Stratford, Ontario Names Ideal Supply’s Tim MacDonald Business Leader of the Year
Apr 14, 2019
The Stratford and District Chamber of Commerce has presented its 2019 Business Leader of the Year Award to Tim MacDonald of Ideal Supply. The Business Leader of the Year is voted in secret ballot by the Chamber Board of Directors from a list of nominees.
Tim is President of Ideal Supply. The company was started in 1926, bought by Tim’s Grandfather in 1946, and taken over by Tim’s father 20 years later. Ideal Supply distributes electrical supplies and automotive parts and equipment from 31 branch locations in Southwestern Ontario. Tim joined Ideal Supply in 1981, was named President in 1995, and CEO in 2001, a position he held until he and his siblings sold Ideal Supply to Groupe Deschênes Inc. in 2016.
Ideal has been recognized as one of Canada’s Best Managed Companies for nine consecutive years. Tim attributes much of the success of the company to investing in the people who work there, by providing personal development training, allowing flexibility for them to serve in various capacities on boards, local councils and other service groups, and by providing opportunities and inspiration to youth so they stay involved in their rural communities.
“Unless we create room for people to get involved in those types of things, you’re basically pushing responsibility off to someone else to get involved in community work. And then we don’t really have a right to ever complain if we aren’t going to get involved ourselves,” says Tim. “We are in every Chamber of Commerce in every community… It’s a way to have a voice and work through common problems.”
Over 45 employees are in Ideal Supply’s 25-year club, not including others who have already retired. Tim believes in fostering a culture of loyalty, stability, top-notch customer service, hard work, growth, leading by example and community engagement.
Outside of Ideal Supply, Tim has sat on the Boards of several organizations including the Listowel Chamber of Commerce, Stratford Perth Community Foundation, the University of Waterloo – Stratford Steering Committee, the Stratford Festival, and the Young President’s Organization.
In 2011 Tim and Jim Balsillie co-founded the Arctic Research Foundation, which was instrumental in the search for, and discovery of the lost Franklin ships in the Canadian Arctic. Tim is a Fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographic Society, a Rotary Paul Harris Fellow, and was awarded the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee medal in 2012 for community service. In 2018 Tim was appointed to the Order of Canada.
