Mike Lazaridis is known in the global wireless community as a visionary, innovator, and engineer of extraordinary talent. He traces his passion for his work to his hometown of Windsor, Ontario where his love of science and fascination with electronics were nurtured in supportive family and school environments.

As President and Co-CEO of Research In Motion (RIM), a company Mr. Lazaridis founded while a student at the University of Waterloo, he is responsible for product strategy, research and development, product development, and manufacturing.

Mr. Lazaridis is also a leader in his community and a passionate advocate for education and scientific research. He is a member of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), the Ontario Research and Innovation Council, and a Governor of the Information Technology Association of Canada. Mr. Lazaridis is also a long-standing member of the Board of Governors of the University of Waterloo and, in May 2003, was installed as its Chancellor.

Mr. Lazaridis supports his community and country through generous philanthropic gifts made possible by his success in business. He has donated $50 million to the University of Waterloo to help establish the Institute for Quantum Computing.

His most noted gift of $100 million established the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics. Mr. Lazaridis’ leadership and tireless effort have generated more than $100 million in additional private and public sector funding for this world centre of excellence, based in Waterloo and affiliated with more than 30 Canadian universities. Since its opening in 2001, Perimeter has attracted the attention of the world’s scientific community.

In recognition of his technical innovations, the University of Waterloo awarded Mr. Lazaridis with an honorary Doctor of Engineering in 2000 and McMaster University awarded him with an honorary Doctorate in 2005. In 2002, Mr. Lazaridis shared Canada’s most prestigious innovation prize, The Ernest C. Manning Principal Award, with RIM colleague Gary Mousseau.

Like his engineering and scientific work, Mr. Lazaridis’ community achievements have been widely recognized. He was named an Officer to the Order of Canada in 2006 and was listed on the TIME 100 List of Most Influential People in 2005. Mr. Lazaridis is a member of Maclean’s Honour Role of distinguished Canadians, is a recipient of the 2002 Kitchener Waterloo Chamber of Commerce Community Leader of the Year Award and has been previously recognized as Canada’s Nation Builder of the Year and Ontario’s Entrepreneur of the Year.

Philippe and Nan-b de Gaspé Beaubien Beaubien were owners and operators of Telemedia Inc., a privately-owned media and communications company started in Montreal, Canada in 1968 until 1998, at which time they voluntarily relinquished control of the company to their three children, Philippe III, Nanon and Francois.

The de Gaspé Beaubien are well known for their expertise in the area of family business education and in 1993 founded the Institute for Family Enterprise (the name was changed on May 1, 1999 to The Business families Foundation).  The mission of this international non-profit organization is to ensure the future of families and their businesses.  The Foundation develops and delivers stimulating educational programs based on innovative research in close cooperation with Universities, other families in business and the Professionals who counsel them.

Nan-b and Philippe are Co-Chairs of the Board of the Business Families Foundation.  They have spent more than 30 years studying numerous family business organizations around the world that recognise the complexities of combining family and business.  They have written and spoken about their philosophies in addressing the special issues that arise in a family enterprise and the family that controls the enterprise including conducting workshops at the World Economic Forum in Davos.  They are passionate in their commitment to generating knowledge about family business and building the field’s academic credibility.

Philippe and Nan-b de Gaspé Beaubien were owners and operators of Telemedia Inc., a privately-owned media and communications company started in Montreal, Canada in 1968 until 1998, at which time they voluntarily relinquished control of the company to their three children, Philippe III, Nanon and Francois.

The de Gaspé Beaubiens are well known for their expertise in the area of family business education and in 1993 founded the Institute for Family Enterprise (the name was changed on May 1, 1999 to The Business families Foundation). The mission of this international non-profit organization is to ensure the future of families and their businesses. The Foundation develops and delivers stimulating educational programs based on innovative research in close cooperation with Universities, other families in business and the Professionals who counsel them.

Nan-b and Philippe are Co-Chairs of the Board of the Business Families Foundation. They have spent more than 30 years studying numerous family business organizations around the world that recognise the complexities of combining family and business. They have written and spoken about their philosophies in addressing the special issues that arise in a family enterprise and the family that controls the enterprise including conducting workshops at the World Economic Forum in Davos. They are passionate in their commitment to generating knowledge about family business and building the field’s academic credibility.

Arthur Irving grew up in Saint John, New Brunswick, and attended Acadia University before joining Irving Oil in 1953. He worked with his father, K.C. Irving, and his brother Jack, and became President of Irving Oil in 1972. He is now Chairman of the Company and continues to work with his brother Jack and sons Kenneth and Arthur Jr.

Throughout his career, Arthur Irving has demonstrated a strong enthusiasm for people, the environment, education, and his community. With the help of many good people, Irving Oil grew into new markets while retaining a strong customer focus and emphasis on long-term relationships. Irving Oil became a regional market leader in refining and marketing, expanded its refinery in two major upgrades, and built Irving Canaport, the western hemisphere’s first deepwater terminal able to receive supertankers.

