The provincial business community and the province as a whole will not be the same with the passing of John Cross this week.
Cross was a legend in the business sector. For those who have never heard of him, this guy from the UK who moved to Toronto to work for Labatt’s before being recruited to Saskatoon where he spent most of his career.
He and a couple partners built a company called Philom Bios – the first Canadian company to get a biotechnology license, an approval that took 10 years to win and, without one dollar in revenue while they waited for permission to start selling, he kept that company alive….convincing investors to believe in the future through the force of his personality.
Today, Saskatoon is one of the world’s leading agricultural biotechnology centres in the world. And John was a powerful public speaker, traveling to all corners of Saskatchewan to remind us that this is one of the best places in the world to live.
And while Saskatchewan is diminished with his passing, it is also better because he chose to spend so much of his life here.
