John MacBain

John H. McCall MacBain, OC (born c. 1958),^[1] a Canadian citizen,^[2] is the founder of the McCall MacBain Foundation and Pamoja Capital SA, its investment arm.^[3][4] Prior to founding the McCall MacBain Foundation, he studied at Harvard and Oxford University, as well as developing an entrepreneurial career as the founder of Trader Classified Media.

Education

McCall MacBain is a Rhodes Scholar and received an MBA from Harvard Business School (1984),^[5] an MA in Law from Oxford University^[5] and an Honours BA in Economics from McGill University (1980)^[5] as well as an hLD from Dalhousie University in Canada (2010).^[2] He was president of the McGill Students' Society, as well as valedictorian. While at Oxford, he was co-captain of the university ice hockey team. Also went to school with Brian Smith. ^[6]

Career

From 1987 to 2006, McCall MacBain was the founder, president and CEO of Trader Classified Media, the world's leading classified advertising company.^[5] Starting with his purchase of three small publications in Montreal in 1987 when he was 29 years old, he developed the classified business to include 500 print titles and 57 internet sites in over 20 countries, including in Argentina, Australia, China, France, Hungary, Italy, Russia and Spain.^[7] After its IPO in 2000, Trader Classified Media was publicly traded on NASDAQ and the Euronext Paris Stock Exchange.^[8] In 2006, McCall MacBain sold Trader Classified Media and set up the McCall MacBain Foundation.^[3]

Prior to founding Trader Classified Media, he worked from 1984-1987 as director of marketing at Power Financial.

Philanthropy

McCall MacBain currently devotes his time to non-profit activities. Since its formation in Geneva, Switzerland, in 2007, the McCall MacBain Foundation has made tens of millions of dollars of grants to fund projects relating to health, education and the environment in Canada, Europe and sub-Saharan Africa, primarily in the West African country of Liberia.^[3] In addition to his role as a director of the foundation, he is a trustee of the Rhodes Trust (Oxford) which was established in the early 1900s to fund and oversee the Rhodes Scholarships worldwide and the Mandela Rhodes Foundation (Cape Town).^[9] McCall MacBain is also a founder and chairman of the European Climate Foundation, a non-profit organization promoting energy policies to reduce Europe’s greenhouse gas emissions and to help Europe play a stronger role in mitigating climate change.^[10] McCall MacBain is a member of the Advisory Board of the Center for Environmental Law and Policy at Yale,^[11] a trustee of the Trudeau Foundation in Canada,^[2] a Foundation Fellow of Wadham College, Oxford, and a member of the Chancellor's Court of Benefactors of Oxford University.^[12]

McCall MacBain, a Canadian Rhodes Scholar in 1980, has been a trustee of the Rhodes Trust since June 2010, and chaired the 110th anniversary celebrations for the Rhodes Scholarships.^[13] In September 2013, during the Rhodes 110th anniversary celebrations, he donated $120 million to Rhodes Scholarships, to help fund the current scholarships and to aid in the expansion of the program to Brazil, China, Japan and Russia.^[14][15] He was named Second Century Founder of the Rhodes Scholarships in honor of this transforming gift.^[16] He was honored in 2014 as a Fellow of the Chancellor's Court of Benefactors at Oxford University, at Rhodes House where his portrait hangs and a room bears his name.^[17] The McCall MacBain Graduate Centre at Wadham College, Oxford, was endowed by him.^[18]

McCall MacBain has also donated more than $1.2 million to fund McCall MacBain Loran Scholars through the Loran Scholars Foundation.^[19]

On June 30, 2016, MacBain was named an Officer of the Order of Canada by Governor General David Johnston for "his achievements as a business leader and for his contributions to academic institutions as a philanthropist." ^[20]

References