James Laurence Balsillie was born on February 3,1961 and is a Canadian businessman and philanthropist.
32 Facts About Jim Balsillie
2.
Jim Balsillie is the former Chair and co-CEO of the Canadian technology company Research In Motion, which at its prime made over $20B in sales annually.
3.
Since leaving Blackberry in 2012, Jim Balsillie has taken up a number of roles in Canadian business and society.
4.
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.
5.
Jim Balsillie was born to an Ontario Hydro electrician in Seaforth, Ontario.
6.
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 elite Zeta Psi fraternity.
7.
Jim Balsillie earned an MBA from Harvard Business School in 1989.
8.
Jim Balsillie was hired by Mike Lazaridis in 1992, when Research In Motion, an early venture into handheld telephony technology, had 14 employees.
9.
Many people considered that Jim Balsillie infused RIM with "institutional arrogance" as he remade the landscape of the smartphone industry.
10.
Jim Balsillie was "feared and respected" by senior managers within his hierarchy.
11.
The twin-CEO structure that was evolved by Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie eventually became cumbersome and inhibited their competition with their new rival Apple, as piloted by Steve Jobs.
12.
On March 5,2007, Jim Balsillie resigned his role as chairman of RIM as the firm reported over US$250 million in past stock option accounting errors after an extensive review.
13.
Jim Balsillie retained his roles as co-chief executive and director.
14.
In February 2009, as part of the penalties and sanctions approved by the United States Office of Special Counsel 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.
15.
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.
16.
On January 22,2012, Jim Balsillie resigned his position, as did Co-CEO Mike Lazaridis, and was replaced by RIM Chief Operating Officer Thorsten Heins.
17.
On March 29,2012, Research in Motion announced that Jim Balsillie would be stepping down from the Board of Directors.
18.
Jim Balsillie resigned from the Board due to strategic differences with RIM's new leader and CEO, Thorsten Heins, who abandoned the licensing strategy that Balsillie was pursuing.
19.
Jim Balsillie has been involved in three attempts to buy a National Hockey League franchise with the overt intention of moving it to Hamilton, Ontario.
20.
On October 5,2006, Jim Balsillie made a bid to purchase the Pittsburgh Penguins franchise for US$185 million from former player Mario Lemieux and his partners.
21.
On December 15,2006, Jim Balsillie withdrew his bid to buy the team after receiving 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.
22.
On May 23,2007, it was announced that Jim Balsillie had reached a tentative agreement to buy the Nashville Predators from Craig Leipold.
23.
On May 5,2009, Jim Balsillie made an offer of $212.5 million to purchase the Phoenix Coyotes following the team's filing for bankruptcy protection in Arizona.
24.
At the request of then-owner, Jerry Moyes, Jim Balsillie agreed to post debtor-in-possession financing of US$17.0 million to allow the Coyotes to operate in advance of a restructuring or a sale.
25.
On September 30,2009, Jim Balsillie's bid was again rejected by Judge Baum, who rejected the NHL's bid.
26.
Jim Balsillie's bid was rejected "with prejudice," preventing him from making another bid for the Coyotes.
27.
In 2007, Jim Balsillie donated $50 million to the University of Waterloo, Wilfrid Laurier University and the Centre for International Governance Innovation as part of a $100 million initiative to create the Jim Balsillie School of International Affairs.
28.
Jim Balsillie is a philanthropist who supports numerous local and national initiatives.
29.
Jim Balsillie is the founder of the Centre for International Governance Innovation, the Council of Canadian Innovators, Canadian International Council, and the Jim Balsillie School of International Affairs.
30.
In 2021, Jim Balsillie was announced as the sponsor for the $60,000 Atwood Gibson Writers' Trust Fiction Prize.
31.
Jim Balsillie maintains that all three major political parties have made unsuccessful efforts to recruit him.
32.
Jim Balsillie serves as the Honorary Captain of HMCS Star in the Royal Canadian Navy.