Gerry Schwartz | |
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Born | |
Alma mater | University of Manitoba (BA, LLB) Harvard University (MBA) |
Spouse | |
Children | 4 |
Gerald W. Schwartz, OC (born 1941) is the founder, chairman and CEO of Onex Corporation. Schwartz has a net worth of US$1.5 billion, according to Forbes. [1]
Schwartz was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba. He graduated from Kelvin High School in Winnipeg. He received his B.A. and LL.B. degrees from the University of Manitoba [1] where he became an active brother of the Sigma Alpha Mu fraternity. He later received an MBA degree from Harvard University in 1970. [2]
In the 1970s, Schwartz worked at Bear Stearns, [1] where he was mentored by Jerome Kohlberg, Jr., who later became a founding partner in Kohlberg Kravis Roberts. [2] Schwartz left Bear Stearns by 1977, returning to Canada. [2] Along with Izzy Asper, Schwartz co-founded CanWest Global Communications in 1977.
In 1983, Schwartz founded Onex Corporation. [3]
Schwartz has been a director of Scotiabank since 1999. In 2021, Schwartz's net worth was estimated at US$1.5 billion, making him one of the wealthiest people in Canada. [1] As of 2015, he was the highest paid CEO in Canada. [4]
In 1982, Schwartz married Heather Reisman, chief executive of Indigo Books and Music. [5] [6] Schwartz has two children from his first marriage and two stepchildren from his marriage to Heather Reisman. [7] The couple are members of the Reform synagogue, Holy Blossom Temple in Toronto. [7] Schwartz and Reisman own the most expensive house in Toronto, valued at $28 million. [8]
The Gerald Schwartz School of Business at St. Francis Xavier University was named in his honour in recognition of his donations to the university.[ citation needed ] In 2005, he was awarded the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year 2005 Ontario Lifetime Achievement award. [9] In 2006, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada. [1]
Schwartz is the co-founder of the Heseg Foundation for Lone Soldiers alongside his wife, Heather Reisman. [10] The organization provides millions of dollars of support in the form of scholarships, a living wage and career development opportunities as a reward for military service with the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) every year to non-Israeli Jews who volunteered to join the Israeli military and to some Israeli soldiers as well. [11] In 2006, he made a donation to University of Waterloo for an exchange program between University of Waterloo and the University of Haifa. [12]
Mount Sinai Hospital announced in December 2013 that a transformational $15 million gift from Schwartz and Reisman would be used to "reshape emergency medicine" at the facility. [13] [14]
The Gerald Schwartz and Heather Reisman Foundation donated $5.3 million to St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, Nova Scotia in late 2018 to create scholarships, bursaries and increased recruitment of business students. [15]
In March 2019, University of Toronto announced that Schwartz and Reisman were giving the university $100 million to build a 750,000-square foot innovation centre through The Gerald Schwartz & Heather Reisman Foundation. According to Reisman, the Schwartz Reisman Innovation Centre will be used to improve technology, particularly Artificial intelligence, and how the public can relate to it. One of the two towers will house the Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society and the Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence while the other will include labs for research in regenerative medicine, genetics and precision medicine. [16] [17]
Indigo Books & Music Inc., known as "Indigo" and stylized "!ndigo", is Canada's only major English-language bookstore chain. It is Canada's largest book, gift, and specialty toy retailer, operating stores in all ten provinces and one territory, and through a website offering a selection of books, toys, home décor, stationery, and gifts. Most Chapters and Indigo stores include a Starbucks café inside. As of 2022, Indigo has started selling music, and select audio equipment.
Henry R. Kravis is an American businessman, investor, and philanthropist. He is a co-founder of KKR & Co. Inc.
Chapters Inc. is a Canadian big box bookstore banner owned by Indigo Books and Music. Formerly a separate company competing with Indigo, the combined company has continued to operate both banners since their merger in 2001. As of July 2017, it operated 89 superstores under the banners Chapters and Indigo, and 122 small format stores under the banners Coles, Indigospirit, SmithBooks and The Book Company.
Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics is an independent research centre in foundational theoretical physics located in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. It was founded in 1999. The institute's founding and major benefactor is Canadian entrepreneur and philanthropist Mike Lazaridis.
