James Allen Pattison OC OBC (born October 1, 1928) is a Canadian business magnate and investor.

He is based in Vancouver, British Columbia, where he holds the position of chief executive officer, chairman and sole owner of the Jim Pattison Group, Canada's second largest privately-held company, with more than 45,000 employees worldwide, and annual sales of $10.1 billion.

[4] Pattison's parents resided in the rural town of Luseland, Saskatchewan,[6] when he was born at the hospital in nearby Saskatoon.

[7] The family moved to East Vancouver, British Columbia when Pattison was six years old, but he returned to Saskatchewan during summers.

[9] After high school, he worked in a cannery, a packing house, as a labourer building bridges in the mountains, and then for the Canadian Pacific Railway as a dining car attendant[6] before accepting a job washing cars at a gas station with a small attached used-car lot.

[6] He parlayed his sales success into a job selling used cars during the summer at one of the largest used-car lots in Vancouver, using his earnings that he made to pay for his tuition while studying at the University of British Columbia's Sauder School of Business[6] (as Pattison did not complete his studies,[10] since he was three classes short of a completing a four-year bachelor's of commerce degree).

[12] To complete the funding, he also sold his house, assigned the cash surrender value of his life insurance policy to General Motors and took a loan from GM for $190,000 for preferred shares in the company.

When he was appointed to the Order of British Columbia, the award noted, "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.

This he did, almost full-time over a five-year period, without compensation..."[14] On February 15, 2008, Jim Pattison Group announced the purchase of the GWR organization, the company known for its Guinness World Records franchise.

[20] In the latter part of 2018, Pattison continued to remain active in his business career, conducting comprehensive visits to various Pattison Agriculture farm equipment dealerships in the western region, which involved covering extensive distances by driving a pickup truck for thousands of kilometres.

"[5] In September 2020, at 91 years old, Pattison exhibited an ongoing engagement in his business career and was actively pursuing new investment opportunities.

At that time, a news item stated that "Jim Pattison Group Inc. had $10.9 billion in revenue and employed 48,000 people".

In recognition, the hospital named the ground floor lobby of the patient care tower "The Jim Pattison Atrium and Concourse.

[32] At the age of 90, in addition to his business endeavours, Pattison remained dedicated to music, finding joy in playing instruments such as the piano, organ, and trumpet.