Clive Beddoe (born 26 May 1946) is a founding shareholder and former chairman of the board of directors of WestJet, which is currently the second-largest airline in Canada behind Air Canada.
Beddoe was born in Dorking, England,[1] grew up in Leatherhead, England, and immigrated to Canada in 1970.
Beddoe first started flying gliders at Epsom College in England during his teenage years.[2] While talking to a friend one day, he decided to move to Canada on a whim to start a job at a real estate development company, further on creating his own commercial development company called Hanover Management, a named based on Hanover Square, London a location where he once worked.[citation needed] The company purchased Western Concord Manufacturing, a plastics manufacturer company based out of Delta, British Columbia, in 1994.[3]
In 2000, WestJet's founders, Beddoe, Mark Hill, Tim Morgan and Donald Bell were honored as 'The Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year' for Canada and was honored at the international Entrepreneur of the year awards in Monaco.[4]
He has been awarded honorary degrees from the University of Calgary[5] and the Wilfrid Laurier University.
On Tuesday, 24 July 2007, Beddoe announced that effective 4 September 2007, he would relinquish his duties as chief executive officer, with then-president Sean Durfy taking the role.[6]
He is currently on the board for AIMCO, and head of their compensation committee.
Beddoe was inducted to the Order of the Canadian Business Hall of Fame in 2012.[7] Beddoe was also inducted into Canada's Aviation Hall of Fame in 2014.[8]
WestJet's first Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner, registered C-GUDH, has been named after him.[9]