Today, Irving Oil operates the largest single refinery on the Eastern Seaboard, in Saint John, N.B, located just 65 miles from the U.S. border. The 300,000 barrel per day refinery is responsible for meeting 60 per cent of petroleum product demand in the U.S. Northeast, north of New York and 20 per cent of all U.S. gasoline and diesel import demand. In 2003 Irving Oil became the first oil company to receive a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Clean Air Excellence Award, for its clean gasoline, and a year later Irving Oil was named North American Refiner of the Year by World Fuels. The company is currently building, in partnership with Repsol YPF, the first new LNG Terminal on the East Coast of North America – Canada’s first. Canaport LNG will be operational at the end of 2008.

Arthur Irving enjoys his dogs, motorcycles, gardening and the outdoors. He has a strong interest in canoeing, hunting and wetlands preservation. He has canoed seventeen remote rivers in the Canadian Arctic and has served for 20 years on the Board of Directors of Ducks Unlimited, two of those as President. Under his Presidency, many milestones were reached, including the 1986 signing of the North American Waterfowl Management Plan.

Arthur Irving has been Chancellor of Acadia University, in Wolfville, Nova Scotia, since 1996. Recognized as one of Canada’s leading educational institutions, this year Acadia was named the number one undergraduate university, along with Mount Allison, in the annual Maclean’s Magazine University Ranking.

In 2002, the K.C. Irving Environmental Science Centre and the Harriet Irving Botanical Gardens were dedicated at Acadia University. A centre of excellence for the study of the natural environment, this gift from the Irving family fulfilled Arthur Irving’s vision of creating a place for students, faculty, staff and the community to meet and work in a natural setting. It is a research and teaching centre of the highest standards concentrating its studies on the ecology and native flora and fauna of the Northeast.

Arthur Irving is married with five children: Jennifer, Kenneth, Arthur, Emily and Sarah and lives in Saint John with his wife Sandra.

James K. (J.K.) Irving is a native New Brunswicker who along with his brothers Art and Jack has carried on the work of his father at the Irving companies. As sons of industrialist K.C. Irving the three brothers had the benefit of growing up with a mentor who knew which end of a wheelbarrow to take hold of – a homespun phrase K.C. himself often used to describe someone with common sense.

Over the past 60 years J.K.’s drive and and entrepreneurial spirit has expanded the diverse businesses of J.D. Irving, Limited. Today the company employs over 15,000 people with operations in Canada and the United States.

J.K. Irving began his career in the woods of northern New Brunswick. Under his leadership an integrated group of valueadded forest products operations have expanded significantly. Today many of these mills are sustained by J.K. Irving’s strong commitment to reforestation – over 700 million trees planted since 1957 – a national record for any private company in Canada.

J.K. Irving continues to follow the basic formula learned from his father: build a great team of employees, invest, produce an excellent product, give superior service, and then reinvest again. Over the years he has expanded, renewed, and modernized the operations of J.D. Irving, Limited. These operations are North American leaders and include forest products, shipbuilding, agri-foods, transportation, and retail. Today, his sons Jim and Robert have taken up his legacy and are running the businesses.

Throughout his career, J.K. Irving’s primary motivation and greatest reward has been the challenge of building best-in-class businesses from the ground up with a team of people who share his passion for detail and quality. The completion of the largest single contract in Canadian history – 12 Canadian patrol frigates – ahead of schedule and below budget is but one example of his disciplined resolve to deliver the best possible performance.

J.K. Irving is also a dedicated builder of community and environmental initiatives. Under his leadership, J.D. Irving, Limited has received national and international honours for its many efforts in environmental research and habitat conservation. In more recent years he has focused on the development of New Brunswick’s youngest citizens through the award-winning “Pals for Prince Charles” business- education partnership initiated in 2000. The most encouraging result has been the growth of the program, impacting hundreds of young students in Greater Saint John.

In 1997 Mr. Irving’s contributions as a business and community leader in New Brunswick were recognized when he was inducted as an Officer of the Order of Canada.

Mr. Irving and his wife Jean (Saunders) reside in Rothesay. Mr. Irving credits his wife with providing the strong foundation of support and faith that has enabled him to succeed. They have four children and several grandchildren.

John Cleghorn joined Canadian Pacific Railway as a director in October 2001 and became Chairman of the Board on May 5, 2006. He is also a director of Molson Coors Brewing Company and was Chairman of the Board of SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. from May 2002 until he retired in May 2007. He was Chairman and CEO of Royal Bank of Canada (RBC Financial Group) until he retired on July 31, 2001.

