Richard Currie
Richard James Currie, O.C.,B.Sc.Eng.,M.B.A., L.L.D., P.Eng., was born in 1937 in Saint John, New Brunswick, and is a notable Canadian businessman.
Education
He began his post-secondary education at the University of New Brunswick in 1955, after receiving a Beaverbrook Scholarship to attend the institution, where he was elected president of the first-year class.[1] He later received a Bachelor of Engineering in Chemistry degree from the Technical University of Nova Scotia in 1960 and, after working as an engineer until 1968, he decided to continue his education and get a Masters of Business Administration degree from Harvard University in 1970.[2]
Career
In 1960, he joined Atlantic Sugar Refineries as a Process Engineer and was a Refining Superintendent from 1963 to 1968. After graduating from Harvard in 1970, he became a Senior Associate at McKinsey & Co. In 1972, he joined Loblaws as a Vice-President, becoming Executive Vice-President in 1974, and President in 1976. Loblaws increased its market share over 350 times in 25 years while under his control, reaching $14 billion. Through this, it became the largest private sector employer in Canada.[1] In 1996, he was appointed President of Loblaws parent company, George Weston Ltd., where he increased the share price from $16 to $123. In 2002 he stepped down Weston and was appointed Chairman of BCE Inc.[1]
He, along with Lynton Wilson, Anthony S. Fell, James Fleck, Henry N.R. Jackman and John McArthur helped establish a chair in Canadian business history at the Joseph L. Rotman School of Management, which is the first chair of its kind in Canada. Worth $3 million, it will help fund courses and research related to the progress of the commerce industry in Canada, along with the legal, economic and political events that impacted its history.[3]
In 1997, he was made a Member of the Order of Canada and was promoted to Officer in 2004.
He has received a number of awards for his professional career and also for his charitable role. He received the Distinguished Retailer of the Year award for 1997 and Canada’s Outstanding CEO of the Year for 2001, and has recently been inducted into the Canadian Business Hall of Fame.Cite error: A <ref> tag is missing the closing </ref> (see the help page).
On October 20, 2005, the University of New Brunswick established a Chair in Nanotechnology in his honour. This is the first Chair in Nanotechnology in Canada.[4]
References
- ^ a b c "Richard Currie names chancellor of the University of New Brunswick", University of New Brunswick, retrieved June 14, 2006
- ^ "Live and Learn: Richard Currie", Canadian Business, retrieved August 16, 2006.
- ^ "$3M Business History Chair a First in Canada", EDGE Magazine, retrieved August 25, 2006.
- ^ "Chair in nanotechnology establish in honour of UNB chancellor", John Suart, University of New Brunswick, October 20, 2005, retrieved August 25, 2006.