John Loewen - Early Life and Career

Early Life and Career

Loewen was born in Elkhorn, Manitoba, and raised in Winnipeg. He received a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Manitoba in 1973. Tall and athletic, Loewen was a prominent member of the University of Manitoba Bisons basketball team. He joined the payroll services company Comcheq Services Ltd. (now called Ceridan) in 1973. He later served as company president from 1984 until 1998.

In 1993, Loewen oversaw Comcheq's transformation into a subsidiary of the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC). There were concerns that the Winnipeg company's autonomy would be undermined by the national bank, but the CIBC initially allowed it to remain fairly independent. Loewen attempted to reacquire the company in 1998, but was unsuccessful.

Loewen has for many years been a prominent figure supporting Manitoba's sports community. He developed a plan to financially support the province's Olympic athletes in the early 1990s, and helped establish the Winnipeg Thunder basketball team in 1992 with future mayor Sam Katz. He has also provided financial assistance to several athletic programs. In 1994, a newspaper columnist in Winnipeg described Comcheq as "probably the most generous private-sector supporter of elite athletes in the province".

Loewen helped create the Manitoba Entertainment Complex group (MEC) in 1994, in an effort to purchase controlling shares in the Winnipeg Jets hockey franchise and keep the team in the city. Loewen chaired the MEC, and participated in plans to build a new arena for the team. Despite his efforts, the Jets were forced to leave the city in 1996. Loewen argued that the National Hockey League and commissioner Gary Bettman undermined his efforts, by presenting unreasonable demands shortly before an official deadline. In 2006, he indicated that the major-level investors necessary for maintaining a National Hockey League franchise simply did not exist in Winnipeg in the mid-1990s.

Loewen has been a board member and chairman of Economic Development Winnipeg, a council member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Manitoba, a board member and president of the Big Brothers and Sisters Association of Winnipeg and president of both the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra and the Linden Woods Community Association. He has also been involved with the United Way of Winnipeg, serving on the United Way Cabinet from 1994 until 1999 as Chair of the Major Corporate Division and Deputy Chair of Business. He is a founding Director of the Business Council of Manitoba.

There were rumours that Loewen would run for Mayor of Winnipeg in 1998, but he declined.

Currently John Loewen is the President of TelPay, a electronic payments company which was originally started as a research and development project by Comcheq. TelPay is the largest independent payment processing company in Canada having processed over 23 million payments worth over $14 billion dollars in 2009.