| John L. Bragg | |
| Birth Date: | 3 May 1940 |
| Birth Place: | Collingwood, Nova Scotia |
| Nationality: | Canadian |
John Louis Bragg, (born May 3, 1940) is a Canadian businessman and former Chancellor of Mount Allison University.
The Bragg family has called Nova Scotia home for 180 years.[1] John was born in Collingwood, Nova Scotia, he received a Bachelor of Commerce degree and a Bachelor of Education degree from Mount Allison University.
He is the Chairman, President and Co-Chief Executive Officer of Oxford Frozen Foods Limited, a food manufacturer which he founded in 1968 and operates the largest fruit farm in the world, with over 12,000 acres (49 km2) of wild blueberries.[2] He also founded a cable television company in the 1970s which became known as Bragg Communications and was subsequently expanded to become EastLink.
Bragg built his first blueberry-processing factory in 1968, and the business is still experiencing double-digit growth today. In 2015, Bragg opened a new facility in Saint-Isidore, New Brunswick, that is considered to "the most modern blueberry processing facility in the world." It can process up to 1.5 million pounds of blueberries per day.[1]
Bragg had a net worth of $1.11 billion CDN in 2015.[3]
He was ranked No. 86 in Canadian Business's list of Canada's richest people in 2017.[4] [1]
He is or was a director of TD Bank Financial Group, Canada Bread Limited, Empire Company Limited and Sobeys Inc.[5]
In 1996, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada and promoted to Companion in 2022.[6] In 1994, he was awarded the National Entrepreneur of the Year Award by the Governor General of Canada Ray Hnatyshyn.[7] He was named to the Order of Nova Scotia in 2018.[8]
Bragg and his business empire were the subject of a lengthy interview/profile in The Globe and Mail, which observed that "Beneath the veneer of the rural blueberry baron, there is one tough, risk-taking tycoon with an ardour for growth, game-changing technology, and debt financing."[9]
He was promoted to Companion of the Order of Canada in 2022.[10]
He and wife Judy have four children: Lee, Matthew, Carolyn and Patricia, all of whom have worked or now work in the business.
He lives in Collingwood, Nova Scotia.[10]