‘He was bigger than life itself’
Investor was highly respected in business world, but his philanthropy stood out most
He was a giant on Bay Street and a giant in the world of philanthropy, but he will likely be remembered most for his immense heart.
Raymond Chang, 65, a Jamaicanborn Chinese Canadian, passed away Sunday, months after undergoing a bone marrow transplant from his brother. His death was confirmed by Sheldon Levy, president of Ryerson University, on Sunday evening.
Chang’s oversight as former CEO of CI Financial was highly respected in the business world, but his philanthropy was what stood out most.
He is survived by his wife, Donette Chin-Loy, and two children.
The 2014 recipient of the Order of Canada, who’d received the Order of Jamaica three years earlier, was affectionately known as the “student” chancellor at Ryerson University until his tenure ended in 2012. He was also the namesake behind the G. Raymond Chang School of Continuing Education at the university.
“In some sense he was bigger than life itself because of his generosity, his good spirits and his humour,” said Levy. “The loss is not only huge to the university, but to the entire country. You could never say enough about what he accomplished and his humility and love of life,” he said, adding that students were always on Chang’s mind.
Levy said Chang made it a priority to visit classrooms while he was chancellor, noting that on his first official visit he decided to drop by a dance class — rather than a business class, as you might expect.
Chang’s presence was felt not only at Ryerson University, but across Toronto. He was a board member on the Toronto General & Western Hospital Foundation and established a chair at the University of Toronto in internal medicine. He also started a fellowship for West Indian doctors at the University Health Network.
“Ray will be sorely missed as he was an extraordinary and kind person. He always said that he was Chinese in heritage, Jamaican by birth and Canadian by choice,” said Tennys Hanson, CEO of the Toronto General & Western Hospital Foundation.
Recently he was in the spotlight after getting into a bidding war with Michael Lee-Chin, his good friend and another Jamaican-born Chinese-Canadian businessman. In the end the two men donated $40,000 to persuade Jamaica’s Tessanne Chin, last year’s winner of the TV singing contest The Voice, to sing at a fundraising event for the University of the West Indies.
Both men have donated millions to a number of causes including the Royal Ontario Museum and the Cen- tre for Addiction and Mental Health. They were also both named outstanding philanthropist of the year by the Association of Fundraising Professionals at different times. Chang — one of12 children raised in Kingston, Jamaica — came to Canada in 1967, graduating in 1970 from the University of Toronto as an electrical engineer. He then became a chartered accountant, and joined with partners in a tiny investment fund firm in1983. It was managing $5 million in assets when it started, but over a 20-year period that firm morphed into CI Financial, now managing more than $60 billion. Despite Chang’s generosity, reflected in millions of dollars in annual charitable donations, the benefactor was averse to publicity and often wanted to remain anonymous. “It’s not about the recognition. I really am not doing anything different than my grandfather or father, who always gave back,” Chang told the Star in a 2011 interview. “At the end of the day, life has been good to me, Canada has been good to me. And there are lots of people who can do with a hand up.” With files from Tony Wong and Royson James