James William (Jim) Leech CM CD OOnt (born June 12, 1947) is a Canadian business executive.
[12][14][15][16] Born in Saint Boniface, Winnipeg into a military family,[1] where his father, George Leech, and uncle, Don Laubman, were senior regular force career officers in the Canadian Armed Forces,[10][17] During his elementary and secondary school years, Leech moved around Canada living in Ottawa, Kingston as well as Canadian army bases, including CFB Kingston[9] and Camp Petawawa,[18] both in Ontario, and CFB Edmonton, Alberta.
[9] He joined the Royal Canadian Corps of Signals after graduation and was posted first at the 1er Batailion Royal 22e Régiment (1R22eR), and then at the 4 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group Headquarters and Signal Squadron for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization forces in Werl and Soest, respectively, in then-West Germany.
[19][23] Unicorp subsequently changed its name to Wilmington Capital Management Inc. Leech next joined Disys Ltd. in 1993 as president and CEO.,[19][23] beginning his career into the technology sector.
[19] To effect this plan, he sold the smoke alarm business and merged Disys and the RFID into Kasten Chase Applied Research Ltd, which Leech moved to as vice-chairman in 1996.
[7][14] As CEO, Leech also oversaw a number of major deals, including four in 2010 (acquisition of Camelot Group, which operates the UK National Lottery[46][47][48] and of High Speed 1, then and still the only high-speed railway in the UK,[49][50][51] as well as sale of OTPP's stakes in Bell Media Inc. (then named CTVglobemedia Inc.) back to BCE Inc.[52][53] and of its stakes in Maple Leaf Foods, first to West Face Capital and then to BMO Capital Markets and TD Securities.
[8][12] During his tenure, OTPP ranked number one amongst peer plans in the world in Five Year Investment Performance and Service to Members as measured by CEM Benchmarking Inc and reported a funding surplus.
Leech assumed the role of the 14th Chancellor of Queen's University on July 1, 2014.,[1][24][57] furthering his involvement with his alma mater, which started with his election to the University Council and the board of trustees in the 1980s, and subsequent chairing the advisory board of Smith School of Business (formerly the Queen's School of Business)[58][59] on three separate occasions.
[66][67] In 2014, Leech participated in a 53-person expedition to ski Canada's North Magnetic Pole, sponsored by True Patriot Love Foundation to raise funds and awareness to support Canadian veterans suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.