Richard Currie

Richard James Currie (born 1937 in Saint John, New Brunswick) is a Canadian businessman.

Education He entered the University of New Brunswick in 1955 on a Beaverbrook Scholarship and was elected president of the first-year class. He later received a Bachelor of Engineering in Chemistry degree from the Technical University of Nova Scotia in 1960. He worked as an engineer until 1968, when he entered Harvard University to earn a Master of Business Administration degree in 1970.

Career In 1960, he joined Atlantic Sugar Refineries as a Process Engineer and was a Refining Superintendent from 1963 to 1968. After graduating from Harvard in 1970, he became a Senior Associate at McKinsey & Co., a management consultant firm based in New York City.

In 1972, he joined Loblaws as a Vice-President, becoming Executive Vice-President in 1974, and President in 1976. Loblaws increased its market share over 350 times in 25 years while under his control, reaching $14 billion before he stepped down on December 31, 2000.

He was the chairman of BCE Inc. and Bell Canada from 2002 to 2009 and currently sits on the board of directors of CAE, and Staples, Inc. and is also a trustee of The Art Gallery of Ontario and a director of Historical Foundation of Canada. Along with these titles, he is also chairman of the board of Telesat and was a director of Imperial Oil Limited, and a member of the international advisory boards of RJR Nabisco and Jacobs Suchard.

On October 20, 2005, the University of New Brunswick established a Chair in Nanotechnology in his honour. This is the first Chair in Nanotechnology in Canada.

In Fall 2011 work was completed on the Richard J. Currie Center, a five-storey, 139,000-square-foot athletics and gymnasium complex, named in honor of Currie, who was also the primary donor. Currie donated over $20 million toward the construction of the building, the largest single donation a New Brunswick university has ever received.

Awards 1997, Made a member of the Order of Canada 1997, Distinguished Canadian Retailer of the Year Award 2001, Awarded Canada's Outstanding CEO of the Year 2004, Promoted to Officer of the Order of Canada 2005, Awarded Retail Council of Canada's Lifetime Achievement Award Inducted into the Canadian Business Hall of Fame 2010, Awarded Doctor of Letters as an honorary degree from Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia