The Michael Lee-Chin & Family Institute for Strategic Business Studies was made possible through the vision and generosity of Michael Lee-Chin, Chairman of Portland Holdings Inc.
Michael Lee-Chin is a graduate of McMaster University with a degree in Civil Engineering. He entered the financial services industry in 1977 as a financial advisor. In 1987, he acquired AIC Limited, and over the years, he took the organization from $1 million to approximately $8 billion in assets under management in 2007. Upon acquiring AIC, Michael assumed the positions of Chairman and Chief Executive Officer.
Michael has distinct beliefs regarding wealth creation, role model-ship, and his firm’s investment strategy. AIC’s goal is to create long-term wealth for investors. To achieve that objective, Michael looked for role models — those business people who created wealth in society by owning one or two businesses. For this reason, Michael established AIC’s investment philosophy of buying a few excellent businesses in long-term growth sectors and holding these businesses for the long term to help AIC investors prosper by preserving and growing their capital and minimizing taxes. He sums up this philosophy with the words: Buy. Hold. And Prosper.™
As a result of his investment philosophy, AIC was at one point the largest privately held mutual fund company in Canada. Michael was named Entrepreneur of the Year in 1997. In 2002, he earned the Harry Jerome Award for a decade of achievement. Michael has been profiled in Forbes, Fortune, Canadian Business, Black Enterprise, National Post, and Time magazines.
Under his stewardship in 2002, AIC purchased 75% of the National Commercial Bank (NCB), Jamaica’s only indigenous bank. Today NCB is Jamaica’s largest bank with 52 branches and offices in Cayman and the U.K. In November 2003, Michael received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from McMaster University in recognition of his business success and philanthropic initiatives, and in July 2004 was honoured by Time magazine as one of Canada’s Heroes and one of the country’s most intriguing and inspiring citizens. In June 2006, he received an honorary Juris Doctor degree from the University of Toronto.
Michael Lee-Chin & Family Endowment Gift
The purpose of the Michael Lee-Chin & Family gift is to support the Institute for Strategic Business Studies at the DeGroote School of Business at McMaster University.
Through the generous gift to the University, three endowed funds result from the Michael Lee-Chin & Family gift:
- A fund supports a Chair in Investment and Portfolio Management.
- A separate fund supports two Professorships, and
- A third fund supports student scholarships.
The Chair and Professorship roles are to contribute significantly to the general body of knowledge on business strategy dealing with concepts such as business valuation, business excellence, and growth.
In addition, more focused research will add significantly to our understanding of investment and portfolio management.
The Michael Lee-Chin & Family Professorships are intended to create a synergy between business theory and business practice. The approach here is to bring real-life cases and examples to the classroom and work on projects that add value to the education and training the students receive in this program.
Advisory Board
The members of the Advisory Board for the Michael Lee-Chin & Family Institute for Strategic Business Valuation are:
Wayne C. Fox
Chairman & Director, XFO Private Asset Solutions Inc
Ian Hardacre
Head of Canadian Equities, Trimark Investments
Abigail Payne
Professor, Department of Economics, University of Melbourne
Director, Melbourne Institute
For more information, Read Biography
Sally Gunz
Professor Emeritus, Business Law and Ethics
School of Accountancy, University of Waterloo
For more information, Read Biography