Jimmy Pattison

Jimmy Pattison the Chairman, President, CEO, and sole owner of the Jim Pattison Auto Group, one of Canada’s largest privately-held companies. He was a college-dropout, but became a car salesman in the 1950s.  This led to the purchase of his first dealership in Vancouver in 1961 and then 13 dealerships in southwestern British Columbia over time. In 1965, he acquired the Vancouver’s CJOR-AM, the first of 20 radio stations he would later own. This began his broad business diversification – he was quoted later as saying “my business strategy is that you don’t have all your eggs in one basket.”

<–Back to Business Leaders P