Maurice F. Strong was born on April 29, 1929 in Oak Lake, Manitoba, and died on November 27, 2015.

He a Canadian businessman specialising in oil and mineral resources, and a former diplomat representing Canada as an under-secretary general of the United Nations.

Maurice first name is pronounced “Mor’ris” with the accent on the first syllable.

Maurice had his start as an entrepreneur in the Alberta oil patch and was president of Power Corporation of Canada until 1966.

In the early 1970s, Maurice was secretary general of the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment and then became the first executive director of the United Nations Environment Programme.

Maurice returned to Canada to become chief executive officer of Petro-Canada from 1976 to 1978.

He headed Ontario Hydro, one of North America’s largest power utilities, was national president and chairman of the Extension Committee of the World Alliance of YMCAs, and headed American Water Development Incorporated.

Maurice served as a commissioner of the World Commission on Environment and Development in 1986 and is recognised by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as a leader in the international environmental movement.

He was president of the council of the University for Peace from 1998 to 2006.

Today Maurice is an active honorary professor at Peking University and honorary chairman of its Environmental Foundation.

Maurice is chairman of the advisory board for the Institute for Research on Security and Sustainability in Northeast Asia.

Maurice first met with a leading UN official in 1947 who arranged for him to have a temporary low-level appointment, to serve as a junior security officer at the UN headquarters in Lake Success, New York.

He soon returned to Canada, and with the support of Lester B. Pearson, directed the founding of the Canadian International Development Agency in 1968.

Maurice Strong passed away at age 86 in November 2015.