Larry Tanenbaum is widely honoured for his significant contributions in the areas of business, sports and philanthropy. He continues to enrich the fabric of Canadian life, dedicating himself to empowering people and building communities.

Mr. Tanenbaum is Chairman and CEO of Kilmer Van Nostrand Co. Limited (“Kilmer”), a multi-generational enterprise . For over 50 years, Kilmer has owned and operated leading Canadian businesses in sectors as diverse as heavy construction, road building, private equity, forestry, infrastructure, land development, cable television, and consumer goods.

Kilmer, under Mr. Tanenbaum’s leadership, grew as a multi-faceted civil engineering and construction company which undertook subway and transit system projects in Canada, the United States and South America.

Mr. Tanenbaum served as Chairman of Warren, which was Canada’s largest asphalt paving and aggregate company and later merged into Lafarge North America, North America’s largest diversified construction materials company.

Today, Kilmer remains family owned with a continued focus on private investing, infrastructure & real estate, and sports & entertainment.

Current private investments include majority ownership of Coca-Cola Canada Bottling in partnership with Heartland Coca-Cola Bottling. Kilmer has been a leader in such transformational projects as Port Credit’s Brightwater, the ONroute Highway Service Centres, the Pan Am Athletes’ Village, and Affordable Rental Housing Programs for both Provincial and City governments.

Mr. Tanenbaum is also a giant in professional sports. He is a 30-year veteran of building championship-caliber teams. In 1996, he became a part owner of the Toronto Maple Leafs hockey club, and then in 1998, Mr. Tanenbaum was instrumental in the acquisition of the Toronto Raptors basketball team and the Air Canada Centre, thus forming Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment (MLSE). Today, Mr. Tanenbaum is Chairman of MLSE, Chairman of the Board of Governors of the NBA, and a Governor and member of the Executive Committees of the NHL, the NBA, and MLS.

In 2024, Mr. Tanenbaum founded Kilmer Sports Ventures, which was awarded Canada’s first WNBA franchise, and also purchased AS Saint-Étienne, one of France’s most beloved Ligue 1 football clubs.

Mr. Tanenbaum is committed to medical research, brain science and healthy communities.  Among his many volunteer roles, he is Co-Founder and Board Member of the Tanenbaum Open Science Institute at Montreal Neurological Institute, Chairman of the Research Board for the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute, and Vice-Chair, Brain Canada.

The Tanenbaum Family Foundation made a significant gift to launch the Tanenbaum Institute for Science in Sport, in co-operation with the University of Toronto and Sinai Health.

The Tanenbaum Centre for Pharmacogenetics was established at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in 2012.  To date more than 10,000 patients and over 3,000 clinicians have completed pharmacogenetics testing through this Centre.

Mr. Tanenbaum is an Officer of the Order of Canada and was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws by the University of Toronto.   He was inducted into the Ontario Road Builders’ Hall of Fame and was the recipient of the 2015 Region Builders Award from the Toronto Board of Trade.  In 2020, Mr. Tanenbaum was honoured with a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Sports Business Journal and in 2024, was awarded the inaugural UNMATCHED Award for Investment In Women’s Sport.

Pierre Lassonde has a B.A., University of Montreal, a BSc Electrical Engineering from Polytechnique, Montreal and an MBA, University of Utah. He received his P.Eng. Ontario designation in 1976, CFA designation 1984 and OIQ in 2020. He holds honorary Ph. D’s in Engineering from the Universities of Toronto, Montreal and Ryerson, Doctor of Business, University of Utah and Honorary Doctorates of Law from both York and Western Universities, and has also been awarded Doctor of Science by Concordia University.

Mr. Lassonde is Chair and CEO of Firelight Investments, which serves as his family office company. Firelight acts as a merchant bank in the development of mineral properties and natural has, owing substantial stakes in companies such as Franco-Nevada Corporation, Orla Mining, Prime Mining, Foran Mining, Americas Gold and Silver, Birchcliff Energy, and others.

