Ian Telfer
| Ian Telfer | |
|---|---|
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| Born | Oxford, England |
| Residence | Vancouver, British Columbia |
| Nationality | Canadian |
| Alma mater | University of Toronto, University of Ottawa |
| Occupation | mining executive, entrepreneur |
Ian Telfer is a British-born Canadian mining executive, entrepreneur and Chairman of the Board and Director of Goldcorp Inc. Besides leading Goldcorp, he is known for founding and leading other Canadian mining companies, including TVX Gold, Silver Wheaton Corp., and Uranium One, as well as for his philanthropic efforts that include a donation of $25 million to the University of Ottawa’s School of Management, now the Telfer School of Management.
Ian Telfer was born in Oxford, England. Telfer’s father, John Telfer, served as an Royal Air Force pilot, then as an accountant, while his mother worked as a schoolteacher. When Telfer was two years old, his family moved from England to Canada.
Telfer’s family first lived in Moose Jaw, Canada for five years before moving to the Downsview neighbourhood of Toronto, which is where Telfer was raised. Telfer attended the University of Toronto, graduating from the university with a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science and economics in 1968. Telfer graduated with an uncertainty as to what to do with his life and what his next step would be.
At age twenty-five, following five years of working at “nondescript” sales jobs, Telfer realized he needed to “reboot” his life and applied to a number of MBA programs in Canada. Because of his grades, he was rejected by all of the schools. Finally, the day before classes began, Telfer was accepted to the University of Ottawa’s MBA program. In Telfer’s words, being accepted to this university’s MBA program changed his life and “kick-started everything”.
After earning his MBA from the university in 1976, Telfer earned his certified accountant credentials, becoming a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants.
Telfer first worked at Hudson Bay Mining as a financial analyst. At Hudson Bay, Telfer learned the essentials of the mining business, such as strategic planning and how to evaluate businesses. As Telfer has explained in the past, “Everything I learned (about the mining business), I learned there.” Though Telfer had no long-term plans of working in the mining industry, he credits getting a job at Hudson Bay as a “coincidental opportunity” and something that lit up his entrepreneurial ambitions.
After working at Hudson Bay, in 1983, Telfer, along with several other colleagues in the mining industry, formed TVX Gold, with Telfer serving as the company’s Chief Executive Officer. The ambition behind TVX Gold was to take advantage of the gold rush occurring in Brazil at the time. Telfer moved to Rio de Janeiro and spent the next six years leading TVX Gold in Brazil and working with mining executive and entrepreneur Eike Batista. TVX Gold would later merge with Kinross Gold Corp.
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