Mihal "Mike" Lazaridis is a Canadian businessman, investor in quantum computing technologies, and co-founder of BlackBerry, which created and manufactured the BlackBerry wireless handheld device. In November 2009, Canadian Business ranked Lazaridis as the 11th wealthiest Canadian, with an estimated net worth of CA$2.9 billion.
James Laurence Balsillie is a Canadian businessman and philanthropist. He was the former chair and co-chief executive officer of the Canadian technology company Research In Motion (BlackBerry), which at its 2011 peak made US$19.9 billion in annual sales.
Peter Munk was a Hungarian-Canadian businessman, investor, and philanthropist. He was the founder and chief executive officer of a number of high-profile business ventures, including the hi-fi electronics company Clairtone, real estate company Trizec Properties, and Barrick Gold, the world's largest gold-mining corporation.
Thomas M. Siebel is an American billionaire businessman, technologist, and author. He was the founder of enterprise software company Siebel Systems and is the founder, chairman, and CEO of C3.ai, an artificial intelligence software platform and applications company.
Jerome Kohlberg Jr. was an American businessman and investor. He was an early pioneer in the private equity and leveraged buyout industries founding private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. and later Kohlberg & Company.
Henry Samueli is an American businessman, engineer, and philanthropist.
Onex Corporation is a Canadian investment management firm founded by Gerry Schwartz in 1984. In December 2023, it had $49.6 billion Canadian dollars under management.
Seymour Schulich is a Canadian businessman, investor, author, and philanthropist.
Heather Maxine Reisman is a Canadian businesswoman and philanthropist. Reisman is the founder and chief executive of the Canadian retail chain Indigo Books and Music. She is the co-founder and past Chair of Kobo, and was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2019.
The Holy Blossom Temple is a Reform synagogue located at 1950 Bathurst Street in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is the oldest Jewish congregation in Toronto. Founded in 1856, it has more than 7,000 members. W. Gunther Plaut, who died on 8 February 2012 at the age of 99, was a long time Senior Rabbi for this synagogue. Notable members and supporters include Heather Reisman and Gerald Schwartz who made donations to create the Gerald Schwartz/Heather Reisman Centre for Jewish Learning at Holy Blossom Temple.
Reisman is a surname of German-Jewish Ashkenazic origin. Notable people with the surname include:
Jonathan Grayer is the Chairman and CEO of Imagine Learning, a leading digital education technology company focused on developing digital curriculum and tools for pre-K–12 students. Grayer founded the company in January 2010 as a partnership with Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR). In January 2018, the company announced a new strategic partnership with Silver Lake Partners. Grayer previously served as the Chairman and CEO of Kaplan, Inc., a global education company and test prep provider that has been owned by Graham Holdings Company since 1984. Grayer, named CEO in 1994, grew Kaplan's revenues from $80 million to $2.3 billion when he retired from the company in 2008.
The HESEG Foundation is a charitable foundation created by Canadian CEOs Gerry Schwartz and Heather Reisman in 2005 to provide free tuition to former lone soldiers who serve in Israel's military under Israel Defense Forces.
The Balsillie School of International Affairs (BSIA) is a centre for advanced research and teaching on global governance and international public policy, located in Waterloo, Ontario. As one of the largest social sciences initiatives in Canada, the school is a collaborative partnership between the University of Waterloo, Wilfrid Laurier University, and the Centre for International Governance Innovation. The BSIA is an affiliate member of the Association of Professional Schools of International Affairs, a group of schools that educate leaders in international affairs. The BSIA is housed in the north and west wings of the CIGI Campus. Admission to BSIA is highly selective.
The Levin House, in Hebrew Beit Levin - Tel Avivians gave it the nickname "the Castle" and later called it the Russian Embassy House - is a historic building located at 46 Rothschild Boulevard on the corner of Shadal Street in Tel Aviv, Israel, and is one of the city's best-known buildings.
The Vector Institute is a private, non-profit artificial intelligence research institute in Toronto focusing primarily on machine learning and deep learning research. As of 2023, it consists of 143 faculty members and affiliates — 38 of which are CIFAR AI chairs — 57 postdoctoral fellows, and 502 students. Along with the University of Toronto, the Vector Institute is affiliated with faculty from universities across Ontario, as well as British Columbia and Nova Scotia.
Some scholarships will be worth up to $80,000 each, according to the news release.
University president Meric Gertler said the donation "will enable a deeper examination of how technology shapes our daily lives."