Wes Nicol
Founder
E-mail: wes.nicol@nicol-award.com
Wesley M. Nicol is the founder of Tartan Homes, builder of hundreds of homes in the Ottawa area and the United States, and Nicol & Lazier, an Ottawa-based legal firm practicing in real estate and commercial law.
Throughout his career Wes has maintained a strong commitment and passion for supporting his community and encouraging the spirit of entrepreneurship. He has served on the boards of numerous companies and non-profit organizations and is well known in the Ottawa area as an angel investor. His many related honors include the 2001 Carleton University Alumni Entrepreneur of the Year Award, and the 2011 CCSR Community Social Responsibility Award.
Wes Nicol is also a generous philanthropist. He has used much of the proceeds from his businesses to establish the Wesley and Mary Nicol Charitable Foundation, and in 2011 received the Association of Fundraising Professionals Outstanding Individual Philanthropist Award. In addition to providing all of the funding for the Nicol Entrepreneurial Award, the Foundation also provided major funding to establish the Nicol Entrepreneurial Institute at Carleton University.
Wes Nicol is a graduate of Carleton University and of Osgoode Hall Law School of York University and was called to the Bar of Ontario in 1958. In 2006 Carleton University awarded him the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, in recognition of his contributions to the governance of the university, the health and spirit of the Ottawa community, and the nurturing of Canadian entrepreneurship.