John Wilson McConnell (July 1, 1877 – November 6, 1963) was a Canadian sugar refiner, newspaper publisher, humanitarian and philanthropist in Quebec, Canada.

His first job paid $3 a week, but as an employee at Standard Chemical Co., he worked his way up to a management position that eventually led to a transfer to Montreal in 1901.

His business skills were put to use by the Government of Canada, which appointed him to the unpaid position of Director of Licences for the Wartime Trade Board.

At the same time, his increasing community work resulted in him being offered a seat on the board of management of the Montreal General Hospital in 1922.

As well, he was made a governor of McGill University in 1927 and of the Royal Victoria Hospital the following year, both institutions benefiting greatly from his generosity.

[2] During World War II, after the United States Lend-lease program was launched in March 1941, fellow Canadian businessman Max Aitken, the then volunteer British Minister of Aircraft Production, asked McConnell to help finance the training of pilots, such as Jackie Cochran in the United States, to ferry American-built aircraft across the Atlantic.

McConnell's benevolent works extended to individuals such as Maureen Forrester, who recounted in her biography how he had learned of the difficulty she was experiencing holding down a job while trying to develop her singing career.

When McConnell died in 1963, his newspaper's rival, the Montreal Gazette, gave his death front-page coverage, describing him as "one of the world's great philanthropists" and that he had "played a key role in building the institutions in this city."

[4] In February 2019, it was announced in the media that the McConnell mansion was for sale with an asking price of $40 million, the highest-priced residential building so far in Quebec history.

In his honour, McGill University named several buildings after him, and the world-renowned McConnell Brain Imaging Centre can be found at the Montreal Neurological Institute.