In 1980, Pierre began ten years as president of the gold division of Beutel, Goodman & Company. He co-founded Franco-Nevada Mining Corporation in 1982, which twenty years later was acquired by Newmont Mining Corp., the world’s largest gold producer at the time. Pierre served as President of Newmont from 2002 to 2007 and Vice-Chairman in 2007. He has also served as Chairman of the World Gold Council from 2005 to 2009.

In 2008, Mr. Lassonde led a group of investors and former executives in bringing back Franco-Nevada Corporation to the public market and assumed the role of Chairman. The US $1.2 billion IPO of Franco-Nevada was the largest mining company Initial Public Offering ever done on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

Pierre was responsible for leading investors in start-ups, including Metallica Resources/ New Gold who discovered gold deposits in Chile and Mexico, and Enghouse Systems Ltd, a provider of software to the telecommunications companies. Today, both companies have a market capitalization in the billions.

He is an active and engaged philanthropist in Canada, the United States and in Europe through his family foundation the Pierre Lassonde Family Foundation. The main areas of interest for his Foundation are in support for the fields of education, the arts and the overall community.

Pierre’s donations have created iconic programs such as the Lassonde Entrepreneur Institute and Studios at the University of Utah, the Lassonde School of Engineering at York University, and the Lassonde Mining Engineering program at the University of Toronto and countless Scholarships within various universities in Canada.

He has served on the board of the Denver Opera Company, as President of the Board of the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec (MNBAQ) and presently serves as Chair of the Board of the Canada Council for the Arts (CCA).

Pierre Lassonde is a Fellow of The Canadian Academy of Engineering, an Officer of the Order of Canada, and is a Grand Officer of the National Order of Québec.

Ryan Beedie is President of one of the most successful real estate development companies in Canada as well as a dedicated philanthropist.

Born and raised in Burnaby, B.C., Ryan’s passion for real estate was ignited by his father Keith, who founded the Beedie business in 1954. Ryan obtained his undergrad at Simon Fraser University and earned an MBA from the University of British Columbia before joining the company in 1993 and becoming President in 2001. Since then, Ryan has expanded the reach of Beedie across North America and grown the company into the largest industrial real estate owner in British Columbia.

Now encompassing three divisions: Beedie Industrial has built more than 35 million square feet of industrial space across British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario, and Nevada. In 2023, Beedie completed the largest single-building asset sale globally — $390 million — and holds over 13 million square feet of property in its industrial portfolio. Beedie Living is the residential development arm with more than 11,000 homes currently in planning and development, Beedie Living is one of British Columbia’s most dynamic and fastest-growing residential developers, and is committed to building quality homes in thriving communities. Beedie Capital is a multi-strategy direct investment platform, with a focus on technology, energy and mining. Founded in 2010, Beedie Capital has quickly grown to be the one of the biggest direct investment firms in Canada. Since its inception, Beedie Capital has deployed close to $1 billion in capital. Beedie’s motto “Built for Good” continues to reflect the quality, integrity and generosity that have been cornerstones of the business since its founding 70 years ago.

Passionate about giving back, over the past decade alone, Ryan and his wife Cindy have donated and committed $140 million to more than 350 charities across B.C.. Ryan founded Beedie Luminaries — a program that offers scholarships and wraparound support to promising students from disadvantaged backgrounds — and to date, has awarded over $35 million dollars in scholarships and helped more than 800 students attend life-changing post-secondary programs. Ryan and his father Keith contributed $22 million to Ryan’s alma mater, Simon Fraser University, to help fund the Beedie School of Business.

Avid concertgoers, Ryan and Cindy have hosted four Beedie Rocks concerts at Malkin Bowl in Stanley Park since 2016. The concerts always include a fundraising component, benefiting a different charity each time. In August of 2023, more than $2 million was raised for the Greater Vancouver Food Bank.

Ryan is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Order of British Columbia and Canadian Business Leader of the Year – Canadian Chamber of Commerce. He also holds a Guinness World Record for Most Pool Balls Potted Off the Break!

Jay Hennick is a Canadian Billionaire, businessman and philanthropist. He is the global Chairman, CEO and controlling shareholder of Colliers International, a global leader in commercial real estate and investment management with more than $4.5 billion in revenues and about $100 million in assets under management. Jay is also the Founder, Chairman and largest individual shareholder of FirstService Corporation, the largest residential property management and services company in North America with more than $4.2 billion in annualized revenues.

