Walter Hachborn, started his career in 1938 as an employee of Hollinger Hardware. In 1950 he purchased the business with two partners and successfully grew the business from $245,000 in 1950 to $3.5 million in 1963.

The dream that Walter had was to find a way to ensure the survival of the independent retail hardware and building material dealers in Canada. He studied methods where regional dealer groups pooled their buying and distributed the product among themselves, and also the concept of dealer-owned companies where centralized warehouses distributed the products to their dealer members. He visualized this method to be the most effective and started planning the structure of such an organization. Home Hardware Stores Limited came into existence on January 1, 1964.

Through the development of programs and benefits, one hundred and twenty-two dealers were attracted to the program and agreed to purchase Hollinger Hardware which was arranged for January 1st, 1964. Sales in the first year to dealer members were $4,103,140. In 2014 Home has grown to 1,062 stores located across Canada and $5.4 billion in retail sales.

Walter Hachborn passed away in 2016 but the legacy he left will remain through time.

Don Smith– philanthropist, craftsman of buildings and careers, husband to Joan Smith, and father to seven children– was a true pioneer.

Born in Alberta in 1924, Don would prove himself to be a natural entrepreneur, from showing neighbourhood kids Charlie Chaplin movies– at five cents a head– to joining the Foundation Company as a Superintendent at 25.

In 1949, Don moved to London and married Joan McDonald, who had her own ambitions in public service and politics. Neither career deterred the two from their shared dream of a large family, which consisted of seven children, 21 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

In 1951, Don and brother David started EllisDon with a single home renovation prospect, and then worked-up to university, office, and airport projects– expanding across several provinces seeing EllisDon become the $3Billion company it is today.

At 42, Don also fought for the London Club to admit its first Jewish member, a feat for which Don was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Canadian Council of Christians and Jews. Notwithstanding this, Don was a great philanthropist, which benefitted The Boys And Girls Club, and many other charities and communities throughout Ontario.

Don led a life well lived, and very generously enabled others to do the same.

Lino Saputo was born in Italy, in 1937, to Master Cheesemaker Giuseppe Saputo and his wife, Maria. The Saputo family immigrated to Canada in 1952, and two years later, founded the Company which bears their name.

In 1969, succeeding his father, Lino Saputo was named Chairman of the Board and President of the Company. In 1997, Saputo completed its initial public offering. Lino became Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer in 1998. In 2004, his son Lino A. Saputo, Jr. was appointed to the position of President and Chief Executive Officer, while Lino Saputo remained Chairman of the Board.

Lino Saputo was the recipient of an honorary doctorate from the Université de Montréal in June 2010. In May 2011, he was made an Officer of the National Order of Québec and in June 2012, was appointed Member of the Order of Canada. In November 2012, the Board of Trade of Metropolitan Montreal inducted Lino Saputo into the Academy of Great Montrealers.

Peter M. Brown, a third generation Vancouverite, founded Canaccord Genuity in 1968 with a $28,000 investment and built the company, with his partners, into the firm it is today.

Mr. Brown serves as Chair, Fraser Institute and the Vancouver Police Foundation and Vice Chair, Investment Industry Association of Canada.  He is a Member of the Economic Advisory Council to the Federal Minister of Finance.  Past service includes boards of the Vancouver Convention Centre and Stadium and the Vancouver Olympic Committee. He was Chairman, UBC and the Vancouver Stock Exchange and Vice Chair, Expo 86.

Mr. Brown is a Member of the Order of British Columbia and recipient of the Ernst & Young Lifetime Achievement Award.  He earned honorary law degrees from UBC and BC Justice Institute and a PhD in Letters from Emily Carr University.  He was named “Person of the Year” by the Brotherhood Interfaith Society, was the first civilian to receive the Chief’s Citation for service to the Vancouver Police, and also received the Vancouver Board of Trade Rix Award for Engaged Community Citizenship. He was inducted into the Canadian Mining Hall of Fame and the Business Laureates of BC Hall of Fame.

