Job Abbott was born in Andover, Massachusetts in 1845. An entrepreneur with both vision and drive, Abbott was trained in civil engineering, administration, and law. Studying engineering at Lawrence Scientific School, Harvard University, he graduated in 1864 and went on to study patent law in Ohio. He would become the vice-president and chief engineer of the Wrought Iron Bridge Company in 1872.

Wrought Iron Bridge built standardized, prefabricated bridges which made vital contributions to the development of road and railway transportation. The company sold structures in Ontario until 1879 when Sir John A. Macdonald’s National Policy placed a 25% tariff on imported fabricated ironwork and steelwork. In response, and with support from Wrought Iron Bridge, the Toronto Bridge Company was born. Abbott would become president and chief engineer in 1880, using his engineering experience and contacts to generate impressive sales.

When news emerged of Canadian Pacific’s plans to build a transcontinental railway, Abbott moved to the centre of this action, Montreal. He founded Dominion Bridge Company in 1882 to design and build the many bridges required for this vast enterprise. The numerous structures fabricated and erected by Dominion Bridge have included railway stations, hotels, arenas, commercial buildings, and the reconstruction of Canada’s Parliament Buildings. Abbott personally negotiated many contracts with major clients and was known as a highly effective salesman.

Health troubles plagued Abbott in the later years of his life, and he passed away in August 1896, just before his 51^st birthday. His legacy, Dominion Bridge (later known as AMCA International), went on to become a leader in its industry, dominating the Canadian markets for bridges and the erection of steel frameworks for buildings. A truly versatile professional, Abbott was largely responsible for the successful uniting of American bridge construction technology with British capital and steel supply.

Joseph Masson helped create one of Montreal’s foremost trading companies – The House of Robertson, Masson and Company. At 21, he went to work for the Robertson Company, importers of merchandise from Scotland and England. Hugh Robertson was so impressed with his young clerk’s initiative and firm grasp of business, that he put him in charge of Canadian operations, and made him a partner. Joseph knew what would sell and was anxious to expand the business by diversifying into new areas. The firm continued to prosper. To overcome increasing transportation costs, Masson convinced Hugh Robertson to buy their own ship.

Joseph Masson was one of the earliest stock holders in the Bank of Montreal and served as a Vice President in the days when it advertised Tuesdays and Fridays as ‘discount days’. He invested heavily in, and eventually acquired control of, the Montreal Gas Company, forerunner to Hydro Quebec.

Despite his commitments to business, Masson gave generously of his time and talent to better the community. Appointed to the Legislative Council of Lower Canada in 1834, Masson won acclaim for his role as mediator in an uprising of rebellious citizens, which eventually led to constitutional changes.

Philip S. Ross could be called one of the Fathers of Accounting in North America. When Scotsman Philip Ross settled in Montreal in 1858, accounting was so new to Canada that only two other accountants were listed in the Montreal directory. For years, accounting work was so light that Ross supplemented his income by working as a ship’s chandler.

In 1879, Ross and his friend James Court gathered 11 other accountants in Montreal’s Mechanic’s Hall. The group determined to bring order to the profession by forming an association and seeking a charter that would allow them to restrict the use of the term “chartered accountant.” On July 24, 1880, the group created the first accounting society in North America. Ross served as its president from 1883 to 1896.

His bookkeeping experience evolved into a form of public service – there weren’t any guidelines, no formal education for professional businessmen – just innovation into one of the great professions of the world. So when winter caused lack of custom for his Ships’ Chandlers Shop in lower Montreal, he sent out engraved invitations offering his services to “keep books.”

Not only did Ross contribute greatly to the field of accounting, he dedicated much of his life to serving his community. While living in Montreal, he established the Montreal Sailors’ Institute to provide entertainment and assistance to sailors. So sincere was his dedication to the Institute that when it was facing financial failure, Ross paid off all of the group’s debt out of his own pocket.

Philip S. Ross, noted for his reserve, sharp mind and determined spirit, established Canada’s first accounting firm. Known today as Deloitte, and formerly Touch-Ross, it is the result of a merger in 1958 of P.S. Ross & Sons and George A. Touche & Company, and then with Deloitte.

Leon K. Koerner joined the family business in Czechoslovakia in 1920, at the time of central Europe’s largest forest products enterprises. The Second World War was to play a major part in the relocation of the Koerner family to Canada.

A number of innovative European logging techniques, such as the chute made of logs, were introduced to Canada when the Koerners moved to British Columbia. More than a third of B.C. forests consisted of a wood known as hemlock. The Koerners brothers understood the process required to manufacture lumber from the hemlock trees. Against the advice of skeptics, Leon incorporated new processes in the mill. From his European experience he recognized that with proper drying and cutting, worldwide markets would open to him. By marketing the lumber under its botanical name – Alaska Pine – Koerner began to make substantial sales of the formerly unwanted wood. Among his customers were those formerly supplied by the Koerners in Europe.

Through acquisitions along the B.C. coast, the company grew from small logging camps on floats to fully integrated lumber operation including woodfibre manufacturing and the processing of cellulose.

Leon Koerner was a pioneer in improving working conditions and labour relations for his employees.

Sam Steinberg possessed the stamina, courage and dedication to excellence to fulfill his vision. He succeeded in developing a fledgling family enterprise into a diversified international corporation with sales in the billions of dollars by always striving to meet the customers’ needs. He was a gifted industrial leader and an innovator within the food industry. No detail would escape him in his unrelenting commitment to excellence.

