Jim Balsillie

Balsillie was born in Seaforth, Ontario, and raised in Peterborough, Ontario, where his family relocated in 1966 and he attended Peterborough Collegiate and Vocational School. He received a Bachelor of Commerce degree from Trinity College at the University of Toronto in 1984. He earned an MBA from Harvard Business School in 1989. He received a PhD from Wilfrid Laurier University. In 2003, he was elected a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario (FCA).

Balsillie has been involved in three attempts to buy a National Hockey League franchise with the overt intention of moving it to Hamilton, Ontario. On October 5, 2006, Balsillie made a bid to purchase the Pittsburgh Penguins, an NHL franchise, for US$185 million from former player Mario Lemieux and his partners. On December 15, 2006, Balsillie withdrew his bid to buy the team. He made the decision after receiving notice from NHL commissioner Gary Bettman that the league would negotiate the arena deal on his behalf and the league also wanted the right to take over the team if necessary. On May 23, 2007, it was announced that Balsillie had reached a tentative agreement to buy the Nashville Predators from Craig Leipold. On June 28, 2007, CBC.ca reported that Leipold had decided not to sign a binding agreement with Balsillie. On May 5, 2009, Balsillie made an offer of $212.5 million to purchase the Phoenix Coyotes following the team's filing for bankruptcy protection in Arizona. In a press release from Toronto, Ontario, the offer to purchase is conditional on relocation to Southern Ontario. At the request of the then-owner of the Phoenix Coyotes, Jerry Moyes, Balsillie agreed to post debtor-in-possession financing of $17.0 million U.S. dollars to allow the Phoenix Coyotes to operate in advance of a restructuring or a sale. A few hours later, the NHL removed Moyes from all decision making regarding the future of the Phoenix Coyotes, as the NHL had control over the team and all holdings via a proxy agreement signed by Moyes. On June 15, 2009, Judge Redfield T. Baum rejected Balsillie’s bid to purchase the Coyotes. Judge Baum’s ruling included that he did not have the power to force the team to move and that Balsillie’s June 29 deadline did not give the court enough time to resolve all the issues in the case. On September 30, 2009, Balsillie's bid was again rejected by Judge Baum, who also rejected the NHL's bid. Balsille's bid was rejected "with prejudice," preventing him from making another bid for the Coyotes. Balsillie did not appeal the ruling.

Jim Balsillie is a philanthropist who supports numerous local and national initiatives. Balsillie’s success at RIM has allowed him to create CIGI, CIC, and contribute resources and time to organizations such as Waterloo Children’s Museum, Grand River hospital, Canadian Olympic Foundation and others. In 2007, Balsillie donated $50 million to the University of Waterloo, Wilfrid Laurier University and the Centre for International Governance Innovation as part of a $100 million initiative to create the Balsillie School of International Affairs. In recent years Balsillie has made a number of donations across Canada and abroad anonymously.

Responding to the settlement by RIM against NTP, Inc., Balsillie listed several flaws with the U.S. patent system, particularly that too many "bogus" patents are issued. He also stated that the judge in the case ignored later findings by the U.S. patent office that NTP's patents were not valid, and quoted a Newsweek article in saying that the court's treatment of RIM was like "a judge in a murder case pondering execution while ignoring DNA evidence that exonerates the accused."

On March 5, 2007, Balsillie resigned his role as chairman of RIM as the firm reported over US$250 million in past stock option accounting errors after an extensive review. He retained his roles as co-chief executive and director. On May 17, 2007, RIM announced that “Consistent with current best practices in corporate governance, the roles of Chairman and CEO have been separated.".

In February 2009, as part of the penalties and sanctions approved by the OSC in settling the improper option practices, which the OSC called a “fundamental failure of governance”, Balsillie was forced to resign as a director of RIM. In May 2010, almost immediately after the OSC sanctions expired, Balsillie was reappointed to the board, (ignoring strong shareholders and investor objections), notwithstanding RIM’s earlier public representations that the roles of Chairman and CEO were separated.

On January 22, 2012, Balsillie, along with Co-Chief Executive Officer Mike Lazaridis, resigned his position, to be replaced by RIM Chief Operating Officer Thorsten Heins.

On March 29, 2012, Research in Motion announced that Balsillie will be stepping down from the Board of Directors.