spanning five decades.
While he plans to step back from running
companies, Mr. Currie will continue
giving back to the community. Since
2003, he has served as Chancellor of the
University of New Brunswick where he has
developed the Richard J. Currie
(athletic and convocation) Center. He
has also generously endowed entrance
scholarships, presently the most
valuable in Atlantic Canada.
"It's fair
to say that every Canadian has been
touched in some way by his contributions
to the business world," said Carol
Stephenson, Dean, Richard Ivey School of
Business. "His career has been
impressive. I don't know of many other
Canadian business leaders who managed to
increase the market value of their
company more than 25 per cent a year for
more than two decades."
Under Mr.
Currie's leadership, the market value of
Loblaw increased to more than $14
billion from $40 million. During his six
years as President of George Weston
Limited, its share price increased more
than seven-fold to $124 a share from $16
a share, raising its equity value to
almost $17 billion from about $2
billion.
I am
extremely pleased to honour Richard
Currie for his business accomplishments
as well as his service in the
community," said Tim Hockey, President &
CEO, TD Canada Trust and Co-chair of the
Ivey Business Leader Award Committee.
"He has tirelessly given his time to
further educational, charitable and
cultural initiatives."
Mr. Currie
has served on the boards of many
educational and non-profit initiatives
and has contributed generously to them.
He has supported Chairs in Health
Professions Education to the University
Health Network and in Canadian Business
History at the University of Toronto. He
has endowed the position of Director of
Education and Programming at the Art
Gallery of Ontario and rebuilt the
dining hall at the National Ballet
School in Toronto.
Created in
1991 by the Ivey Alumni
Association/Toronto Chapter, the Ivey
Business Leader Award honours
individuals and organizations who have
made a significant contribution to the
advancement of business in Canada, and
reflect the ideals of the Richard Ivey
School of Business.
Mr. Currie
was born in Saint John, New Brunswick.
He attended the University of New
Brunswick and graduated from Dalhousie
University, with a degree in chemical
engineering.
Following a
career as Refining Superintendent at
Atlantic Sugar Refineries, he graduated
from Harvard Business School and worked
for management consultants McKinsey &
Company, before joining Loblaw Cos. in
1972.
In 1997,
Mr. Currie was appointed a Member and in
2004 was promoted to Officer of the
Order of Canada. Mr. Currie has been
selected Canada's Outstanding CEO of the
Year, elected to the Canadian Business
Hall of Fame and inducted into the New
Brunswick Business Hall of Fame. In
2005, he received the Lifetime
Achievement Award from the Retail
Council of Canada and was named "one of
Canada's Ten Greatest Chief Executives
of All-Time" by the Globe and Mail.
Mr. Currie
has also served as Chairman of the
Advisory Board at the Richard Ivey
School of Business and as a member of
the Visiting Committee to the Harvard
Business School.
Richard J.
Currie joins an esteemed list of past
Ivey Business Leader Award recipients
demonstrating leadership in both
business and their communities. Past
recipients of the award include:
• 2008 –
Dominic D'Alessandro, President & CEO,
Manulife Financial
• 2007 – Claude Lamoureux, President &
CEO and Robert Bertram, Executive
Vice-President, Investments, Ontario
Teachers' Pension Plan
• 2006 – Isadore Sharp, Chairman and CEO,
Four Seasons Hotels Inc.
• 2005 – Peter Godsoe, former Chairman
and CEO, The Bank of Nova Scotia
• 2002 – Gwyn Morgan, President and CEO,
EnCana Corporation
• 2001 – Harrison McCain, Chairman,
McCain Foods Limited, and G. Wallace
McCain, Chairman, Maple Leaf Foods Inc.
• 2000 – Purdy Crawford, Chairman, AT&T
Canada; former Chairman Imasco and
Canada Trust
• 1999 – Fairfax Financial Holdings
Limited, led by Prem Watsa, Chairman
• 1998 – Paul Desmarais, Chairman of the
Executive Committee, Power
Corporation of Canada
• 1997 – Frank Stronach, Chairman of the
Board, Magna International Inc.
• 1996 – Jean C. Monty, President and
CEO, Northern Telecom Limited
• 1995 – R. Jack Lawrence, Deputy
Chairman, Nesbitt Burns Inc.
• 1994 – Robert Nourse, President and
CEO, The Bombay Company Inc.
• 1993 – Cedric E. Ritchie, Chairman,
The Bank of Nova Scotia
• 1992 – John C. Carroll, President and
CEO, Molson Breweries
• 1991 - John M. Thompson, Chairman and
CEO, IBM Canada Limited
The Ivey
Business Leader Award, co-chaired by Tim
Hockey and Karen Peesker, Principal, KAM
Sales & Management Consulting, will be
presented at a black-tie dinner at
Toronto's Four Seasons Hotel. Proceeds
from the event support the Ivey Alumni
Association Toronto Chapter HBA and MBA
Scholarships established to attract top
students to the School.
About the Richard Ivey School of
Business, The University of Western
Ontario
The Richard Ivey School of Business at
The University of Western Ontario (www.ivey.ca)
offers undergraduate (HBA)
and graduate degree programs (MBA,
Executive MBA and
PhD) in addition to non-degree
Executive Development programs. Ivey has
campuses in London (Ontario),
Toronto, and Hong Kong. Ivey
recently redesigned its curriculum to
focus on
Cross-Enterprise Leadership – a
holistic issues-based approach to
management education that meets the
demands of today's complex global
business world.
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For more
information, please contact:
Mary Weil, Manager, Media & Public
Relations, Richard Ivey School of
Business, 416-203-0664,
mweil@ivey.ca
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