Canada Tire

Martha Billes is the controlling principal. She obtained voting control over the family's Canadian Tire shares through a 1997 settlement following a protracted family dispute detailed in Canadian business press (per The Globe and Mail, 2017). She runs the office with a small internal team and does not delegate investment authority to external managers on a discretionary basis.

The family office is entirely separate from the operating company, though the Billes family's voting bloc in Canadian Tire Corporation forms the core asset. Martha Billes and her siblings' trusts collectively control roughly 40% of the voting shares, but the office invests other personal and family capital into unrelated asset classes including real estate, private equity, and public securities.

The office does not manage outside capital, nor does it operate as a multi-family office. Public records show no investor-facing fund structures or co-investment vehicles marketed to third parties. It occasionally co-invests directly alongside other Canadian family offices in private real estate and buyout transactions, but these are relationship-driven and not institutionalized.

Succession remains tightly held. Martha Billes is in her 80s, and while no public succession plan has been disclosed, her son Owen Billes is involved in family governance matters. The dual-share voting structure at Canadian Tire — where the family controls a supermajority of Class A voting shares — suggests a trust-based architecture designed to survive generational transitions.

The family's primary philanthropic vehicle is Canadian Tire Jumpstart Charities, which funds sports and physical activity programs for children across Canada. Jumpstart operates independently of the family office's investment activities, with its own board and governance, though the Billes family and the corporation remain its largest donors.