For over 28 years, shareholders of both companies have received compound annual returns in share value of greater than 20%.

Jay is also the Co-Founder and Chairman of Hennick & Company, a private family investment firm established to invest in high-quality, growth-oriented business and real estate assets that the family would be proud to own for the long term. Since its founding in 2014, Hennick & Company has made significant investments in Foster + Partners, a global leader in architecture, infrastructure, design and engineering and Haventree Bank, a leading provider of residential mortgage loans to near prime borrowers, among others.

Before establishing FirstService, Jay completed a Bachelor of Arts degree (Economics) from York University and a Doctor of Laws (J.D) from the University of Ottawa. In 2011, Jay received an Honorary Doctorate from York University and in 2014, an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Ottawa.

In 2019, Jay was appointed as a Member of the Order of Canada and in the same year was the recipient of the International Horatio Alger Award. In 1998, Jay also received Canada’s coveted Entrepreneur of the Year and was named Canada’s CEO of the Year in 2001 by Canadian Business Magazine.

Jay served as the Chairman of the board of the Sinai Health System and Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto between 2013 and 2016. Jay and his wife Barbara are also active philanthropists establishing the Hennick Family Foundation to support many causes in health care, education, and the arts, the largest of which include:

• $50 million donation to the Royal Ontario Museum, the largest single donation in the history of the institution to support of a multi-year revitalization of one of Ontario’s most treasured institutions.
• $36 million donation to Sinai Health, the largest single donation in the history of the institution to name “Hennick Bridgepoint Hospital”, the largest complex care and rehabilitation hospital in Canada.
• $10 million donation to the World Holocaust Remembrance Center (Yad Vashem) in Jerusalem, Israel.
• $8 million donation to name the “Hennick JD-MBA Program” at Osgoode Hall Law School and Schulich School of Business at York University.
• $7.5 million donation to name the “Hennick Family Wellness Gallery”, a healing and respite gallery at Mount Sinai Hospital that houses the largest collection of artworks by famed Canadian artist, Sorel Etrog.
• $3.5 million donation to provide special scholarships to worthy recipients at the University of Ottawa Law School; and
• Several smaller benefactions to a variety of causes in health care, arts, and education in Canada.

Louis Audet is Board Chair of Cogeco Inc. and Cogeco Communications inc. since September 01, 2021. Prior to that, he was executive Chair of the Board during a three year transition period that has led to the successful transfer of the responsibility of President and Chief Executive Officer to his successor on September 01, 2018. Louis had held that position for 25 years, starting in 1994, having received the mantel from his father and company founder Henri Audet.

He joined Cogeco in 1981 and took on a variety of responsibilities as Vice President of sales, marketing and strategic planning before becoming Executive Vice President and eventually President and Chief Executive Officer in 1994. Prior to joining Cogeco, he held engineering positions in outside plant and central office equipment at Bell Canada from 1974 to 1977 and marketing positions at Cable TV Ltd from 1979 to 1981.

Louis obtained his Collegiate Studies Diploma from College Jean-de-Brébeuf in Montreal (1970), he holds a BSc and Professional Engineer diploma from École Polytechnique de Montreal (1974). He also holds a Master in business administration (MBA) from Harvard University (1979).

Having taken Cogeco public in 1985, Cogeco has grown through a series of some 40 acquisitions for the most part in the wireline telecommunication (cable) sector. Under Louis’s leadership, Cogeco has become a leading North American Telecommunications Company delivering high speed internet, land line telephony and video services to some 1.6 million customers in Québec, Ontario and 13 states of Eastern USA.

Louis Audet is currently Chair of the board of the Old Brewery Mission, a leading organization which provides emergency and housing services for homeless people in the Montreal area. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of CableLabs, of the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal and of the Institute for Governance of Private and Public Organizations (IGOPP). He previously sat on the Boards of Directors of the Canadian Cable Telecommunications Association, Clarica, Collège Jean-de-Brébeuf, Corporation de l’École Polytechnique de Montréal, the Canadian Association of Broadcasters, the Association Canadienne de la radio et de la television de langue française, Fondation du Centre Hospitalier de L’Université de Montréal (CHUM) and he served as Governor of the Council on Canadian Unity and chaired the Fondation et Alumni de l ’école Polytechnique de Montréal. He was also Chairman of the Collège Jean-de-Brébeuf Development Fund for 10 years.