David Mirvish is a Canadian art collector, theatre producer and entrepreneur. A passionate supporter of the theatre and Canada’s artistic community, Mr. Mirvish is the owner and operator of Toronto’s Royal Alexandra Theatre, Princess of Wales Theatre, Ed Mirvish Theatre and Panasonic Theatre.

In 1941, Mr. Mirvish’s parents opened the store that in 1948 would become Honest Ed’s. Today, David Mirvish is the owner and operator of the beloved discount emporium and Toronto landmark. David Mirvish began his career as an art dealer when in 1963, at the age of 19, he opened the David Mirvish Gallery.

Mr. Mirvish has received many awards and recognitions for his contributions to the Canadian arts scene, including being named to the Order of Ontario in 2001 and awarded a Member to the Order of Canada in 1995. He is also a recipient of the Brenda Donohue Award for outstanding service and contribution to theatre in Toronto, the Toronto Arts Award for the Visual Arts, and the prestigious Montblanc de la Culture Award, honouring outstanding patrons of the arts, worldwide, who have given their time, energy and money in order to encourage cultural life to flourish.

He has been presented with honorary doctorates from Queen’s University, the York University Fine Arts department, the Faculty of Applied Arts at Ryerson University and University College, the University of Toronto. In June 2012, he was installed as the Chancellor of the University of Guelph.

He has given of his time and resources to numerous charitable causes. Mr. Mirvish is the son of the late Ed Mirvish, who was a well-known Toronto business owner, and the artist Anne Lazare Macklin.

Ian Greenberg is President and Chief Executive Officer of Astral, one of Canada’s most dynamic and best-performing media companies with a strong presence in the country’s fastest-growing media platforms: pay- and specialty-TV, radio, out-of-home advertising and digital media.

Born in Montréal in 1942, he is a graduate of the Harvard Business School’s Advanced Management Program. Ian Greenberg is one of four brothers who founded Astral over 50 years ago. Beginning as a specialty photographic business, Astral evolved under his leadership to become a pure-play media company.

Since Mr. Greenberg was appointed as President and Chief Executive Officer of Astral in 1996, the company has a track record of 16 consecutive years of profitable growth, achieved through a combination of financial discipline, thoughtful planning and rigorous operational practices.

Active in supporting a number of industry and charitable associations, Mr. Greenberg and his brothers were awarded the Eleanor Roosevelt Humanities Award in 1993. In 2007, Mr. Greenberg received the prestigious Ted Rogers and Velma Rogers Graham Award for his unique contribution to the Canadian broadcasting system. In 2008, he was inducted into the Broadcasting Hall of Fame by the Canadian Association of Broadcasters. He was also the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Montreal Jewish Chamber of Commerce in 2010.

He is currently a member of the Canadian Council of Chief Executives and a member of the Board of Directors of Cineplex Inc.

Mr. Greenberg and his wife Linda reside in Montréal. They have three grown children and nine grandchildren.

Joseph Shannon is President of Atlantic Corporation. In business since 1964, Atlantic Corporation is wholly owned and privately held by Joseph Shannon. Atlantic Corporation maintains corporate offices in Cape Breton and Halifax, Nova Scotia as well as multiple operating company offices throughout Canada and the United States.

Atlantic Corporation employs in excess of five thousand people throughout its diversified operations, which include businesses in Transportation, Health Care, Information Technology, Real Estate, and Construction.

Joseph Shannon currently serves on several boards, including Royal Bank Mutual Funds, and is the Chair of the Shannon School of Business Advisory Board at Cape Breton University. He has had previous director roles on numerous other Boards including Medavie Blue Cross, Atlantic Shopping Centers, MT&T, DEVCO, Sydney Steel, Montreal Trust and Ultramar PLC.

He was inducted into the Nova Scotia Business Hall of Fame in June, 1997 and has received a Doctor of Law Honous Causa LL.D from Cape Breton University.

