John Kim Bell Biography

JOHN KIM BELL PRESIDENT Bell and Bernard Limited John Kim Bell is one of the most decorated Aboriginal people in PRIOR HISTORY Canada. Mr. Bell was born on the Kahnawake Mohawk Reserve on the south shore of Montreal. He began playing the piano on television at the age of 10 and conducting on Broadway in New York at the age of 18 for stars like Gene Kelly, Vincent Price, Sonny Bono, and Lauren Bacall. He toured as a conductor for the Bee Gees and Redd Foxx, among others, and was appointed Apprentice Conductor of the Toronto Symphony in 1980 making him the first person of Aboriginal heritage to become a symphonic conductor. He has conducted many orchestras in Canada, some in the U.S. and the Royal Philharmonic in the U.K. He has composed music for film and television including PBS’s The Trial of Standing Bear and CTV’s Divided Loyalties, which at the time was the most expensive made for television movie in Canada. He is the Founder of the Canadian Native Arts Foundation, National Aboriginal Achievement Foundation and the National Aboriginal Achievement Awards. Over a period of twenty years, John Kim Bell built the Foundation into Canada’s largest Aboriginal charity and developed the highest level of private sector support for any Aboriginal cause in Canada. He has produced many concerts across Canada featuring movie and Broadway stars such as Bernadette Peters, Manhattan Transfer, and produced and co-composed the first full scale Aboriginal dance production, In The Land of Spirits, which premiered in the National Arts Centre in 1988. “Spirits” enjoyed a national tour across Canada in 1992 with Mrs. Mila Mulroney serving as the Honorary Chair of the tour. He also staged Beyond Survival, an international indigenous cultural conference where he arranged delegates attending from the Soviet Union, Lapland, Ecuador, Guatemala, Colombia, Japan, Mexico and the U.S. He is attributed with discovering Shania Twain and was recently AWARDS & featured in the CBC movie on her life. He has received the Orders of RECOGNITION Canada and Ontario and was the sole recipient of the Royal Bank Award for Canadian Achievement in 1998, major Canadian award, which carried a cash prize of $250,000. He was named the national recipient of the outstanding national cultural leader by The Canadian Conference of the Arts in 2003. He received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Royal Conservatory of Music in 2007. He holds six Honorary Doctorates. In 2005, he served as one of five Canadian advisors to The Prince of Wales. In July 2007, Mr. Bell opened, on behalf of the Siksika First Nation, the $33 million dollar Blackfoot Crossing Historical Park in Siksika, Alberta, Canada’s largest First Nation owned and operated tourist attraction. Bell & Bernard Limited oversaw all aspects of the Park and, together with the operators, worked hard to make it a world class tourist attraction. Mr. Bell is currently taking an active role in the development of energy projects involving First Nations. He served as an Intervenor, on behalf of the former National Chief, Phil Fontaine, in the Integrated Power System Plan (IPSP) review process. Mr. Bell's proposal to Ontario to establish a loan guarantee program for First Nations was successful with Ontario announcing a $250 million loan guarantee program in March 2009. Bell & Bernard Limited offers services to resource developers and First Nations alike to develop relationships, negotiate commercial benefits and impact benefit agreements, and to mitigate issues between corporations and First Nations. Mr. Bell is currently Senior Advisor, Aboriginal Affairs to Brookfield CURRENT POSITION Renewable Energy Group. First Nation clients include Siksika First Nation, Munsee-Delaware First Nation, and Michipicoten First Nation. Mr. Bell has served on the boards of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Donna Cona Incorporated, The Millennium Scholarship Foundation, and the Ontario Chamber of Commerce. He is a Founder of Eeyou Power Management Limited, a Cree owned energy company in James Bay, Québec. His life is the subject of four documentaries on his career as a conductor and social activist. For more information on John Kim Bell’s artistic career see www.johnkimbell.com. .

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