MICHAEL Lee Chin, the Jamaican/Canadian billionaire who last year bought National Commercial Bank has donated Can$30 million (J$1.1 billion) to help the expansion and renovation of Canada’s largest museum — the Royal Ontario Museum.

A new building which is being constructed as part of the project will be named after Lee Chin, while a four-storey atrium court inside the building will be named for his mother — the Hyacinth Gloria Chen Crystal Court.

The donation, announced yesterday, was the most generous by the billionaire owner of Canada’s largest privately-held mutual fund — AIC Management Ltd.

The 52-year-old Lee Chin, who paid J$6.03 billion for the Jamaican Government’s 75 per cent stake in NCB in January 2002, has since imported into Jamaica, his culture of corporate charity — with the bank recently donating some $12 million to United Way.

Lee Chin, who has also pledged to reinvest all the profits from NCB into the local economy, made good on that promise earlier this year when he bought from the Government, the 85,000 square-foot former Mutual Life Twin Towers building at the corner of Oxford and Old Hope roads in Kingston. He paid $600 million for the asset.

Recently, NCB pledged the first J$15 million in start-up capital for a new company that is to drive the re-development of downtown Kingston and Lee Chin has also stressed that the bank intends to help improve education in Jamaica.

Lee Chin, who left Jamaica for Canada in 1970 at age 19 to study, said at the ceremony to announce his donation that he wanted to help transform downtown Ontario into a cultural Mecca.

“I’m thrilled to make this contribution to support a project that will change the face of Toronto and create an invaluable cultural and educational legacy for Ontario and Canada,” he said. “I have been struck by how increasingly relevant and important the museum’s core mission — building bridges of understanding and appreciation of the world’s cultural and natural diversity — is to youth and adults of our country. To assist and be involved with this institution at such a pivotal moment in its history is a tremendous privilege.”

Lee Chin’s contribution is part of the lead gifts that will go towards the Can$200-million fund-raising drive being undertaken by the Renaissance Royal Ontario Museum Campaign. His contribution brought to Can$114 million, the level of confirmed commitments to the project to date. The other lead donors are the Ontario Government, $30 million; and the Canadian Government, $30 million.

The project is in two phases, with the construction of the building — the Michael A Lee-Chin Crystal — slated for phase one, and on which construction will begin on May 3. During this phase, which is expected to be completed in December 2005, there will also be heritage restorations in the existing buildings.

At the end of the project, the museum will be transformed into a 220,000 square-foot star cultural attraction for the city.

At yesterday’s announcement ceremony, the chairman of the fund-raising drive, Hilary M Weston, said Lee Chin’s donation was a “remarkable act of generosity”.

“The ROM thanks Mr Lee-Chin for this leadership gift — the most significant donation received for the Renaissance ROM Campaign,” said Weston. “His gift reflects the tremendous breadth and depth of public support for Renaissance ROM and signals the beginning of a successful fund-raising campaign that will be critical to realising the full potential of this wonderful project.”

James Temerty, the chairman of the ROM Foundation, added that the naming of part of the building in honour of Lee Chin’s mother reflected the strong family value held by the entrepreneur.

“This is one of the most important architectural commissions of our time, and we are delighted to be associated with one of Canada’s most respected business and community leaders,” he said. “We are also thrilled to recognise the important role that family relationships have played for Mr Lee-Chin, in shaping his values and success, through the naming of the interior four-storey atrium court, the Hyacinth Gloria Chen Crystal Court, in honour of his mother.”

Lee Chin is brother of Wayne Chen, the CEO of SuperPlus Foods Stores and the Business Observer Business Leader of the Year 1998.