Joe and his wife Ruth have five children and fourteen grandchildren.

Peter E. Gilgan is founder and CEO of Mattamy Homes, Canada’s largest new home builder with over 50,000 homes built in more than 150 communities in Greater Toronto, Ottawa, Calgary and across the United States. One of Canada’s most successful entrepreneurs, Mr. Gilgan was awarded the province’s highest order in 2012, the Order of Ontario, for his business leadership and philanthropic initiatives. Since Mattamy built its first home in 1978, the company’s master-planned communities have become renowned for their unique designs and wide variety of architecture styles.

Mattamy is the largest builder of WideLot^TM homes in Canada and is a recognized leader in homeowner satisfaction by the prestigious J.D. Power and Associates. Mattamy Homes was once again was awarded Ontario Home Builder of the Year in 2011, an honour it has received three times in the last five years.

In 2007, Mr. Gilgan was Canada’s 2007 Entrepreneur of the Year and Home Builder of the Year in the Greater Toronto Area four times in the last decade. In 2009, Mr. Gilgan was elected a Fellow (FCA) of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario and in 2010 was awarded the Outstanding Business Leader of the Year award from Laurier’s School of Business and Economics. In 2012, Mr. Gilgan was celebrated as a 2012 Champion for Public Education by The Learning Partnership for his contribution to supporting public education in Canada.

In March 2012, Mr. Gilgan announced the largest gift to a pediatric hospital in Canadian history with his $40 million donation to the Peter Gilgan Centre for Research and Learning at SickKids. Less than six months earlier in November 2011, Mr. Gilgan announced a historic $15 million gift to Ryerson University for the development of the Mattamy Athletic Centre, a new student and community athletic centre at the site of the former Maple Leaf Gardens. Mr. Gilgan’s multi-million dollar commitment to philanthropy and community building is unparalleled, from health care to physical activity to higher education and community legacies – he truly is a respected and dedicated community leader.

As the former President of Vancouver-based H.Y. Louie Ltd., Mr. Tong Louie is posthumously inducted into the Canadian Business Hall of Fame with his son, current Chairman and CEO, H.Y. Louie Co. Ltd., and Chairman of the Board, London Drugs, Mr. Brandt Louie.

Tong Louie took a modest grocery and restaurant supply company started by his father Hok Yat Louie, and turned it into a successful retail chain of over a hundred drugstores and supermarkets in Western Canada. This growth and early entrepreneurial success of the H.Y. Louie group of companies including London Drugs and IGA, was not lost on Brandt who has grown the retail powerhouse to 75 stores; the second largest retailer in British Columbia.

During the last decade, continued innovation at H.Y. Louie and Brandt’s entrepreneurial spirit have led to the birth of London Drugs’ sister companies – London Air Services and Sonora Resort – which have also become leaders in their respective industries. Known for their commitment to the greater business community and economic growth in Canada, Tong and Brandt have both served as Directors of the Board at several key Canadian companies including the Royal Bank of Canada where Brandt continues to serve as director today. Brandt also participates on the global stage, as governor representing the Food and Beverage Industry, each year at the World Economic forum.

Both Tong and Brandt have held honourable positions at Canadian health and educational institutions; Tong, as Chairman and Governor at a variety of organizations including the Canadian Diabetes Association and the University of British Columbia, and Brandt currently as Chancellor Emeritus, Simon Fraser University; council of governors, Vancouver Community College; governor, Vancouver Board of Trade and the B.C. Business Council; trustee of the Fraser Institute, and Director of the Historical-Dominion Foundation of Canada.

Tong Louie’s philanthropic legacy continues today through Brandt Louie and his extended family’s work at the London Drugs Foundation and the Tong and Geraldine Louie Family Foundation. Each year, the Louie family foundations support many health, educational and arts programs across Canada.

Instrumental in developing one of the most successful airlines in recent aviation history, Clive Beddoe is a founding shareholder and Chairman of the Board of Directors at WestJet Airlines.

