Isadore Sharp, Founder and Chairman, Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts
– Toronto, ON
The Canadian Club of Toronto is proud to recognize one of this country’s most distinguished Canadians, Isadore Sharp, with its 2015 Lifetime Achievement Award – an award that celebrates the lifelong efforts and leadership of extraordinary Canadians.
Mr. Sharp’s contributions to Canada, throughout his career in business and his commitment to community causes, embody the spirit of this award. Please join us as we celebrate Mr. Sharp’s achievements and hear from him as he reflects upon his life’s work in a fireside chat with Marci Ien (Co-Host, Canada AM).
Isadore Sharp is the Founder and Chairman of Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, the world’s leading luxury hospitality company. He opened the first Four Seasons in Toronto in 1961, and the company now operates nearly 100 luxury hotels, resorts and private residences in the world’s best destinations, with more than 50 additional properties at various stages of development across the globe.
Previous to the founding of Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, he worked with his father in the construction business and graduated in architecture from Ryerson Institute of Technology. In 2009 he authored a book detailing the history and philosophy of the company entitled “Four Seasons: The Story of a Business Philosophy.” Mr. Sharp and his wife, Rosalie Wise Sharp are prominent Canadian philanthropists, having made significant donations to many institutions including the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, the Ontario College of Art and Design, Mount Sinai Hospital, and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
He is the Director of the National Terry Fox Run and initiated the corporate sponsorship program supporting the Terry Fox Marathon of Hope. He is also the Founder of the annual Terry Fox Run, which celebrates Terry’s legacy and his dream of finding a cure for cancer. Today Terry Fox Runs are held in more than 50 countries and the program is the world’s largest one-day fundraiser for cancer research.
Selected awards and honours include; becoming the first recipient of the Ruth Hartman Frankel Humanitarian Award for work on behalf of the Canadian Cancer Society, becoming an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1993 and being named the winner of the Woodrow Wilson Award for Corporate Citizenship from the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in 2013.
Isadore Sharp and Rosalie Wise Sharp, live in Toronto; they have three sons, Jordan, Gregory and Anthony. The Sharps lost a fourth son, Christopher, to cancer in 1978.
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