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Leaps of faith

DAVID FIELDING

From Friday's Globe and Mail

Latest comment posted at 3:24 PM EDT 28/04/08

For 25 years, Mike Lazaridis has been perfecting the technology behind Canada's most popular invention:the BlackBerry. Now he's using his curious mind—and his money—to help discover the next Einstein ...Read the full article

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  1. Globe Insider subscriber content
    Child of the North in Canada from Canada writes: I laughed when I read Lazaridis tell the story about the horses. I remember reading about the concern people had about where they would get all the horses necessary for running the growing societies in the industrial age, and more importantly, where would they get the space required to grow the crops to feed the horses and house the horses. It reminds me of the growing hysteria about where will we get the oil to power cars in a declining oil society. Thank goodness for people like Mike Lazaridis around the world who see beyond today and are working in the future. The world needs more scientists and mathematicians and less lawyers and politicians.
  2. matthew evans from Kitchener-Waterloo, Canada writes: Think Mr. Lazaridis might sponsor our Slo-Pitch team considering physics and baseball do go hand in hand (in glove)?
  3. Hugh Albert from Canada writes: What can you say? Every now and then a person with true love for knowledge and foresight to develop this for the benefit of all arrives on our scene. Mr. Lazaridis like Mr. Carnegie will be long remembered. He is expanding a solid base of knowledge that is not only intuited it is given the opportunity to be developed into innovative products that we can only imagine after the fact. The gentleman is truly amazing and a blessing to the human race. His generosity will not only be remembered but it will help change the world for good well after he and we are gone. Thumbs up aren't enough to express the most positive of feelings about Mr. Lazaridis his genius and giving of himself for the purpose of knowledge that benefits all people.
  4. Ed Bean from PanicVille ON, Canada writes: Hugh Alebrt are you Mikes PR guy or something?
    Heres the article in summary

    RIM is successful, so Lazaridis is rich as a result, so he spends time playing in labs with propeller heads.

    Why doesnt he do something really useful with his money and time?
  5. Globe Insider subscriber content
    Vinnie Calzone from Ottawa, Canada writes: Hey Ed,

    So, helping to evolve humanity's knowledge in extremely advanced theoretical sciences is not useful??? Did you actually read the article? I guess if you were in the 1900's, you would have been saying that Einstein's theories were useless as well.
  6. Dick Dupa from Toronto, Canada writes: Interesting article about rare type of reach philanthropic CEO.
    How nice (for a change) it is to read something lifting and positive !
    Good for Canadian university and science and good for Mr. Lazaridis ! We need people like him!!
  7. scamp the from Canada writes:
    Dick, most successful CEOs are very generous. It's the failed CEOs who tend to be the pricks.

    Bill gates, Mike L, John Chamebers... all great in business and also great people (I've worked for 2 of them).
  8. Dick Dupa from Toronto, Canada writes: Dear scamp:
    My expression "rare" vs. yours "most" needs to verified on solid grounds in order to find out who is closer to the truth. Frankly I do not know how and do not have time to do it. You mentioned just three of them...this does not make a proof. I am rather sceptical as to your statement. Just friendly post.
  9. scamp the from Canada writes:
    Dick, mostly I am going my own experience.
    Suffice to say, most of the CEOs I've met who lead successful companies are decent people even the smaller companies. Suffice to say Mike L is not unique in any great way. He's in plenty of good company.

    I don't know if they're the majority of course. There are a lot of other CEOs who are scum.
  10. Dick Dupa from Toronto, Canada writes: I do not say, these CEOs who are not philanthropic are necessarily scums. Off course there are plenty of scums who do not donate for any purposes, and still there are plenty of them many who are decent CEOs and do not donate, just keep dough for themselves. I just simply think Lazaridis represents, if not isolated ,than rather rare case.
  11. Simon Dimuantes from writes: I worked for RIM from 1999-2001, and I even met Mike L (and Jim Balsillie) while I worked there, and those guys, like RIM itself, are class acts all the way. I was just a lowly co-op student, but they still knew my name. I still follow RIM's exploits in the business section, and I'm always cheering for them. A true Canadian success story in every sense.
  12. j k from Canada writes: Perimeter Institute is a great place, and Mike Lazaridis deserves all the credit for getting it off the ground and seeding it with his own money. What this article (like most other articles I have read about PI) fails to mention is that most of the funding comes from the government. Let's give some credit to the Canadian government and the taxpayers for this great institution, shall we?
  13. steve allan from Canada writes: What, he's looking for another plagiarist? Someone who steals ideas from someone else, like Einstein did with the work of Poincare.
  14. John S from Toronto, Canada writes: Let's review. RIM steals patents. Gets caught. Makes money. So it's alright. Get caught doing stock option backdating (never proven since they have better lawyers). Next he invests in physics instead of helping out people in KW who get hit with job losses and manufacturing layoffs. He reminds me of Mike Nesmith of Liquid Paper fame. He invested in a think tank of the smartest people on Earth to solve the world's problems. What came of it -- Zip. Why do we put billionaires on pedestals ? RIM is a patent thief and nothing more.
  15. David C from Canada writes: Good job Mr Lazaridis. I've got nothing against you. Much has come your way, and you've repaid some of that back where you think it will do good.

    Having said that, I just watched "Mr Holland's Opus" last night. And I recognize a lot of people in my community who will never be rich or famous, will never recieve laurels and adulations, but who have changed the worlds of so many others because it's just what they do.

    People like the physics teacher mentioned in the article, who probably held that extra class on his own time ...
  16. h w from the 51st state, Canada writes: As generous as Mr. Lazaridis may be, there are some fishy aspects to Perimeter Institute. First, it has only been documented that only the first 30M$ installment was paid - there is no record of the subsequent ones, nevertheless the 100M$ figure is always brought out. I have contacted reputable local tech writers (even from the local Waterloo Wretched), and they admit that is mystery is Waterloo's little secret. It's this 100M$ figure that was used to suck the various governments to "match" that amount. Second, Lazaridis selected his childhood chum Laflamme to run this extravagantly funded non-profit center - which is dandy if he's footing the whole bill, the problem is that he isn't - taxpayers are! Lastly there appears to be no limit for Perimeter's perks - limousine drivers, private chefs, personal assistants to run laundry etc. I'm so happy that in all those millions, Perimeter found in their coffers the extra 20K$ need to properly restore the roof of the historical post office building, while Brickman (Perimeter's DOE) was quoted:
    "When people think of the Perimeter, they think we have unlimited money,'' she said in an interview. "We are not an endless supply of money.'' Indeed!

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