Bill Black (politician)

William "Bill" Black (born 1950 in Halifax, Nova Scotia) is a businessman and a politician from Nova Scotia. He ran in the leadership race for the Progressive Conservative Association of Nova Scotia in 2006, finishing second to Rodney MacDonald.

Prior to announcing his candidacy, he won the Halifax Citadel nomination to be the Progressive Conservative candidate for the next election. He lost the election to NDP candidate Leonard Preyra.

Black graduated from Dalhousie University with two degrees at age 19, and then went on to complete his professional training in 1974. He started working for Maritime Life, a company that was co-founded by his great-grandfather, The Hon. William Anderson Black, in 1922.

Bill Black entered senior management at 22, and eventually became President and CEO. During his nine years as President, the Company saw continuous expansion and record profits with the number of jobs in Halifax more than doubling to over 1100.

Under his leadership, Maritime Life gained a solid reputation for employee relations and appearing every year among the leaders in the “Report on Business” list of top 50 employers in Canada. When Maritime's parent company, Hancock, was purchased by Manulife, Black resigned rather than move to Ontario.

He served as Chairman of the Halifax Chamber of Commerce in 1995. He chaired a summit on the future of economic development in Halifax, and served on the board of the IWK Health Centre – including two years as Chairman. Currently, he serves on the boards of Symphony Nova Scotia, Standard Life, The Bank of Canada,Shaw Group,Nova Scotia Business Inc, the Canadian Center for Ethics in Public Affairs,and Dalhousie University.^[1] He also acts as a mentor for the Loran Scholars program.

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