Offering Canadians low fares and an unsurpassed guest experience, WestJet has fundamentally changed air travel in Canada. Over 80M guests have chosen to fly with the airline since it entered into operation and impressively, it now boasts a fleet of 90 aircraft, with more than 8,000 Canadian employees, serving approximately 3,000 flights per week to 71 destinations in Canada, the united States, Mexico and the Caribbean.

Mr. Beddoe’s keen business acumen has shaped the development of WestJet’s corporate culture, executive team and strategy. A true entrepreneur and visionary, his strong background in financial planning and strategic management was gained through several successful real estate and plastics enterprises.

In 2000, Mr. Beddoe and his fellow WestJet founders received the Worldwide Award for Teamwork at the World Entrepreneur of the year celebrations and, in 2004, he received the prestigious Canadian Business Leader Award from the university of Alberta Faculty of Business and the Business Advisory Council.

In 2009, Mr. Beddoe was inducted into the Marketing Hall of Legends – Visionary category, and in 2008 was recognized by the University of Victoria’s School of Business as their Distinguished Entrepreneur of the year. Bestowed with an Honorary Doctorate of Laws from the university of Calgary, Mr. Beddoe is also a recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Canadian youth Business Federation (2007).

Mr. Beddoe is personally involved in numerous organizations, most notably the Boys and Girls Club of Canada.

Dr. Norman B. Keevil is Chairman of Teck Resources Ltd., and a man whose legacy in the mining industry will perhaps only be surpassed by the immeasurable contributions he has made to Canada and its citizens.

Dr. Keevil’s business acumen, vision and leadership have taken a small gold mining company in Ontario and Québec to being Canada’s largest, most diversified mining, mineral processing and metallurgical company, and world leader in the production of copper, steelmaking coal and zinc, molybdenum, and specialty metals.

A graduate of the University of Toronto (B.A. Sc.), the University of California at Berkeley (Ph.D.) and bestowed with an honorary LL.D. from the University of British Columbia, Dr. Keevil is a lifetime director of the Mining Association of Canada, and was inducted into the Canadian Mining Hall of Fame in January 2004.

Having built many a bridge between academic research and industry, Dr. Keevil’s contributions have provided others with the opportunity to increase their knowledge of geology and mineral development. Notably, the Norman B. Keevil Chair in Mineral Exploration at the University of British Columbia (UBC) serves to raise the level of research activity and profile of mineral exploration.

With a strong sense of community and culture, Dr. Keevil has been an avid supporter of programs designed to build stronger communities and support families including the new Children’s Hospital in Vancouver (Mining for Miracles Campaign) and Royal Ontario Museum.

With his induction into the Order of the Canadian Business Hall of Fame, Dr. Keevil follows in his father’s footsteps, Dr. Norman B. Keevil O.C., who himself is a Companion of the Order.

Pierre H. Lessard is the Executive Chairman of the Board of Metro Inc., one of the largest food retailer and distributor in Canada. He has spent more than 40 years of his professional career in the food industry, fi rst with Provigo Inc. where he was President and COO from 1976 to 1985, and then with Metro Inc. where he served as President and CEO from 1990 to 2008.

Under Mr. Lessard’s leadership, Metro grew to become the market leader in the province of Québec and successfully expanded outside the province through strategic acquisitions. This outstanding performance and long-term track record rewarded the shareholders of the company with unparalleled value creation.

Today, with over 65,000 employees, Metro Inc. operates in Québec and Ontario over 600 food stores and over 250 drugstores.

Through Metro and on his own initiative, Mr. Lessard has assumed a highly active role in the community. Known for building better, stronger communities, Metro lends its network of stores to many an effort and charitable campaigns. Mr. Lessard is personally involved in various art, education and health organizations.

Mr. Lessard is currently a director of Metro Inc., TD Bank Financial Group, and SNC Lavalin Group Inc. He received a Bachelor and a Master degree from université Laval, and holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and is a Fellow Chartered Accountant.