Chancellor Jim Leech has been inducted to the Royal Military College of Canada’s Wall of Honour, in recognition of his achievements in academia, business and volunteerism. Chancellor Leech is one of only 27 other outstanding alumni of Canada’s military academies to receive the honour – joining Colonel Chris Hadfield, Lieutenant-General Romeo Dallaire and Air Marshal William Avery “Billy” Bishop, among others.

“I would like to sincerely thank the Royal Military College of Canada (RMC), the selection committee and the class of 1963 for this tremendous honour,” says Chancellor Leech “To be included in the same company as my two fellow honorees and those giants who have proceeded us to the wall is quite humbling.”

Chancellor Leech received acclaim both as an athlete and student leader during his years at RMC. After graduating in 1968, he spent most of his active service with the Royal 22nd Regiment in Germany. Following his release from the Canadian Forces, he attended Queen’s University for his MBA, where he was elected class president.

After graduating from Queen’s in 1973 at the top of his class, he entered the financial services and real estate industry, holding increasingly senior executive positions across Canada. In 2001, Chancellor Leech was recruited to establish the private investment arm of the Ontario Teacher’s Pension Plan. Subsequently he was promoted to chief executive officer, overseeing its growth to become Canada’s largest single-profession pension plan, responsible for investing $150 billion for 310,000 teachers by the time he retired in 2014.

Outside of business, he has taken on leading roles with the True Patriot Love Foundation – for which he received the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2012 – the MasterCard Foundation, the Toronto General & Western Hospital Foundation and 32 Signal Regiment and co-authored The Third Rail: Confronting Our Pension Failures, which received the 2014 National Business Book Award. In 2014, he took part in an expedition to the magnetic north pole to raise awareness and funds for military veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. He was invested as a member of the Order of Canada in 2014.

"This Wall of Honour is the ultimate validation of what this great Canadian institution is striving to accomplish and has accomplished since 1876 - that is, training and educating great leaders for future service to Canada within the profession of arms.”

-  Brig.-Gen. Sean Friday, Commandant of the Royal Military College of Canada.

The Wall of Honour, presented to the Royal Military College of Canada as a gift from the class of 1963, serves to recognize ex-cadets and others with College numbers for outstanding achievements and contributions to Canada and the world. The physical wall, which measures two metres high and 40.23 metres long, is located on the RMC campus along the main path for cadets proceeding to and from the campus sports facilities – to serve as a continuing source of inspiration for the cadets.