2019 Annual Chamber Spring Banquet with Art DeFehr

Join us as we welcome Arthur DeFehr to Steinbach!  DeFehr is Chairman of Palliser Furniture Holdings Ltd., a family-owned business in the residential furniture market. Palliser sells primarily in North America but produces on a global basis with over 2,000 employees.  DeFehr is also active in real estate. 
 
As the Director of the Mennonite Central Committee in Bangladesh (1972-74), he worked with refugees and on agricultural restoration and innovation.  He played a major role in the Landbridge Program, an emergency "unofficial" cross-border effort to provide supplies to Cambodia (1980-81). DeFehr served as UN High Commissioner for refugees in Somalia (1982-83). He has been active in the Soviet Union/Russia since 1989 to the present, organizing and leading conferences on business and ethics, starting a high-tech farm equipment plant in Siberia, and initiating social/humanitarian programs. In 1990, he and his wife Leona founded the LCC International University, a fully accredited, English-speaking institution located in Klaipeda, Lithuania.  He was the founding Chairman of the Board of the Canadian Foodgrains Bank, which provides food and related assistance in emergencies around the world. DeFehr was also one of the founders of International Development Enterprises which provides market-oriented solutions to problems such as irrigation and water supplies in the developing world. 

More recently, DeFehr has been involved with war-affected students from Syria/Iraq and peace promotion in Myanmar.  He chaired an initiative to bring German-style technical university education to Canada's wood products sector resulting in a new program at the University of British Columbia.  In Canada and elsewhere, his recent interest has related to immigration and refugee/migration issues.  He played an important role in the creation of the Manitoba Provincial Nominee Program for immigration.  DeFehr was chairman of the Business Council of Manitoba (2003-05), a member of the World Economic Forum for many years and was Director of the Pearson Peacekeeping Centre.  He is currently a member of the Canadian Council of Chief Executives, Trilateral Commission, CEO Organization and a Director for the Canadian Mennonite University and LCC. 
 
He received a B.A. in economics from Goshen College, a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Manitoba, and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.  He was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Laws Degree from the Universities of Cape Breton and Manitoba.  He was named Entrepreneur of the Year by Manitoba Business Magazine in 2000 and awarded the Prairies Lifetime Achievement Award by Ernst and Young in 2001.   He was named an officer of the Order of Canada in 2004 and Order of Manitoba in 2011.  DeFehr is married to Leona, has two daughters and four grandchildren.