Nominated by Credit Union Central of Ontario, Mississauga, Ontario

During his many years of dedicated service to the co-operative sector, Jack Craig provided visionary leadership within the credit union system at the local, provincial and national levels.

In addition to Jack’s dedication as a volunteer within the co-operative movement, his professional life was focused on researching, evaluating, and promoting the values and guiding principles that make co-operatives such an integral part of Canada’s social and economic fabric.

On the professional stage, Jack served as chairperson and associate professor of sociology at Toronto’s York University. Jack retired from York University in 1996, but as Professor Emeritus, continued to teach one class per year on co-operation and co-operatives.

Within the co-operative sector, Jack began as a director of the York University Faculty and Staff Credit Union and provided leadership in their merger with Unicoll Credit Union in 1973. Jack continued as a credit union director providing leadership and guidance to the management of Unicoll through the seventies, eighties, and nineties. In addition to his role as a credit union director, Jack served on the board of Credit Union Central of Ontario for 14 years. In addition, Jack represented Ontario credit unions on the board of The Co-operators Insurance Group for several years.

In ’92 and ’93, Jack co-chaired the strategic planning steering committee. Arguably, Jack’s contributions throughout the 1990’s helped sew the seeds of reinvention discussions at the national level and his contributions within the provincial Central were instrumental in providing needed momentum to inspire talks that have lead – many years later – to the proposed merger of wholesale financial services between B.C. and Ontario.