Born James Allen Pattison on the 1st October 1928, in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan Canada, Jim is a businessman, best known to the world as the founder and sole owner of the Jim Pattison Group, one of the largest privately held companies in the world. The Group has business operations in numerous industries, including entertainment, food, automobile dealerships, real estate development, and finance, among others.
Have you ever wondered how rich Jim Pattison is, as of mid- 2017? According to authoritative sources, it has been estimated that Pattison’s net worth is as high as $6 billion, an amount earned through his successful career, which has been active since the early ‘60s.
Jim Pattison Net Worth $6 Billion
Although born in Saskatoon, Jim grew up in the eastern part of Vancouver. From early years Jim became a workaholic, earning his first money by playing a trumpet in a children’s church camp, and then worked in fields as he picked fruit for money. When it was time to attend high school he became a student at John Oliver Secondary School, from which he matriculated in 1947. During high school years he held several differing jobs, including selling doughnuts in the parking lot of the school, then delivered newspapers, among many others. After high school matriculation, Jim continued to support himself with several other jobs, which included working at a gas station as a car washer – the gas station also included a used car lot, and once when the salesman was away, Jim took the opportunity and sold one of the cars at the lot and at the moment had an epiphany. He was determined to become car salesman, and during the next summer joined one of the largest used-car lots in Vancouver. Thanks to his good financial position, he was able to support college studies and so enrolled at the University of British Columbia, but maintained his car salesman position, eventually dropping out of studies with three exams short of graduating with a business degree.
After he quit, Jim came in touch with a local General Motors dealer, and then took a bank loan from the Royal Bank after he persuaded the manager to lend him eight times more than the limit of the bank. He then opened a Pontiac dealership and started expanding his company. Jim opened several other car dealerships, and also Peterbilt truck dealerships.
After becoming the most successful car dealer in Canada, he focused on other industries, such as food, buying Overwaitea Foods, Save-On-Foods, and then moving on to television and radio, purchasing several radio & TV stations in British Columbia, Alberta and Manitoba. Back in 1986 he was the lead responsible for organizing Expo 86, a World’s Fair with a theme on transportation and communication. So successful was this event, that even years later he was part of the organizing committee of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.
Thanks to his successful career, Jim was appointed Officer of the Order of Canada and a member of the Order of British Columbia, and because of his vast fortune, he was listed as the richest Canadian by Forbes magazine in 2015.
Regarding his personal life, Jim is married to Mary Hudson, who is his childhood sweetheart. The couple has three children together.
Jim has also been recognized for his philanthropic activities; through his Jim Pattison Foundation he has made numerous donations that put him and his foundation in 8th place on the list of largest donors of charitable grants by a private foundation in Canada. Some of his donations include $5 million to Victoria Hospitals Foundation, and $75 million to the construction of the new St. Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver, and $50 Million to Children’s Hospital of Saskatchewan which will be finished and ready for use in 2019.
