Jim Pattison Net Worth

What is Jim Pattison's Net Worth?

Jim Pattison is a Canadian billionaire business magnate and investor who has a net worth of $12 billion. That makes him one of the richest people in Canada. Jim Pattison is the founder, chairman, CEO, and sole owner of the Jim Pattison Group, the second-largest privately held company in Canada. Pattison also runs his own charitable foundation, through which he has made numerous donations to hospitals and healthcare groups in Canada.

Early Life and Education

Jim Pattison was born on October 1, 1928, in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. When he was six years old, he moved with his family to Vancouver, British Columbia. The family would return to Saskatchewan during summer. Pattison attended John Oliver Secondary School as an adolescent, graduating in 1947. He had a number of jobs during his school years, including newspaper delivery boy, hotel pageboy, and door-to-door seed salesman. Pattison continued to take odd jobs after graduating from high school, doing everything from building bridges in the mountains to working as a dining car attendant for the Canadian Pacific Railway. He found his greatest early success as a used car salesman at Kingsway in Vancouver. With his earnings, Pattison attended the Sauder School of Business at the University of British Columbia. He didn't complete his degree, however, as he was three classes short.

The Jim Pattison Group

Pattison's business career was launched in the summer of 1949 when he became a used car salesman for the Vancouver dealer Kingsway. During his studies at the University of British Columbia, he sold used cars there, as well. Later, in 1961, Pattison borrowed $40,000 from the Royal Bank of Canada, sold his home, and placed his life insurance policy as collateral in order to purchase a General Motors car dealership. This was the beginning of the Jim Pattison Group, which went on to expand into the packaging, food, and media industries over the subsequent decades. One of its largest divisions, Pattison Food Group, operates supermarkets under the Save-On-Foods banner, which it launched in 1982 in Western Canada. Meanwhile, Pattison Agriculture is the second-largest John Deere dealer in Canada. Among the many other properties owned by the Jim Pattison Group are numerous radio stations, the entertainment company Ripley Entertainment, and the Guinness World Records franchise. By 2020, the conglomerate reportedly employed 48,000 people worldwide and had $10.9 billion in revenue, making it the second-largest privately held company in Canada.

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Other Business Endeavors

In 1973, Pattison purchased the World Hockey Association team, the Philadelphia Blazers, which he relocated to Canada and renamed the Vancouver Blazers. The team relocated again, to Calgary, in 1975, and folded in 1976. Later, in 1986, Pattison was named the CEO and president of the Expo 86 Corporation, which organized the Expo 86 world's fair in Vancouver. In the 21st century, he was involved with the committee for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. Pattison also purchased the Jean Louis dress worn by Marilyn Monroe when she serenaded John F. Kennedy at Madison Square Garden in 1962. He bought the item at a Los Angeles auction for $4.8 million in late 2016.

Philanthropy

On the philanthropic side of things, Pattison runs the Jim Pattison Foundation, through which he has donated millions of dollars to charitable organizations. Many of his donations have been to hospitals and healthcare groups in Canada, including the Lions Gate Hospital, Vancouver General Hospital, the Victoria Hospitals Foundation, Fraser Health, and the Children's Hospital of Saskatchewan. In 2017, Pattison donated $75 million toward the construction of a new St. Paul's Hospital in Vancouver, marking the single largest private donation to a healthcare provider in Canadian history. Elsewhere, he has donated to such organizations as the Apostolic Church of Pentecost and CBC Television.

Personal Life

With his wife Mary Hudson, whom he first met at the age of 13 at church camp, Pattison has three children. His hobbies include playing musical instruments and riding his 150-foot super yacht, Nova Spirit.

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