2006 Canada’s Outstanding CEO of the Year® award recipient
Advisory Board member
Mr Jim Balsillie
Biography
Jim Balsillie is the retired Chairman and co-CEO of Research In Motion (BlackBerry), a technology company he scaled from an idea to CA$20bn in sales globally. Jim’s private investment office includes global and domestic technology investments such as cybersecurity leader Magnet Forensics and space technology leader MDA.
He is the co-founder of the Institute for New Economic Thinking in New York, the Council of Canadian Innovators based in Toronto, and Digital Governance Council, as well as founder of the Centre for International Governance Innovation in Waterloo, the Centre for Digital Rights, the Balsillie School of International Affairs, and the Arctic Research Foundation. He currently chairs the boards of CCI, CIGI, Innovation Asset Collective and Digital Governance Council. He is also a member of the Board of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and the Advisory Board of the Stockholm Resilience Centre; an Honorary Captain (Navy) of the Royal Canadian Navy and an Advisor to Canada School of Public Service.
Jim was the private sector representative on the UN Secretary General’s High Panel for Sustainability. His awards include: several honorary degrees, Mobile World Congress Lifetime Achievement Award, India’s Priyadarshni Academy Global Award, Canadian Business Hall of Fame, Time Magazine’s World’s 100 Most Influential People and three times Barron’s list of “World’s Top CEOs.”