Jim Balsillie – most recognized as the former chair and co-chief executive officer of the Waterloo-based technology company BlackBerry (originally Research In Motion) – describes himself as “passionate about Canada, especially its current and future prosperity and sovereignty.”
As such, he has heavily invested in non-profit initiatives in the education, economic and global governance, and innovation spaces. His philanthropy, including the Balsillie Family Foundation, also extends to support for arts and culture, public healthcare, and social services.
He also has a personal investing firm and has a few key investment areas.
Balsillie started his career as a chartered accountant, then, with an MBA from Harvard, became an executive at a small Ontario-based tech company. After the firm was sold in 1992, Balsillie joined Research In Motion (RIM). Recognizing the growth potential in wireless technology, he became the company’s first investor. He helped grow the firm to $20 billion in sales globally in 2011, selling this Canadian product in over 150 countries around the world.
But competition in the smart phone market hit BlackBerry. Balsillie resigned from RIM’s board in early 2012, and sold his remaining shares.
He has been an active philanthropist, as, among others, co-founder of the Institute for New Economic Thinking in New York, the Council of Canadian Innovators, a not-for-profit organization representing the interests of Canada’s leading technology companies based in Toronto, the Arctic Research Foundation and the Centre for Digital Rights.
In 2001, he founded the Waterloo-based Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) think tank with a $20-million endowment, along with other donors. He also gave a $10-million endowment to the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Waterloo.
Here, Balsillie shares why he supports causes that he feels will strengthen Canada, what drives him in his investment choices, how he approached wealth stewardship and independence in his children, and what he is investing in now.
What were some key decision points that led you to where you are now?
“I was very good at math in school but also keenly interested in business, specifically how the emerging technology sector was opening entrepreneurial opportunities by rewriting established business rules.
Going to the Harvard Business School in the 1980s was a big milestone and a turning point for me because it exposed me to highly sophisticated professors and peers and instilled in me the confidence that I can pursue an entrepreneurial career in the technology sector.
I continue to be very active in my tech entrepreneurship every day because it’s highly satisfying and I get to learn while prospering.”
Can you give some insight about why you chose to found or support some of your wide-ranging philanthropic and non-profit initiatives?
“I am passionate about Canada, especially its current and future prosperity and sovereignty. I think it’s a country with enormous potential and I look for ways to strategically enable that potential.
I am interested in gaps in knowledge and policy capacity, which is not often sexy philanthropy, but I think it’s important to our nation’s future. As a result, I have devoted most of my philanthropy to building capacity in areas that help Canada strengthen its position in the world, to the benefit of both Canadians and the world.
These include research and policy for global governance, international affairs, the Arctic and the contemporary domestic economy. I barbell these over-the-horizon investments with on-the-ground ongoing support of current needs for arts and culture, public healthcare, and social services.”
How do you approach the issue of wealth stewardship and philanthropic participation with your children? And how have you encouraged personal drive in them?
That was my goal as a parent from the start because while money can buy material goods it cannot buy them the self-esteem, integrity and drive needed for authentic success in business and in life.”
How are you structuring the endowments of your family foundation or other long-term forms of funding for your non-profit initiatives?
“I have a team that is involved with my foundation, the Balsillie Family Foundation, and we talk through ideas and opportunities together, as well as ensuring sound investment performance.
There is a mix of endowments and project funding, and both have their use depending on the topic in front of us.
I still feel like a hungry and spirited 35-year-old. That’s the only way the world makes sense to me, so I plan to be involved with day-to-day decisions of my foundations for decades to come. No need for other long-term funding plans just yet.”
Are you involved in your family’s wealth management, and if so, what are you investing in right now?
I was lucky to have been mentored by some of the world’s most successful investors, including George Soros.
I am also hands-on and heavily invested in tech and in residential real estate in both Canada and the U.S., and of course in art, too.
Would you expect anything less from someone who feels like a hungry and spirited 35-year-old?”
When many have left or are talking about leaving Canada, why have you chosen to stay?
“Because I love this country and I feel energized to keep building companies, non-profits, policy capacity and helping the next generation of leaders.
My moral code is you leave a campsite better than you found it and I take that very seriously.
As a tradesman’s son, I have been given many opportunities in Canada, starting with my scholarships and OSAP [Ontario Student Assistance Program] loans, and I won’t abandon or pull up the ladder that was there for me to climb up.
Also, it is remarkably rewarding to lock arms with the good people in Canada who aspire for a better future for our country.”
What should tech investors look out for?
“Pay attention to geopolitics and the litany of legal frameworks that govern the contemporary economy.
To paraphrase a famous economist, geopolitics is everywhere but in the neoconservative market orthodoxy.
The knowledge-based economy has ushered in an age of strategic behaviour by states (think U.S. CHIPs [and Science] Act, U.S. Inflation Reduction Act, U.S. sanctions on China, U.S. effectively pulling out of the WTO, USMCA’s regulatory remote control of Canada, EU Digital Services Act, EU Digital Markets Act, EU AI Act, etc.).
It demands that investors, and especially tech entrepreneurs, stay very involved with public policy because the way industries are organized, and markets allowed to function, are matters of social and political choices.
What do you wish people would know about wealth created through entrepreneurialism in Canada?
“I don’t know that anything compares to the thrill and joy of creating your own wealth from a vision you have in your head.
When entrepreneurs have access to capital, they can channel their ideas into products and services that can improve the lives of fellow citizens, industry and even governments. Entrepreneurs can profoundly shape the society for the better and simultaneously create public and private good.
In a country with eroding prosperity and much needed new revenues to pay for the social services we value, supporting entrepreneurialism should be the Canadian government’s first priority.”
Responses have been lightly edited for clarity and length.
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