1. James Laurence Balsillie was born on February 3,1961 and is a Canadian businessman and philanthropist.
39 Facts About Jim Balsillie
1. 2.
Jim Balsillie was the former chair and co-chief executive officer of the Canadian technology company Research In Motion, which at its 2011 peak made billion in annual sales.
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Since leaving Blackberry in 2012, Jim Balsillie has taken up a number of roles in Canadian business and society.
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Jim Balsillie is the founder of the Balsillie School of International Affairs at the University of Waterloo, the Centre for International Governance and Innovation think tank, and serves as chair of the Canadian Council of Innovators.
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Jim Balsillie was born in 1961 in Seaforth, Ontario to Raymond Balsillie, an electronics technician at Ontario Hydro, and Laurel Balsillie.
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The family moved to Peterborough when Jim Balsillie was five years old.
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Jim Balsillie received a Bachelor of Commerce degree from Trinity College at the University of Toronto in 1984, where he was a member of the Zeta Psi fraternity.
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Jim Balsillie earned an MBA from Harvard Business School in 1989.
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Jim Balsillie earned a PhD from Wilfrid Laurier University in 1992.
10.
Jim Balsillie left that position in 1992 when Sutherland-Schultz was sold to the Vollmer Group.
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In 1992, after initially making overtures to buy the company, Jim Balsillie invested in Research In Motion and joined as co-CEO with founder Mike Lazaridis.
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Jim Balsillie had fewer than ten employees and would eventually become the "international powerhouse" called BlackBerry Limited, with as many as 28,000 employees.
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Many people considered that Jim Balsillie infused RIM with "institutional arrogance" as he remade the landscape of the smartphone industry.
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Jim Balsillie was "feared and respected" by senior managers within his hierarchy.
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The twin-CEO structure of Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie eventually became cumbersome and inhibited their competition with the Apple iPhone and Google's Android devices.
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On March 5,2007, Jim Balsillie resigned his role as chairman of RIM as the firm reported over million in past stock option accounting errors after an extensive review.
17.
Jim Balsillie retained his roles as co-chief executive and director.
18.
In February 2009, as part of the penalties and sanctions approved by the Ontario Securities Commission in settling the improper option practices, which the OSC called a "fundamental failure of governance", Jim Balsillie was forced to resign as a director of RIM.
19.
In May 2010, almost immediately after the OSC sanctions expired, Jim Balsillie was reappointed to the board, in spite of strong shareholder objections, and notwithstanding RIM's earlier public representations that the roles of chairman and CEO were separated.
20.
Two months later, on March 29,2012, RIM announced that Jim Balsillie would be stepping down from the board of directors.
21.
Jim Balsillie resigned from the Board due to strategic differences with Heins, who abandoned the licensing strategy that Balsillie was pursuing.
22.
Jim Balsillie has been involved in at least three attempts to buy a National Hockey League franchise with the overt intention of moving it to Hamilton, Ontario.
23.
On October 5,2006, Jim Balsillie made a bid to purchase the Pittsburgh Penguins franchise for million from owners Mario Lemieux and Ronald Burkle.
24.
On December 15,2006, Jim Balsillie withdrew his bid to buy the team after receiving a notice from NHL commissioner Gary Bettman that the league would negotiate the arena deal on his behalf and the league wanted the right to take over the team if necessary.
25.
On May 23,2007, it was announced that Jim Balsillie had reached a tentative agreement to buy the Nashville Predators from Craig Leipold.
26.
On May 5,2009, Jim Balsillie made an offer of US$212.5million to purchase the Phoenix Coyotes following the team's filing for bankruptcy protection in Arizona.
27.
At the request of then-owner, Jerry Moyes, Jim Balsillie agreed to post debtor-in-possession financing of $17million to allow the Coyotes to operate in advance of a restructuring or a sale.
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On September 30,2009, Jim Balsillie's bid was again rejected by Judge Baum, who rejected the NHL's bid.
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Jim Balsillie's bid was rejected "with prejudice," preventing him from making another bid for the Coyotes.
30.
Jim Balsillie is a philanthropist who supports numerous local and national initiatives.
31.
Jim Balsillie created the Canadian International Council through a partnership with the Canadian Institute of International Affairs and CIGI.
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Jim Balsillie is the founder of the Council of Canadian Innovators.
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Jim Balsillie has contributed resources and time to organizations such as Waterloo Children's Museum, Grand River Hospital, the Canadian Olympic Foundation and others.
34.
In 2012, Osgoode Hall Law School faculty council rejected Jim Balsillie's proposed $60million collaboration between the school and CIGI, split into two equal donations by each of the CIGI and the Government of Ontario to establish a school of international relations at York University and fund 10 research chairs in international law.
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Jim Balsillie married his wife in 1989 in Hamilton, Ontario.
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Jim Balsillie serves as the Honorary Captain of HMCS Star in the Royal Canadian Navy.
37.
Jim Balsillie maintains that all three major political parties in Canada have made unsuccessful efforts to recruit him.
38.
Jim Balsillie was portrayed as arrogant, manipulative, and aggressive in the film.
39.
Jim Balsillie helped promote the film by doing television interviews and attending premieres.