Born in Montreal July 7,1941, he graduated from McGill University with a B. Comm. in 1962. He joined Clarkson Gordon (now Ernst & Young) becoming a chartered accountant in 1964, following which he was with St. Lawrence Sugar and then Citibank and its affiliate, Mercantile Bank.

He joined Royal Bank of Canada in 1974, becoming president in 1986; chief operating officer in 1990; chief executive officer in 1994, and chairman and chief executive officer in 1995.

He is Governor Emeritus of McGill University and Member of the McGill Desautels Faculty of Management’s International Advisory Board, Chancellor Emeritus of Wilfrid Laurier University, Director of the Atlantic Salmon Federation and Governor of Historica Foundation of Canada. He is an Officer of the Order of Canada, a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario and a fellow of the Order of Chartered Accountants of Quebec. He holds honorary degrees from Acadia, Bishop’s, McGill and Wilfrid Laurier Universities and the Honorary Associate Award from The Conference Board of Canada. John and his wife, Pattie, are currently supporting research projects in the faculties of Medicine and Management at McGill University. They are also funding the Cleghorn Battlefield Fellowships for students at Wilfrid Laurier University to tour Canadian battlefields and cemeteries in Europe.

John (Jack) Ernest Irving was born in 1932 to Kenneth Colin and Harriet MacNarin Irving. He got his start in business at an early age. When he was eight years old, he joined with his brothers to form the “Jim, Art and Jack Farm.” They raised chickens in the backyard and sold eggs. Along the way, they learned many valuable lessons about good customer service and good business.

Jack continued his education at Rothesay Collegiate School, where he was very involved in school life as a chess champion, guard on the basketball team, and captain of the rugby team. He enjoyed his time at Rothesay Collegiate and began many life-long friendships there. After he graduated in 1950, Jack attended Acadia University.

Jack decided to finish university with “the best professor in the Maritimes,” his father, when he joined his father and brothers in the growing group of Irving companies in 1952. Like his father, he embraced entrepreneurship and has dedicated himself to the continuation of what K.C. Irving began.

Jack very quickly grew to be the builder in the family. In the 1960s, Jack took on responsibility for the company’s talented and hardworking construction team, and this team went on to build most of the Irving infrastructure in Atlantic Canada and Quebec over the subsequent decades. Jack became Executive Vice-President of Irving Oil and a director of the many Irving companies. Two of the Irving companies with which Jack has been closely associated with over the years, Ocean Steel and Strescon, have grown to be the leading suppliers of steel and architectural concrete in the region.

Throughout his career, Jack has championed innovation in world-class processes, practices, and technologies in a variety of Irving companies. These innovations made significant contributions to boosting Canadian productivity and competitiveness in international markets. He has also been an early adopter of manufacturing and environmental technology, including the early automation of the Saint John Lubricants Plant and the use of environmentally progressive fibreglass underground fuel tanks, for oil company use, when the technology was in its infancy.

Jack’s innate ability to lead quietly and by example, together with his business acumen, common sense, and attention to detail, was instrumental to helping Irving Oil become a leading regional marketer of fuel in a highly competitive industry. Throughout, Jack Irving has been unwavering in his commitment to quality in all aspects of business, including the construction of Irving Oil retail sites and its marine terminal network.

Jack Irving is deeply involved in the life of his community, and his work to preserve the unique architectural heritage of Canada’s Loyalist City has won numerous awards. He has been an avid outdoorsman his whole life, and has canoed and kayaked in many rivers and coastal areas in Eastern Canada and elsewhere in North America. Along with his brothers, Jack has supported many charities, organizations and causes.

Jack has received honorary degrees from the University of New Brunswick (Doctor of Letters) and Acadia University (Doctor of Civil Laws). A proud Canadian, he was invested as a Member into the Order of Canada in 2007 for his contributions throughout the Atlantic region to economic development and to philanthropic support of education and the arts.

Jack lives with his wife Suzanne in Saint John, New Brunswick. He and Suzanne have three children, John, Colin, and Anne, and six grandchildren.

Over the course of almost six decades, J.R. (Bud) McCaig’s vision, foresight and courage transformed a small Saskatchewan trucking company founded in the shadow of the Great Depression into one of Canada’s most notable transportation services companies. In the process, Bud gained a reputation across the country as a true Canadian innovator, an enterprising businessman and a generous philanthropist.

Bud started in his father’s trucking business at the age of 16 and for the next 16 years he worked his way up the ranks in the small but growing trucking company. When his dad retired in 1962 Bud and his two brothers formed a new holding company called Trimac and with Bud at the helm they built one of the most successful, progressive and innovative transportation companies in North America.

In addition to Bud’s business vision he also saw Calgary leading the world in the delivery of health care services and medical research. One of his passions was research in the area of the treatment and prevention of arthritis and this led to the establishment of the McCaig Centre for Joint Injury and Arthritis Research in 1993. In March of 2004 he helped advance that dream further when he contributed $10 million to the new Bone and Joint Institute at Foothills Hospital.

