View source for Richard Currie

{{short description|Canadian businessman|bot=PearBOT 5}}
'''Richard James Currie''' {{post-nominals|country=CAN|OC}} (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.<ref name=chancellor>[https://www.unb.ca/news/view.cgi?id=210 "Richard Currie named chancellor of the University of New Brunswick"], ''[[University of New Brunswick]]'', retrieved June 14, 2006</ref> 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.<ref>[http://www.canadianbusiness.com/lifestyle/article.jsp?content=20050411_66891_66891 "Live and Learn: Richard Currie"], ''[[Canadian Business]]'', retrieved August 16, 2006.</ref>

== 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 & Company|McKinsey & Co.]], a management consultant firm based in [[New York City]].<ref name=CBR>[http://www.cbr.ca/personProfile.aspx?personID=29775 "Executive Profiles: Richard J. Currie"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070607151946/http://www.cbr.ca/PersonProfile.aspx?PersonID=29775 |date=2007-06-07 }}, ''[[Canadian Business Resource]]'', retrieved August 25, 2006.</ref>

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.<ref name="chancellor"/><ref name=CBR/> Through this, it became the largest private sector employer in Canada.<ref name="chancellor"/>

In 1996, he was appointed President of Loblaws parent company, [[George Weston Ltd.]], where he increased the share price from $16 to $123. In 2002 he stepped down from Weston and was appointed Chairman of [[BCE Inc.]] on April 24 of that year.<ref name="chancellor"/><ref name=CBR/>

He, along with Lynton Wilson, [[Anthony S. Fell]], [[James Fleck]], [[Hal Jackman]] and John McArthur, helped establish a chair in Canadian business history at the [[Rotman School of Management|Joseph L. Rotman School of Management]], which is the first chair of its kind in Canada. Worth $3 million, it will help fund courses and research related to the progress of the commerce industry in Canada, along with the legal, economic and political events that impacted its history.<ref>[http://www.research.utoronto.ca/edge/fall2004/upfront.html "$3M Business History Chair a First in Canada"], ''EDGE Magazine'', retrieved August 25, 2006.</ref>

He was the chairman of BCE Inc. and Bell Canada from 2002 to 2009 and currently sits on the [[board of directors]] of [[CAE (company)|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.<ref name=CBR/>

== University of New Brunswick involvement ==
On May 24, 2003, he was appointed Chancellor of the University of New Brunswick by the lieutenant-governor in council, at UNB's 174th Encaenia. His duties are to serve as the honorary head of UNB and also as a member of its board of governors.<ref name=chancellor />

In 2004, he established the [[Blake-Kirkpatrick Scholarship]]s (now the Currie Scholarship) in memory of his two grandmothers: Ida Mae Blake and Jannet Kirkpatrick.<ref>[https://www.unb.ca/scholarships/documents/BlakeKirkpatrick06.pdf "Blake-Kirkpatrick Application"], ''[[University of New Brunswick]]'', retrieved August 25, 2006.</ref>

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.<ref>[https://www.unb.ca/news/view.cgi?id=869 "Chair in nanotechnology establish in honour of UNB chancellor"], John Suart, ''[[University of New Brunswick]]'', October 20, 2005, retrieved August 25, 2006.</ref>

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.<ref>[https://www.unb.ca/fredericton/currie/ "The Richard J. Currie Center @ UNB Fredericton"], ''[[University of New Brunswick]]'', retrieved October 16, 2011.</ref>

== Awards ==
*1997, Made a member of the [[Order of Canada]] 
*1997, [[Distinguished Canadian Retailer of the Year|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<ref name=chancellor/>
*2010, Awarded Doctor of Letters as an honorary degree from Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia

== References ==
{{reflist}}

{{Bell Canada}}
{{CAE}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Currie, Richard}}
[[Category:1937 births]]
[[Category:Bell Canada]]
[[Category:Businesspeople from Saint John, New Brunswick]]
[[Category:Chancellors by university and college in Canada]]
[[Category:Harvard Business School alumni]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:McKinsey & Company people]]
[[Category:Officers of the Order of Canada]]
[[Category:University of New Brunswick alumni]]