Jim Pattison
- Vancouver
![Click image for full-size version](/web/20061229015344im_/http://www.protocol.gov.bc.ca/protocol/prgs/obc/1990/1990_JPattison_sm.jpg) From
his birth in modest circumstances in rural Saskatchewan to Chairman,
President, CEO and sole proprietor, all rolled into one, Jimmy Pattison
is a uniquely Canadian entrepreneur.
The Jim Pattison
Group, with over ten thousand employees, is involved in transportation,
communications, food products, packaging and financial services
with "Ripley's Believe It Or Not" thrown in for good measure.
From age 12
onward, Jimmy Pattison honed his extraordinary entrepreneur skills
on the one thing he liked best - selling - first, garden seeds,
then at UBC he would look for a used car in the classified ads every
night, buy it for perhaps two hundred dollars, drive it out to the
campus, sell it to a fellow student for two hundred and fifty dollars
and take the bus home that evening. After that, a share in his first
GM dealership - Bow Mac - and the rest is history.
Perhaps his
greatest contribution to the Province was his genius in insuring
that EXPO '86 World's Fair was an unparalleled success. Although
others may have had the initial vision for Expo '86, it was Jimmy
Pattison who was the expediter - the one more than anyone else who
made it happen. He demanded much of his team but no more than he
himself was prepared to give. This he did, almost full-time over
a five-year period, without compensation, and in spite of the demands
of his own burgeoning business empire.
Mr. Pattison,
through EXPO '86 and his business expertise, has brought kudos and
credibility to British Columbia. He has helped to showcase Vancouver
as one of the major centres of the world.
On his office
wall this statement appears: "There is no limit to what a man
can do or where he can go if he doesn't mind who gets the credit."
Today, Jimmy
Pattison gets the credit.
|