Over the years, Louis has often been recognized by both the business and philanthropic communities for his numerous achievements. Amongst his contributions, he acted as co-Chair of the 2017 campaign for Centraide of Greater Montréal and as Chair of the 2015-2021 fundraising campaign for the Old Brewery Mission Foundation. He is currently co-Chair of the 50 million $ 2024-2029 campaign of the Old Brewery Mission.

Louis was named Member of the Order of Canada in 2013 and Officier de l’Ordre National du Québec in 2022. In 2018, he was chosen by the United Nations Association in Canda as it’s annual Global Citizens Laureate. That same year, he received two Honorary Doctorates from Université de Montréal and Université du Québec in Trois-Rivières. He has also been inducted in the Club des entrepreneurs du Conseil du patronat du Québec and was awarded the Order of Merit from the Université de Montréal Alumni Association, as well as the Merit Award from École Polytechnique Alumni Association.

In 1983, Louis married Jocelyne Francoeur his wife of 40 years and they are blessed to have a daughter, Émilie, who joined Cogeco in 2020 where she is growing professionally.
Jocelyne and Louis enjoy travelling, in addition to Europe and Eastern Europe, defining destinations have been India and the Middle East.

Other interests include classical music and the learning of languages, none of which he masters well! At age 68, he undertook learning the piano, which likely will forever remain a work in progress!

Prem Watsa was born in 1950 near Hyderabad, India. His father was a teacher and later became the principal of an excellent boys’ school. My dad was an upright, no-nonsense kind of guy. He expected me to work hard and study. My father was a great influence on me. I will never forget one piece of advice he gave me. He said, ‘Work as hard as you can, as though everything depended on you. Pray as hard as you can, as though everything depended on God.’”

Though not wealthy, Prem, along with his brother and two sisters, had the advantages of loving, attentive parents. The Watsas were Christians. Prem says, “I was brought up on the Christian values of family, honesty and integrity, and doing the right thing.”

While in school, Prem’s strength was in math and chemistry. He applied to the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), India’s top engineering school and majored in chemical engineering. Out of 50,000 applicants, only 1,000 were selected and Prem was one of them.

By the time he graduated, Prem decided he was more interested in pursuing a career in business than engineering. He applied to the best business school in the country, the Indian Institute of Management. The school received about 10,000 applications for only 100 openings. After failing to make the cut the first time, Prem resolved to study harder and apply again. He worked for a year in a few jobs, studied, and re-applied. This time he was accepted to the prestigious school.

Prem’s older brother had married and settled in London, Ontario, Canada. His father suggested that a better opportunity for Prem might be to attend graduate school in Canada. He left India with only $8 in his pocket. He found a job selling air conditioners and furnaces door to door, which funded his MBA at the University of Western Ontario Business School, later known as the Richard Ivey School of Business.
After earning his master’s degree, Prem began applying for jobs.

Finally, in 1974, he got a job at Confederation Life Insurance Company in Toronto as an investment analyst. His manager, John Watson, became his mentor and taught him all he knew about investing based on Benjamin Graham’s theories of value investing.

After nine years with Confederation Life, Prem and a few partners founded a successful asset management firm, Hamblin Watsa Investment Counsel Ltd. A year later, in 1985, he organized a group of investors to take control of a small Canadian trucking insurance company with $10 million in premiums. That became the base for Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited. With Prem Watsa as its Chairman and CEO, Fairfax evolved into a worldwide property and casualty insurance and reinsurance company operating in more than 100 countries, with $28 billion in premiums. Over the past 37 years, Fairfax has increased its shareholders’ equity from $10
million to in excess of $20 billion and book value per share has compounded at approximately 19 percent per year. Fairfax’s stock price has followed suit.