Sam Steinberg had great faith in Canada’s youth and initiated programs of corporate support for universities and for deserving young people involved in educational pursuits. He sponsored the Youth Pavilion Program and led the effort to build the Pavilion of Judaism at Expo ’67. He was honored by his country with the Order of Canada.

T.A. St-Germain spearheaded the formation of the largest general insurance company in Quebec and one of the most important in Canada, The Commerce Group Insurance Company. A man of diversified interests and skills, he had been a blacksmith, telegrapher, station master and salesman of farm machinery and life insurance. In 1907, he and his associates founded the Commerce Mutual Fire Insurance. Through acquisition, the company entered automobile and other fields of general insurance. The Company’s continued emphasis on the quality of its human resources, its modern technology and innovative new products and legacies of T.A. St-Germain’s management philosophy and entrepreneurial spirit.

Founder, Eaton’s Department Store

Timothy Eaton, the Irish immigrant who revolutionized merchandising and developed Canada’s successful retailing enterprise lived by the credo, “a square deal for those we sell to, for those we buy from and for those who work for us.”

His cash only, no bargaining approach supported by the now famous “Good Satisfactory or Money Refunded” policy quickly earned customer goodwill. The first Eaton catalogue in 1884 was the forerunner of a Canadian institution that continued for more than 90 years. Throughout his life, Timothy Eaton helped many people through hard times, always quietly as he avoided any personal limelight.

Donald Gordon was born in Oldmeldrum, Scotland, in 1901 and came to Canada at an early age and had four distinct careers.

At the age of 15 he joined the Bank of Nova Scotia in Toronto, becoming assistant chief accountant and assistant manager of the Toronto branch. In 1935, he was appointed Secretary of the Bank of Canada and later became deputy governor. Throughout the Second World War, he was Chairman of the Wartime Prices and Trade Board, a remarkable assembly of the topmost business talent.

Donald Gordon is remembered best as a railroad man. As President of the Canadian National Railway from 1950 to 1966, Gordon transformed it from a state of virtual exhaustion to a modern corporation capable of competing aggressively with other rail and rapidly expanding airline and trucking industries.

Following retirement from CNR, he accepted the presidency of the British Newfoundland Corporation. The financing and construction phases of Brinco’s massive Churchill Falls power project occurred under this leadership.

In 1944, he was made a Companion of the Order of Saint Michael and Saint George. In 1968, he was made a Companion of the Order of Canada.

Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario has honoured Donald Gordon, naming a university residence Donald Gordon House, and its conference centre Donald Gordon Centre.

Edmund Charles Bovey is credited for having transformed a relatively unknown natural gas company into Norcen Energy Resources Limited, a leading Canadian-owned integrated energy company. Having been formed to distribute gas to communities in Northern Ontario, Bovey first joined the company in 1958. Several decades later, with assets in excess of $1 billion, the company owes its success to Bovey’s leadership. However, Ed Bovey is acknowledged as far more than just a business leader.

A Chancellor at Guelph University from 1989 to 1990, Bovey is well known for his boundless energy, his skill in relating to people, and his concern for the community. This is demonstrated through the many voluntary boards on which he has served. Ed Bovey is a great supporter of the arts, as a past President and trustee of the Art Gallery of Ontario and as a Director of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. Roy Thomson Hall has also benefited from his dedication to the arts, and in 1974 he became the founding Chairman of the Council for Business and the Arts in Canada.

Edmund Bovey was made a Member of the Order of Canada in 1978 for his dedication to community and cultural activities in Toronto. He was promoted to an Officer in 1988. There is also a national award named after Bovey, given to recognize individuals in the business community who have given their time and money to support the arts.

Bovey passed away in 1990, and is remembered as a man who was deeply engaged with the world around him. He once said, “The modern corporation has evolved into a social as well as an economic institution. It has developed ideals and additional important responsibilities.” In other words, Bovey believed not only in corporate responsibility, but in corporate contribution: to the community, to the arts, and to individuals.

Founder, Henry Birks & Sons

Henry Birks was born in Montreal in 1840, his parents having emigrated from England eight years earlier. Henry’s family had been engaged in the trade and workings of fine silver for centuries, dating back to the reign of Queen Elizabeth the First.

Henry was employed in the jewelry business at the age of 16. His first job was with the clockmaker and jewelry firm Savage & Lyman, upon graduating from Montreal High School in 1856. Birks was storage manager and partner by 1868, but the company’s financial difficulties prompted him to leave in 1877.

When Henry opened his own jewelry shop in 1879, he had only three staff: a watchmaker, a bookkeeper/salesman, and a messenger boy. His policy was unique to the trade at the time: he did not allow bargaining and accepted cash only. This strategy seemed to work for Birks, and he was soon reaping the rewards. The company was renamed Henry Birks & Sons in 1893, when sons William, John Henry, and Gerald became partners.

Despite his success, Henry continued on as humbly as ever – personally greeting customers even with a staff of two hundred, and saving every penny he could. He also taught Sunday school for over twenty years.

Following Henry’s death in 1928, his sons took over the business. Since its founding, five consecutive generations of Birks have contributed their talents to the growth and success of Henry’s dream. As of 2008, Birks possesses more international design awards for its work with diamonds than any other Canadian jeweler.

Birks’ inventive genius in retailing created one of the world’s largest and finest jewelry merchandising institutions, known today as Birks & Mayors. While its name may have changed and its size may have grown, the jewelry giant still embodies Henry’s core values: quality, exclusivity, and design innovation.