James K. Irving

James K. Irving, OC, ONB (born March 20, 1928) is the eldest son of industrialist K.C. Irving. With an estimated net worth of $US 5 billion (as of March 2012), James Irving (with his brother Arthur) was ranked by Forbes as the 3rd wealthiest person in Canada and 205th in the world. Regarded as one of the leading Canadian industrialists of his time, J.K Irving has immensely diversified Atlantic Canada's largest private company with over 300 subsidiaries within the JDI group of companies. Under the heading "Kenneth Colin Irving, Industrial Caesar 1899-1992," the Canada Heirloom series' volume Pathfinders: Canadian Tributes (published on the Industry Canada web site), describes the Irving empire thusly:

"The establishment, progress, and financial success of the Irving Group of Companies is one of the greatest, and perhaps the most unusual, of all corporate accomplishments in Canadian economic history. By the early 1990s this group included thousands of Irving automobile service stations in eastern Canada and northeastern United States, transport companies, forest industry operations, pulp and paper mills, newspaper, radio, and TV companies, Canada’s largest oil refinery, a modern shipyard, and the first deep-water terminal in the western hemisphere."