Prem says, “We focused on treating our employees and customers well, and we worked hard for our shareholders. We decided from the beginning that if we were successful, then we would invest in the communities that helped us. We made it a rule that one or two percent of our pre-tax profits would be reinvested back into the communities in which we do business.”

Prem defines success on three levels. “First,” he says, “I am a Christian, so faith is very important. Second is my family. I’ve been married for 50 years and it’s the best thing that has ever happened to me. I have three children and I am the proud grandfather of five grandchildren. Third is my business success. The most important principle we have in our company is honesty and integrity. We will never compromise those values. Nor will we ever succeed at the expense of our families. I like a quote from the Bible, which says, “What profiteth a man if he gains the whole world, but loses his soul?”

He is a member of the Sick Children’s Hospital Foundation and is Chairman of their Investment Committee, member of the Advisory Board for the Richard Ivey School of Business, Chairman of the Investment Committee of St. Paul’s Anglican Church in Toronto. He is on the Board of Horatio Alger Association U.S. and President of Horatio Alger Association of Canada. He is Chairman of Fairfax India. He is the Chancellor of Huron University College at the University of Western Ontario and formerly Chancellor of the University of Waterloo. He is a recipient of the Order of Canada and the Padma Shri Awards, one of the highest awards in India.

A professional engineer and lawyer, Stan Marshall joined Newfoundland Power in 1979 and in 1987, he was instrumental in the creation of the utility’s parent company, Fortis Inc. His career with Fortis spanned 35 years with more than 18 years as the Corporation’s President and CEO. Under his leadership, Fortis grew into the largest investor-owned gas and electric distribution utility in Canada and was transformed into a leader in the electricity and gas utility business in North America, serving more than 3 million energy customers across Canada, the United States and the Caribbean. The Corporation’s total assets grew from less than $1 billion in 1996 to more than $26 billion in 2014.

Stan’s significant accomplishments include leading the expansion of Fortis in western Canada through the acquisition of the Aquila electric utility assets in Alberta and British Columbia (now known as FortisAlberta and FortisBC Electric, respectively) in 2004, the acquisition of Terasen Gas in British Columbia (now known as FortisBC Energy) in 2007, the Corporation’s initial entry into the United States with the acquisition of New York State utility Central Hudson Gas & Electric in 2013 and its subsequent growth in the United States with the acquisition of Arizona State utility UNS Energy in 2014.

In June 2014, Stan retired as President, Fortis Inc. and in December of that same year, he retired as Chief Executive Officer and as Director of the Board of Directors of Fortis Inc.

In April 2016, Mr. Marshall was requested to come out of retirement by the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador to become President and CEO of Nalcor Energy, with additional oversight as CEO of Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro and Churchill Falls Labrador Corporation. Between 2016 and 2021, one of the most notable successes under Mr. Marshall’s direction was the reorganization and restructuring of the Muskrat Falls project where he was instrumental in procuring additional financing and bringing construction of all major components of the project into operation.

In addition to serving on the boards of Fortis, Nalcor, and their affiliates, Stan served on the boards of two other Canadian public companies – Toromont Industries and Enerflex Ltd.

Currently Stan is on the Board of the Trans Mountain Corporation and is Chair of the committee responsible for overseeing the construction of the oil pipeline expansion project.

In his personal and corporate life, Stan demonstrated a commitment to assisting people and community. While President and CEO of Fortis he ensured that every Fortis company supported charitable and cultural endeavours and encouraged his people to be actively involved in their communities. Within the Fortis family he placed strong emphasis on the development and promotion of young talent. He mentored many young executives and takes great satisfaction in their success.

As CEO of Fortis, Stan was committed to maintaining its headquarters in St. John’s, NL. He has always been a strong supporter of his province and its people. He took a particular interest in documenting the history of Newfoundland where his family has lived in the same small community for over 300 years. Fortis sponsored a five-part CBC documentary series on the history of Newfoundland and also funded a scholarly biography of its most prominent Prime Minister. Stan was personally involved in both productions. He is a proud Newfoundlander, but also takes great pride in being the first member of his family to be born Canadian.

In 2015, Stan Marshall was inducted into the JA Newfoundland and Labrador Business Hall of Fame for his outstanding contributions in business and to his province.