18 Facts About Jim Leech

Jim Leech graduated from Queen Elizabeth High School in 1964.

Jim 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.

Jim Leech joined the Royal Canadian Corps of Signals after graduation and was posted first at the 1 Batailion Royal 22 Regiment, and then at the 4 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group Headquarters and Signal Squadron for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization forces in Werl and Soest, respectively, in then-West Germany.

Jim Leech was promoted to captain at the age of 22 and returned to the 1R22R Regiment in Lahr, West Germany as Signals Officer.

Jim Leech resigned from military service in 1971, and enrolled in Master of Business Administration program at Queen's University, where his father was working as a registrar after his retirement from the military.

Jim Leech is a graduate of the Institute of Corporate Directors in 2004.

In 1979, through founder George Mann, Jim Leech joined Unicorp Canada Corporation, one of the first public merchant banks in the country, becoming its president in 1983 by which time Unicorp had built a large US commercial real estate portfolio through the acquisition of US Real Estate Investment Trusts.

Jim Leech led the first major hostile takeover in Canada in 1985, gaining control of Union Enterprises Ltd.

Jim Leech became the president and CEO of Union Energy after the acquisition which became one of the largest integrated energy companies in North America.

The main business of Disys was manufacturing smoke alarms, but it had research in Radio Frequency Identification technology, which Jim Leech thought would be funded by the mature smoke-alarm business.

Jim Leech started his new role on December 1,2007.

Jim Leech has expressed intention to retire at the end of 2013.

Jim Leech assumed the role of the 14th Chancellor of Queen's University on July 1,2014.

Jim Leech's term ended in June 2021 and became chancellor-emeritus; he was succeeded by Murray Sinclair.

In 2014, Jim 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.

Jim Leech is 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, Jim Leech was Honorary Colonel of 32 Signal Regiment, Canadian Army in Toronto and was given the Canadian Forces' Decoration for his time in that honorary role.

In 2013, Jim Leech co-wrote, with journalist Jacquie McNish, The third rail: confronting our pension failures, which discusses the crises facing the Canadian pension system.