James Stanley McLean

James Stanley McLean

James Stanley McLean, meat packer, philanthropist (born 1 May 1876 in Clarke Twp, Durham County, ON; died 1 September 1954 in Toronto, ON). A graduate of the University of Toronto (1896), McLean became a clerk at the Harris Abattoir Co, Toronto, in 1901. The president, Joseph FLAVELLE, taught him the importance of careful accounting and, as president himself in the 1920s, McLean, through cost cutting and weekly budgeting, made profits for his company when other Canadian meat packers lost money. In 1927 he merged Harris and 3 other firms into CANADA PACKERS LTD, and was president until 1954. Under his autocratic leadership, Canada Packers dominated the industry and developed numerous by-products. A member of the United Church and a patron of Canadian art, McLean endowed the J.S. McLean Junior Farmer Scholarship and made generous donations to hospitals. In 1945 he established the McLean Foundation, which provides grants to charitable organizations in music, theatre, visual arts, conservation, health, welfare and education.