Providing philanthropic leadership is vital, says Jay Westman

When people talk about Jay Westman, the word leadership is often used to describe the successful Calgary businessman.

Westman, an instrumental part of the city’s housing market for many years, has demonstrated his leadership as chairman and chief executive officer of Jayman BUILT, one of the city’s most prominent homebuilders.

Westman has also provided leadership in his philanthropic pursuits over the years, becoming a shining example to the community of what it means to give back, both in time and money. For that, he is this year’s honouree for the AFP Calgary and Area Chapter’s Doc Seaman Individual Philanthropist Award.

“I truly believe that you’ve got to start to roll up your sleeves and not just philanthropically give money, but you’ve got to start to take a look at and see what you’re going to impact basically through your personal leadership,” says Westman. “That’s really what you try to do. Leadership by example — that’s been very rewarding.”

Westman was nominated for the award by the Haskayne School of Business at the University of Calgary, the RESOLVE Campaign and the Mustard Seed.

Jim Dewald, dean of the Haskayne School of Business, has known Westman for 30 years, doing business with him when Dewald was in the real estate industry.

“He is such a great Calgarian and such a really dedicated person to this community and he puts his money where his mouth is. He’s really quite amazing. His leadership is outstanding. He’s so generous in so many areas,” Dewald says.

“Jay totally gets and really understands the importance of philanthropy and there is no control. The gesture isn’t tied to anything. He’s always looking at bringing others to the table to help out. It’s so fantastic to have somebody in his position who has that wisdom and maturity about what philanthropy is.

“He’s a leader, but he’s always bringing more people in making sure it’s a broad impact and that it touches as many people as possible on both the giving side and the receiving side.”

In 2013, Westman gave the Haskayne School of Business a $5 million gift to develop and deliver real estate education, research and community engagement initiatives through the Westman Centre for Real Estate Studies. In 2015, together with his sister Diana Joseph, the Westman Charitable Foundation gave a $1 million gift to support MS research at the Cumming School of Medicine’s Hotchkiss Brain Institute.

Westman is also one of the Founding Builders for the construction of the Trades and Technology Complex at SAIT with his $1 million gift.

He’s a cabinet member of the RESOLVE Campaign to create affordable rental housing in Calgary and he and his wife, Karen Westman, have been key supporters of the Mustard Seed’s gala fundraising event.

Westman says that people get to a certain stage in life when their bowl is full with all the things they have achieved and accumulated — their goals are fulfilled — and they turn to philanthropic giving.

“Part of that probably starts off with things that touch the family first. And it usually comes with regards to health,” he says. “And for us it was about MS. Multiple sclerosis. Many of the women in my family have been touched and impacted by MS. My grandmother had a version of it. My mother. My sister does. Her daughter. That was probably one of the bigger areas we gave to initially.

“So then we moved on to other things, things you started to develop a passion for. It’s really developed a passion in the business of housing and started to become aware of homelessness and housing affordability — social housing affordability for people who have some sort of inability for either health reasons or circumstance reasons. So I really got involved heavily with the Mustard Seed and then we got involved as well with the RESOLVE campaign.”