Background
He was born in Nový Hrozenkov in what is now the Czechoslovakian Republic and was educated at the Export Academy in Vienna, the London School of Economics and the Sorbonne.
He was born in Nový Hrozenkov in what is now the Czechoslovakian Republic and was educated at the Export Academy in Vienna, the London School of Economics and the Sorbonne.
After serving in World War I, he joined the family lumber company, becoming head of the company in 1920. The company introduced innovative and progressive practices to the British Columbia forest industry such as selective logging, reforestation, improvements in workplace safety and better wages and benefits. Koerner became a Canadian citizen in 1947.
Thea Koerner died in 1959.
Leon suffered a stroke in 1966. In May 1972, he suffered a broken hip after a fall and he died later that year at the age of 80 in his penthouse atop the Thea Koerner House Graduate Student Centre of the University of British Columbia.
Koerner was inducted into the Canadian Business Hall of Fame in 1983.