[2] George Gardiner began his career running a munitions factory during World War II and later started his stock brokerage firm Gardiner Watson Limited which he sold to Dean Witter in 1983.
He then opened the first discount brokerage firm in Canada which he sold to TD Bank in 1987.
He was also past president of the Toronto Stock Exchange, founder of Gardiner Oil and Gas Ltd. and Scott's Hospitality Inc. which acquired the Kentucky Fried Chicken rights for Canada in 1962.
In 1990, Gardiner's family endowed a chair in his name at the Schulich School of Business at York University in Toronto, dedicated to enhancing the teaching of ethics in management.
The first holder of the George R. Gardiner Professorship in Business Ethics, Wesley Cragg was appointed in 1992, and was succeeded in 2007 by Andrew Crane.In 2000, he was inducted in the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame in the builders category.