Jim Leech

James William (Jim) Leech (born June 12, 1947) is a Canadian business executive. Since 2021, he has been chancellor-emeritus of Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. Prior to that, he spent 12 years at the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan (OTPP), first for 6 years as a senior vice-president of OTPP head of Teachers' Private Capital, OTPP's private investment arm, and then as president and chief executive officer of the pension plan until his retirement in 2013.

Early life, education and military service Born in Saint Boniface, Winnipeg into a military family, During his elementary and secondary school years, Leech moved around Canada living in Ottawa, Kingston as well as Canadian army bases, including CFB Kingston both in Ontario, and CFB Edmonton, Alberta. He graduated from Queen Elizabeth High School (Edmonton) in 1964.

Leech attended Royal Roads Military College, whose 2-year program bridged with a 4-year degree at Royal Military College of Canada, where he majored in mathematics and physics and obtained his Bachelor of Science in 1968. He was promoted to captain at the age of 22 in 1985, He became the president and CEO of Union Energy after the acquisition Unicorp subsequently changed its name to Wilmington Capital Management Inc.

Leech next joined Disys Ltd. in 1993 as president and CEO., an application service provider start-up based in Toronto. OTPP's private investment arm. in 2002. Yellow Pages was converted into an income trust and listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange one year later. In 2003, a restructuring of the Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment (MLSE), which owns Toronto Maple Leafs of the National Hockey League, Toronto Raptors of the National Basketball Association and Scotiabank Arena (then named Air Canada Centre) saw OTPP became the owner of the company, increasing its stake from 49% to 58.4%. Leech oversaw this transition from longtime owner Steve Stavro. for a new team in the Major League Soccer, later named Toronto FC. OTPP sold MLSE to BCE Inc. and Rogers Communications in 2012 for CAD$1.32 billion. In 2006, TPC purchased of GCT Global Container Terminals Inc. from Orient Overseas (International) Limited for US$2.4 billion in 2006. GCT operates four North American container ports, two in the Port of New York and New Jersey area and two in Port Metro Vancouver. OTPP sold most of its stake in GCT in 2018, forming a management partnership with the Australian-based IFM Investors and British Columbia Investment Management Corporation, a Crown corporation in Canada. In 2007, under Leech's leadership, Teachers' Private Capital, together with Providence Equity Partners and Madison Dearborn, started a bidding war for BCE Inc., fighting against Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, which teamed up with KKR. Owning 5.3% of shares, OTPP was the largest shareholder of BCE at the time. The final bid totalled CAD$51.7 billion, which included CAD$34 billion in debt and split into CAD$34.8 billion for stock and CAD$16.9 billion for liabilities, making it the largest leveraged buyout in history. which had been a condition of the transaction.

In September 2007, OTPP announced the appointment of Leech as its new president and CEO, succeeding Claude Lamoureux, who was retiring and has been leading OTPP since 1990. He started his new role on December 1, 2007. and of High Speed 1, then and still the only high-speed railway in the UK, as well as sale of OTPP's stakes in Bell Media Inc. (then named CTVglobemedia Inc.) back to BCE Inc. and of its stakes in Maple Leaf Foods, first to West Face Capital and then to BMO Capital Markets and TD Securities. OTPP also sold MLSE to BCE Inc. and Rogers Communications in 2012,

Leech has expressed intention to retire at the end of 2013. He retired from OTPP on December 31, 2013. 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) on three separate occasions. His term ended in June 2021 and became chancellor-emeritus; he was succeeded by Murray Sinclair. a senior advisor at the consulting firm McKinsey & Company in 2014, the chair of the Board of Directors of the MasterCard Foundation, and also Toronto General and Western Hospital Foundation. His term at these two foundations ended in 2018 and 2020 respectively, although he continued as a board member at both foundations.

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.

In 2017, Prime Minister of Canada Justin Trudeau appointed Leech Special Advisor on the Canada Infrastructure Bank. He is also chairing the advisory board of Peloton Capital Management since its founding in 2018, and of the Institute for Sustainable Finance at the Smith School of Business since its launch in 2019, and sits on Board of Directors of Historica Canada.

From 2014 to 2021, Leech was Honorary Colonel of 32 Signal Regiment, Canadian Army in Toronto It won the 2014 National Business Book Award and was a runner-up of the 2013 Donner Prize.

Since late 2025, Leech has been a volunteer Presiding Officer at Canadian Citizenship Ceremonies Oath of Citizenship (Canada) in the Greater Toronto Area.

Mr Leech is known to be a Proud Ally of the LGBTQ2S+ community.

Honours and awards Canadian Army Award; HE Sellers Award (outstanding Royal Roads Graduate) (1964) Department of National Defense Award of Merit; RMC Club Toronto Branch Award; Commandant's Cup; and RC Sigs Subaltern's Course (Best Student) (1968) Special Service Medal (Canada) NATO-OTAN - Canadian Armed Forces (1971) DI McLeod Scholarship/Research Fellowship; Transportation Development Agency Fellowship; and Samuel Bronfman Foundation Scholarship (1971) Canadian Securities Course, Gold Medal (1974) Queen's Toronto Branch Alumni Award for Community Service (1992) CEO Award of Excellence in Communications - Canadian Public Relations Society, Toronto Chapter (2010) Founding Director, Right to Play International (2010) Corporate Social Responsibility Award - US/Canadian Foreign Policy Association (2012) Champion of Public Education, The Learning Partnership (2009) Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal (2012) Member of the Order of Canada (2014) Lifetime Achievement Award - Niagara Institute Dialogue (2014) Honorary Colonel, 32 Signal Regiment, Canadian Army (2014) Elected a Fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society (2021) Alumni Achievement Award - Queen's University (2022) Distinguished Service Award - Queen's University (2022) Friend of Education Award - Canadian Council for Advancement of Education (2023) Honorary Doctor of Law - Queen’s University (2024) Lifetime Achievement Award, Ontario Business Achievement Awards - Ontario Chamber of Commerce (2024) King Charles III Coronation Medal (2025)

The Jim Leech Mastercard Foundation Fellowship in Entrepreneurship, the Jim Leech MBA Scholarship, the Leech classroom, the Chancellor Jim Leech Bursary for Indigenous Students, Jim Leech- CFPDP Bursary and the Jim Leech Ceilidh Centre at Queen's University are named after Leech.