Christine Magee (born November 7, 1959) is the co-founder and president of

Sleep Country Canada Sleep Country Canada Holdings Inc. is a Canadian mattress retailer and with over 250 stores operating in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia. In 2006, the comp ...

. In October 1994, she co-founded the company with Stephen K. Gunn and

Gordon Lownds Gordon Lownds (born 1947/48), co-Founder of Sleep Country Canada and Listen Up! Canada, is a successful Canadian entrepreneur. Gord Lownds was born and raised in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Philosophy from Yor ...

. By 2004, the company had expanded to 89 stores, with over 600 employees and operations in three provinces. Magee is on the board of directors for

McDonald's Canada McDonald's Restaurants of Canada, Limited (french: Les Restaurants McDonald's du Canada Limitée) is the Canadian master franchise of the fast food restaurant chain McDonald's, owned by the American parent McDonald's Corporation. One of Canada ...

Cott Corporation Primo Water Corporation (formerly Cott Corporation) is an American-Canadian water company offering multi-gallon bottled water, water dispensers, self-service refill water machines, and water filtration appliances. The company is headquartered in ...

and

Telus Telus Communications Inc. (TCI) is the wholly owned principal subsidiary of Telus Corporation, a Canadian national telecommunications company that provides a wide range of telecommunications products and services including internet access, voi ...

Early life

Magee attended

Erindale Secondary School Erindale Secondary School is a secondary School of the Peel District School Board serving the Erindale community of Western Mississauga, Ontario. Special programs Erindale offers the International Baccalaureate (IB) program and cooperative educa ...

Mississauga, Ontario Mississauga ( ), historically known as Toronto Township, is a city in the Canadian province of Ontario. It is situated on the shores of Lake Ontario in the Regional Municipality of Peel, adjoining the western border of Toronto. With a popul ...

. She also attended Clarice Montage Public School throughout her elementary school years.

Career

In 1982, Magee graduated from the

Richard Ivey School of Business Ivey Business School is a constituent unit of the University of Western Ontario, located in London, Ontario, Canada. Ivey offers full-time undergraduate (HBA), MBA, MSc, MFE and PhD programs and also maintains two teaching facilities in Toronto ...

London, Ontario London (pronounced ) is a city in southwestern Ontario, Canada, along the Quebec City–Windsor Corridor. The city had a population of 422,324 according to the 2021 Canadian census. London is at the confluence of the Thames River, approximate ...

with a BA honours in

business administration Business administration, also known as business management, is the administration of a commercial enterprise. It includes all aspects of overseeing and supervising the business operations of an organization. From the point of view of management ...

(HBA). Her first job after university was with

Continental Bank Continental Bank () was a bank in China. It specialized in savings, warehouses, trusts and real estate business. It was founded in Tianjin in 1919 by Feng Guozhang, the acting president of Republic of China and Tan Lisun, the former Nanjing direc ...

as a commercial accounts manager. In 1985 she joined the National Bank of Canada as senior manager of corporate and commercial lending. In 1994, Magee and her business partners launched the first four Sleep Country locations in

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

. In an interview with Business Edge News Magazine, Gord Lownds said, "We had known Christine in her days as a banker at National Bank, where she was actually a lender for a couple of buyout transactions we had done. For a number of reasons, we were looking for a third partner who longer-term could take over and run the business on a permanent basis. She fit the bill on a number of fronts. I was convinced that she wasn't a lifelong banker because she had more entrepreneurial spirit than I would expect in a banker." The chain expanded into

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

, opening 19 stores in 1996. Over the next year, more stores were opened in

Southern Ontario Southern Ontario is a primary region of the province of Ontario, Canada, the other primary region being Northern Ontario. It is the most densely populated and southernmost region in Canada. The exact northern boundary of Southern Ontario is disp ...

and

Calgary Calgary ( ) is the largest city in the western Canadian province of Alberta and the largest metro area of the three Prairie Provinces. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806, makin ...

. By 2001, the chain had over 100 stores in six regional markets and controlled an estimated 40% of market in regions where it operated. Currently, there are over 200 stores and 17 distribution centres spanning 8 provinces, including, British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Quebec (under the name Dormez-vous?). In 2006, Magee was the

United Way United Way is an international network of over 1,800 local nonprofit fundraising affiliates. United Way was the largest nonprofit organization in the United States by donations from the public, prior to 2016. United Way organizations raise funds ...

of Greater Toronto's Retail Chair, and a member of the Women presidents' Organization, the

Rouge Valley Health System Rouge Valley Health System (RVHS) was a hospital network in the province of Ontario, Canada. It was created in 1998 through the merger of Centenary Health Centre in Toronto and the Ajax and Pickering General Hospital in Ajax, serving the communi ...

, and the Richard Ivey School of Business' Advisory Council and the Entrepreneurship Council.

Awards

*1997 – Recognized as one of Canada's Top 40 Under 40 *1998 – The

Financial Post The ''Financial Post'' was an English Canadian business newspaper, which published from 1907 to 1998. In 1998, the publication was folded into the new ''National Post'',"Black says Post to merge with new paper". ''The Globe and Mail'', July 23, ...

named her and Stephen Gunn the Ontario Entrepreneur of the Year, Retail/Wholesale *1999 – Named the Consumers' Choice Toronto Business Woman of the Year *2003 – Guest Speaker at Annual Influential Women in Business Speaker Series *2005 – Inducted into the Canadian Retail Hall of Fame,

Retail Council of Canada The Retail Council of Canada (french: Conseil canadien du commerce de détail), founded in 1963, is a not-for-profit trade association representing retail Retail is the sale of goods and services to consumers, in contrast to wholesaling, ...

*2006 – Recipient of CIRAS Henry Singer Award for exceptional leadership in the retailing and services sectors

Personal

Magee lives in

Oakville, Ontario Oakville is a town in Regional Municipality of Halton, Halton Region, Ontario, Canada. It is located on Lake Ontario between Toronto and Hamilton, Ontario, Hamilton. At its Canada 2021 Census, 2021 census population of 213,759, it is List of tow ...

with her husband and two children.

References

External links

Influential Women in Business
{{DEFAULTSORT:Magee, Christine 1959 births Living people Businesspeople from Toronto Canadian corporate directors Canadian women chief executives Canadian women company founders Canadian women philanthropists University of Western Ontario alumni