John MacBain

John H. McCall MacBain (born c. 1958),^{[citation needed]} a Canadian citizen,^[1] is the founder of the McCall MacBain Foundation and Pamoja Capital SA, its investment arm.^[2][3] Prior to founding the McCall MacBain Foundation, McCall MacBain had an extensive educational career at notable institutions, such as Harvard and Oxford University, as well as a successful entrepreneurial career as the founder of Trader Classified Media.

Education

McCall MacBain is a Rhodes Scholar and received an MBA from Harvard Business School (1984),^[4] an MA in Law from Oxford University^[4] and an Honours BA in Economics from McGill University (1980)^[4] as well as an honorary LLD from Dalhousie University in Canada (2010).^[1] He was President of the McGill Students' Society, as well as Valedictorian at McGill. While at Oxford, he was Co-Captain of the Oxford University Ice Hockey team.^[5]

Career

From 1987 to 2006, McCall MacBain was the founder, President and CEO of Trader Classified Media, the world's leading classified advertising company.^[4] Starting with his purchase of three small publications in Montreal in 1987 when he was 29 years old, McCall MacBain developed the classified business to include 500 print titles and 57 internet sites in over 20 countries, including in Argentina, Australia, China, France, Hungary, Italy, Russia and Spain.^[6] After its IPO in 2000, Trader Classified Media was publicly traded on NASDAQ and the Euronext Paris Stock Exchange.^[7] In 2006, McCall MacBain sold Trader Classified Media and set up the McCall MacBain Foundation.^[2]

Prior to founding Trader Classified Media, McCall Macbain worked as Director of Marketing at Power Financial from 1984-1987.

Philanthropy

McCall MacBain currently devotes a significant amount of his time to non-profit activities. Since its formation in Geneva, Switzerland in 2007, the McCall MacBain Foundation has made tens of millions of dollars of grants to fund projects relating to health, education and the environment in Canada, Europe and sub-Saharan Africa, primarily in the West African country of Liberia.^[2] In addition to his role as a director of the McCall MacBain Foundation, McCall MacBain is a Trustee of the Rhodes Trust (Oxford) which was established in the early 1900s to fund and oversee the Rhodes Scholarships worldwide and the Mandela Rhodes Foundation (Cape Town).^[8] McCall MacBain is also a founder and Chairman of the European Climate Foundation, a non-profit organization aiming to promote energy policies that greatly reduce Europe’s greenhouse gas emissions and help Europe play an even stronger international leadership role in mitigating climate change.^[9] McCall MacBain is a member of the Advisory Board of the Center for Environmental Law and Policy at Yale,^[10] a trustee of the Trudeau Foundation in Canada,^[1] a Foundation Fellow of Wadham College, Oxford, and a member of the Chancellor's Court of Benefactors of Oxford University.^[11]

In September 2013, MacBain donated $120 million to Rhodes Scholarships, to help fund the current scholarships and to aid in the expansion of the program to Brazil, China, Japan and Russia.^[12][13]

References