George A. Cope (born 28 July 1961) is a Canadian businessman, and the former CEO of

Bell Canada Bell Canada (commonly referred to as Bell) is a Canadian telecommunications company headquartered at 1 Carrefour Alexander-Graham-Bell in the borough of Verdun in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is an ILEC (incumbent local exchange carrier) in t ...

Early life and education

Cope was born in

Scarborough Scarborough or Scarboro may refer to: People * Scarborough (surname) * Earl of Scarbrough Places Australia * Scarborough, Western Australia, suburb of Perth * Scarborough, New South Wales, suburb of Wollongong * Scarborough, Queensland, su ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

and grew up in

Port Perry Port Perry is a community located in Scugog, Ontario, Canada. The town is located northeast of central Toronto and north of Oshawa and Whitby. Port Perry has a population of 9,453 as of 2016. Port Perry serves as the administrative and commerc ...

. Cope's father played for a short time for the

Toronto Argonauts The Toronto Argonauts (officially the Toronto Argonaut Football Club and colloquially known as the Argos) are a professional Canadian football team competing in the East Division of the Canadian Football League (CFL), based in Toronto, Ontario ...

, after which he ran gas stations and rustproofing shops. Cope's mother ran a store that sold fabrics. Cope attended

Port Perry High School Port Perry High School is located in Port Perry, Ontario within the administrative responsibilities of the Durham District School Board. Port Perry High School is the oldest High School in Durham Region being first established in 1871. The schoo ...

and played on the high school's basketball team and was also student council president. He earned a

Bachelor of Business Administration Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) is a bachelor's degree in business administration awarded by colleges and universities after completion of undergraduate study in the fundamentals of business administration and usually including advanced ...

degree with honours in 1984 from the

Ivey Business School Ivey Business School is a constituent unit of the University of Western Ontario, located in London, Ontario, Canada. Ivey offers full-time undergraduate (HBA), MBA, MSc, MFE and PhD programs and also maintains two teaching facilities in Toronto ...

at Western University.

Career

Cope was named CEO of Bell at the age of 53 as part of a proposed thirty five billion dollar

leveraged buyout A leveraged buyout (LBO) is one company's acquisition of another company using a significant amount of borrowed money (leverage) to meet the cost of acquisition. The assets of the company being acquired are often used as collateral for the loan ...

led by

Providence Equity Providence Equity Partners L.L.C. is a specialist private equity firm, private equity investment firm focused on media, communications, education, technology investments across North America and Europe. The firm specializes in growth-oriented pri ...

and the Ontario Teachers'

Pension Fund A pension fund, also known as a superannuation fund in some countries, is any plan, fund, or scheme which provides retirement income. Pension funds typically have large amounts of money to invest and are the major investors in listed and priva ...

in 2008. Due to the credit crunch and the ensuing

financial crisis A financial crisis is any of a broad variety of situations in which some financial assets suddenly lose a large part of their nominal value. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, many financial crises were associated with banking panics, and man ...

of 2007–08, however, the buyout was cancelled. He led a competitor,

Telus Telus Communications Inc. (TCI) is the wholly owned principal subsidiary of Telus Corporation, a Canadian national telecommunications company that provides a wide range of telecommunications products and services including internet access, voi ...

Mobility, before becoming

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...

at Bell in 2005. He previously ran Clearnet, a wireless company that was bought by Telus in 2000. In 2010, Cope led the launch of the Bell Let's Talk Initiative, a major corporate campaign to improve mental health in Canada, for which he received The Queen's Diamond Jubilee Medal. In June 2019, BCE announced Cope will retire in January 2020, at which point COO Mirko Bibic will become CEO. Over the past 10 years, under Cope's leadership, company profits tripled to $3.05 billion.

Community involvement

Cope sits on the board of

Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment Ltd. (MLSE) is a professional sports and commercial real estate company based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. With assets that include franchises in four of the six major professional sports leagues in the United S ...

(MLSE) and was instrumental in the firing of

Toronto Maple Leafs The Toronto Maple Leafs (officially the Toronto Maple Leaf Hockey Club and often referred to as the Leafs) are a professional ice hockey team based in Toronto. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Div ...

general manager Brian Burke after BCE acquired MLSE. As of 2015, Cope is also a member of the Richard Ivey School of Business Advisory Board at Western University and a member of the Business Council of Canada.

Recognition

Cope was named Canada's Outstanding CEO of the Year in 2015. He was also listed as one of Canada's top-paid CEO's by

The Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of approximately 2 million in 2015, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on weekdays and Saturdays, although it ...

in 2014.

References

External links

George Cope's Biography at BCE.ca
1961 births Living people Canadian chief executives Canadian corporate directors Directors of Bank of Montreal Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment Members of the Order of Canada People from Scarborough, Toronto People from Scugog People of Bell Canada University of Western Ontario alumni {{Canada-business-bio-stub