'We were lucky to have him': Canadian finance titan James O'Donnell dead at 88

Canadian investment pioneer James O’Donnell died on May 20 at the age of 88 after a battle with dementia. He was the chairman and founder of the O’Donnell Investment Management Corporation, headquartered in Toronto. O’Donnell’s financial career spanned several decades. He was a president of Mackenzie Financial, spending two decades at the firm, now known as Mackenzie Investments, before striking out on his own and launching O’Donnell Group Funds in 1995. While O’Donnell developed a reputation as a pioneering force across Canadian finance, his daughter Megan O’Connell fondly remembers her father’s gift for storytelling, generosity and “great sense of humour.” “He was just a good person. He was a great dad; amazing grandfather. His family was extremely important to him. We were lucky to have him,” O’Connell told National Post on Friday morning. O’Connell struggled to pick one word that encapsulated her father’s values. “Kind is always one that I think, and just extremely generous. I think those are the ones that stick closest. There are so many words I could just list off,” she said. “A family man through and through.” During his time at Mackenzie, O’Donnell is credited with introducing the concept of Deferred Sales Charge, which incentivized long-term investing. Compared with most mutual funds at the time, which operated on front-loaded commissions charged at the beginning, O’Donnell’s innovation rewarded investors who kept their money in the market longer. In June 2022, the mechanism was banned by Canadian investment authorities due to concerns that it created a conflict of interest between mutual fund sellers and investors, particularly that the latter might suffer if they were forced to liquidate their position prematurely. Investment mogul Michael Lee-Chin was mentored by O’Donnell in the 1980s when he was climbing up the rungs of the Canadian finance world himself. He took a chance on the budding Mackenzie Financial when O’Donnell worked there, reportedly borrowing hundreds of thousands of dollars and investing it in the company to get in on the action. Lee-Chin’s bet paid off, netting him multiples of his original investment. It became one of several successful ventures that defined Lee-Chin’s illustrious career and a billion-dollar net worth. “That was the basis for me starting a mutual fund by the name of the AIC Advantage Fund,” Lee-Chin told National Post on Friday. The Jamaican-Canadian magnate called O’Donnell “very influential in my career,” and remembered them working closely together to close business deals in Hamilton when he was in his early thirties. “Jim’s personality was (that) he loves people. He was fun to be around. He was humble, grounded, excited. And he just loved people.” O’Connell was particularly proud of her father’s legacy, best defined, she felt, by the charitable initiatives he championed throughout his life. O’Donnell was a long-time supporter of the Special Olympics and the Ontario Handicapped Skiing Program. His philanthropic work dovetailed with his love of cars and fast things. He leveraged his seat on the Board of Trustees of the Toronto Molson Indy Fest with the O’Donnell Challenge for Charity initiative, which raised funds to support over three dozen  Canadian youth and rehabilitation charities across the country. Former president and Postmedia Network CEO Paul Godfrey crossed paths with O’Donnell when he helped out with IndyCar, at one point securing provincial and municipal subsidies to keep Toronto on the race calendar. “He was always a man of the world who presented himself in a quiet way, but a very effective way, and in winning people over,” he said. “I can tell you that you could always count on him,” he added. “He would work on things until he would get it completed.” O’Donnell was inducted into the Canadian Motorsport Hall of Fame in 2009. He was born on Feb. 27, 1937, and raised in the Toronto neighbourhood of Leaside. He is survived by his wife of more than 60 years, Sandra, three daughters — Shannon, Megan and Erin — as well as seven grandchildren — Aidan, Brooke, Kian, Jamison, Kiefer, Finleigh and Declan. A celebration of life reflecting on O’Donnell’s legacy will be held at a later date. Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark nationalpost.com and sign up for our daily newsletter, Posted, here.