Brian Felesky

Brian Felesky is an internationally respected lawyer, businessman and philanthropist whose work has improved the lives of many, including victims of domestic abuse, grieving fathers, students in East Africa and people seeking organ and tissue transplants. He is a tireless supporter of senior mentorship for innovative entrepreneurs.

Brian Arthur Felesky was born in Medicine Hat on November 28, 1943. He was raised, alongside his sister in Calgary, by his mother, who worked as a secretary.

Encouraged, in Brian’s words, “by a hockey coach who thought I had much more ability than I really had,” he enrolled in Athol Murray College of Notre Dame, a boarding school and hockey powerhouse located in Saskatchewan. There he met the school’s founder, Athol “Père” Murray. “I loved him to bits,” Brian says. “He motivated me in more ways than I appreciated at the time. Through him, I met many giants of business and philanthropy like Bill Mooney, Doc Seaman, Gus Van Wielingen and Bill Hay. So, a lot of my life’s good fortune, I owe to a hockey coach who overestimated my talents.”

Brian studied law at the University of Alberta. In the summer of 1965, he met and became smitten by “the lovely Stephanie Baker” who was at University of Calgary. The following year they were very happily married.

Brian was called to the Alberta Bar in 1969. He appreciates his career good fortune of being tutored by some of Canada’s legal icons. In 1978, he and three other lawyers, including the eminent Ron Bell, founded Felesky Flynn, a boutique tax law firm that grew into one of the most prominent specialty firms in Canada. Brian and his firm helped execute many complex corporate transactions, including the restructuring of Canadian Pacific Holdings when it split into 5 separate public companies, involving numerous international jurisdictions.

He was the vice chair of Canada’s GST Implementation Committee when a new tax was introduced in 1991. He has appeared before numerous courts to argue tax cases.

He also served as president of the Canadian Bar Association (Alberta) and the Calgary Bar Association. Many of his early charitable efforts arose through his involvement with the Bar. Two examples are ASSIST, a program aimed at helping lawyers deal with addiction issues, and Calgary Legal Guidance, a forerunner of Legal Aid Alberta.

Over the next few decades Brian also served on the boards of several public companies, including Suncor Energy, TransCanada Power, Precision Drilling, Capital Power and Cequence Energy. In 2011, Credit Suisse Canada recruited him to their team. Eventually he became their Deputy Chairman of Investment Banking.

Brian was also intent on helping families suffering from domestic violence. To that end, in 2000, he and a friend, launched HomeFront, an initiative designed to help rehabilitate abusers and provide support for their families. Through this work Brian and his colleagues helped convince the Attorney General to create a dedicated Domestic Violence Court in Alberta. Further, as a unique arrangement, HomeFront was embedded in that courtroom and worked closely with the Calgary Police Service’s Domestic Violence Unit.

Brian says the combined effect of the new court, HomeFront’s work and the CPS was transformative. He is proud to add that recidivism among individuals, who had been through the Domestic Violence Court and its related programming, decreased by two-thirds. It’s been widely applauded nationally and internationally.

Most of Brian’s other volunteer activities, outside his law firm, were also focused in Calgary and Alberta. He was a director of the 1988 Calgary Olympic Development Committee and co-chaired the Stephen Jarislowsky MBA program at the University of Calgary. He sat on the board of the Calgary Stampede Foundation, served as vice-chair of the Canada West Foundation and as a member of the Alberta Order of Excellence Council.

In 1992, his work took on a global dimension, when he was appointed by the federal government to sit on the board of the International Development Research Organization.

Then in 2005, Brian and his dear friend Jim Gray (AOE-2002) accepted an invitation from Sherali Saju, a notable member of Calgary’s Ismaili community, to travel, with other friends, to Pakistan and see the work being done at Aga Khan schools. Brian and Stephanie (an educator), and the others, were struck by the difference between traditional Pakistani schools, which relied on rote memorization, and Aga Khan schools, which provided an interactive approach to teaching and learning. A subsequent trip to Tanzania converted them from being admirers to being active supporters. As a result, with Jim Gray, Chris Robb and a group of other spirited Calgarians, Brian co-founded “Awali”, a partnership between the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN) and the Calgary community, to provide support for training teachers in East Africa. With various other partners, Awali has raised millions. Awali was the first non-Ismaili group to formally partner with the AKDN.

Other charitable work continued as well. In 2001, he and Stephanie were the first couple to co-chair the United Way Campaign. They are also members of the United Way’s “Million Dollar Club” of donors. The couple has made founding donations to the Calgary Homeless Foundation, Windmill Microlending (a fund for professional immigrants to obtain Canadian credentials), as well as material donations to the Glenbow Foundation, the National Music Centre, Calgary Performing Arts Centre, Notre Dame College and many others.

For nearly three decades, Brian and a close friend have headed up a group called the “The Boys Club”, which helps fathers suffering from the grief of losing a child. Brian says, “Everything is in confidence. That gives these men an open opportunity to share their deep and enduring pain.”

Brian’s recognitions include being appointed as Queen’s Counsel (now King’s Counsel) in 1984, the Alberta Centennial Medal (2005), an Alumni Honour Award from the University of Alberta, the Signature Award from the City of Calgary, the Queen Elizabeth II’s Golden Jubilee Medal (2002), the Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee Medal (2012), the Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee Medal (Alberta) (2022) and a Distinguished Service Award from the Canadian Bar Association. In 2005, he became a Member of the Order of Canada and in 2009, he received an Honorary Doctorate of Laws from the University of Calgary.

Now in his eighties, Brian has no plans to retire. “You don’t retire,” he says. “You just rewire.” He still works four full days at the office each week with the help of his tireless EA, Karly Arcuri. Half his time is on business, including being the founder of a thriving tequila distillery in Mexico. The other half of his time is on community causes. For example, in 2014, he joined Jim Gray to form the Top 7 Over 70 Gala. This initiative recognizes 7 exceptionally talented seniors, who started a new venture after the age of 70 and such venture achieved remarkable success. At the same time, Brian together with Jim Gray started a companion organization to the Top 7 Over 70 program called InterGen. It pairs experienced senior advisors as mentors to young entrepreneurs and their innovative companies. To date, InterGen has have facilitated more than 1,780 such pairings. InterGen also hosts mixing events for advisors, entrepreneurs and venture funders, and it has helped raise capital for innovative companies which all helps keep them in Alberta.

The broader objective of InterGen is to help make Alberta’s economy more innovative and more resilient, for the benefit of the future for all of us, for our families, and their families.

Brian’s latest passion is The ORGANization. It’s an initiative that he co-founded in 2018 after a dear friend passed away from kidney disease. Working with doctors and expert institutions and individuals, Brian and his colleagues want to revolutionize the system for organ and tissue donations and transplantations, in Alberta. The ORGANization already claims some victories: new legislation and regulations have been enacted. Also, Alberta Health has approved a new model for organ and tissue donation and transplantation. Once funding from the provincial government is provided and the new system is in place, Brian says, “thousands of Albertan lives will be saved.”

It is fitting, that on Brian’s business card, it says, “We have 2 hands. One is for caring. The other one is for caring."

Brian is the proud father of three and grandfather of six. Despite his impressive résumé, family is his priority. “I hope I will be regarded as being a pretty good husband to my dear wife, Stephanie, and a pretty good parent to my beautiful family,” he says. “And down the list, is that I will be regarded as a modest servant to the community, and a respected professional, with an attitude of gratitude for all the good fortune and blessings that came my way.”