Stephen Jarislowsky was a patriot and the Leonardo da Vinci of Canadian business

Joe Martin is president emeritus of the Canadian Business History Association.

Stephen Jarislowsky, whose death was announced on Thursday, was the Leonardo da Vinci of the Canadian business world, a true polymath. Mr. Jarislowsky, aged 101, had arrived in Montreal at an early age and created a powerful financial firm, but his interests were not limited to making money.

He had a deep interest in corporate governance. And once firmly established, he turned his attention to giving his money away in an intelligent fashion, primarily to institutions of higher learning. He spoke openly against Quebec separatism. Ultimately, Mr. Jarislowsky was always a patriot before a businessman.

His firm, Jarislowsky Fraser, was founded in Montreal in 1955 as an investment boutique, based on Mr. Jarislowsky’s belief that a company’s entire business – for example, the three Cs of customers, competition and the corporation itself – must be considered in making investment decisions. That belief was key to quality, lower-risk investing in the long run. The firm conducted over a hundred annual visits, interviewing management teams to ascertain the quality and growth prospects of their companies.

His approach proved highly successful. When the firm was sold in early 2018 to Bank of Nova Scotia, it had more than $40-billion in assets under management and sold for just under $1-billion, a remarkable payoff for a 63-year-old company that he had started from scratch. The acquisition made Scotiabank the third largest investment management firm in Canada at the time.

Mr. Jarislowsky was also an early and consistent leader in calling for the highest standards of corporate governance. An advocate for shareholder rights, Mr. Jarislowsky co-founded the Canadian Coalition for Good Governance and was also instrumental in the creation of the Institute for Governance of Private and Public Organizations of Quebec. He was recognized for his leadership on corporate governance in 2023, when he was elevated to a Companion of the Order of Canada.

Having achieved a remarkable degree of financial success, Mr. Jarislowsky established The Jarislowsky Foundation in 1991, which championed causes such as fine arts, literacy and health care for children. The initial capital of the foundation was $20-million and has subsequently grown to between $350-million and $400-million. Annually, the foundation distributes $15-million.

Andrew Carnegie, the late 19th- and early 20th-century Scottish-American industrialist, is famous for saying that giving away money wisely is more difficult than accumulating it. Mr. Jarislowsky thought the same way, but he had the benefit of observing a century’s worth of foundation giving and so was better prepared to be an effective donor to worthy causes.

University research chairs were his highest priority, and to date the foundation has helped established 50 university chairs in both large and small universities across Canada and in various disciplines. Examples include the Urology Chair at McGill, the Natural Systems Agriculture for Climate Solutions Chair at the University of Manitoba and the Japan Chair at the University of Victoria’s Centre for Asia-Pacific Initiatives.

If we must remember Mr. Jarislowsky, the Renaissance man, for only one aspect, he’d no doubt want it to be his love for this country. A staunch federalist, Mr. Jarislowsky stared down two Quebec referendums and faced the looming spectre of a third, but never left Montreal for Toronto or elsewhere in Canada. He spoke out against separatism and once compared Parti Quebecois politicians of his time to fascists. What would he say about their successors today?