IN the early 1990s, Bud served as the Chairman of the Board of the Foothills Hospital Foundation and Vice Chair of the Foothills Hospital Board of Management. He was a driving force behind the Partners in Health $50 million capital campaign for health care research, equipment and services.

In 1994 Bud took on the job of restructuring the Calgary health care system as the Chairman of the Calgary Regional Health Authority. He also helped create the Calgary Health Trust, the fundraising arm of the new regional health care system, and served as its first chairman.

Over the years, Bud was recognized for many accomplishments. In 2004 he was one of three inaugural inductees in the Calgary Business Hall of Fame. In 2002 he received the Queen’s Jubilee Award and in 1999 he became a member of the Order of Canada. In 1998 he received his honorary doctor of laws degree from the University of Calgary and the Distinguished Business Leader Award from the Haskayne School of Business and the Calgary Chamber of Commerce. In 1995 he received Rotary International’s Paul Harris Fellowship. Bud also received the Canadian Master Entrepreneur Award of the Year in Alberta and Canada in 1994 as well as Mount Royal College’s Distinguished Citizen Award.

Bud had a unique ability to unite people around a vision and to see it through to completion. His own personal example won him the respect and admiration of all who worked with him and served with him. His legacy will live on to remind future generations of the impact that one life lived well can make.

A. Charles Baillie was born in Orillia, Ontario, and began his career at the TD Bank in 1964. He progressed through a number of positions in the Bank, and in 1979 was charged with establishing TD’s USA Division. Later, as Executive Vice President, Corporate and Investment Banking Group in Toronto, he was responsible for building TD Securities. In 1995 he was named President of the Bank, and in 1997 became Chief Executive Officer. He added the role of Chairman of the Board in early 1998. Mr. Baillie retired as Chief Executive Officer in 2002, and as Chairman in 2003.

During his career with TD Mr. Baillie oversaw the purchase of US-based Waterhouse Securities, Inc. in 1996, followed by the purchase of additional discount brokerage companies in the US and UK, and its acquisition of CT Financial Services Inc. in 2000.

The acquisition of Canada Trust created Canada’s largest retail bank, TD Canada Trust. Under Mr. Baillie’s stewardship, TD rose from the fifth to the third largest bank in Canada.

He also served as Director of Canadian National Railway Company, Dana Corporation, George Weston Limited and Telus Corporation, as well as Chancellor of Queen’s University, President of the Art Gallery of Ontario’s Board of Trustees and Honorary Chair of the Canadian Council of Chief Executives. He was also well known for his active involvement in a wide variety of not-for-profit boards, including as Director of The Nature Conservancy of Canada, where he co-chaired its capital campaign, and as Honorary Chair of The Shaw Festival’s capital campaign.

Mr. Baillie received numerous awards for his business and philanthropic achievements, and for his contribution to the debate on public policy. He served on the Steering Committee of the Toronto City Summit Alliance, the Advisory Committee of Canada’s National History Society, and as a Director of the Toronto Festival of Arts, Culture & Creativity.

Mr. Baillie graduated with an Honours Bachelor of Arts Degree in Political Science and Economics from the University of Toronto, and earned an MBA from Harvard Business School. He received an Honorary Doctor of Laws from Queen’s University, and an Honorary Diploma from The Royal Conservatory of Music.

David Frank Sobey was born in 1931 in Pictou County, Nova Scotia. He began his career with Sobeys in the 1940’s, and over his career he served in many leadership roles, becoming Chairman in 1996. In 2001, upon his retirement, he was appointed Chairman Emeritus by the Sobeys Inc. Board of Directors.

Mr. Sobey’s industry and community service record includes membership on the Boards of Junior Achievement of Canada, the Retail Council of Canada, the Food Marketing Institute (USA), the Food Business Forum CIES (France), Tim Horton Children’s Foundation, and the Board of Governors of Saint Mary’s University.

He served as Chairman of the Sobey Foundation, the Frank H. Sobey Fund for Excellence in Business Studies, as a Director of the Sobey Art Foundation, the Atlantic Salmon Federation, and as a member of the Advisory Board of the Sobey School of Business at Saint Mary’s University.

Mr. Sobey’s corporate directorships included Hannaford Bros., Dominion Textile, Provigo, Versa Services, CHC Helicopter, and Evangeline Financial Services.

Mr. Sobey was made a Knight of the Golden Pencil in 1991, the Canadian grocery industry’s highest honour, recognizing a career of outstanding contributions. That year he was also awarded the degree of Doctor of Commerce (honoris causa) from Saint Mary’s University, and in 1996 was appointed a Member of the Order of Canada.