Gerry Schwartz - Biography

Gerald W. Schwartz, OC born c.1941 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, is a Canadian businessman. In 1977 he co-founded CanWest Global Communications Inc, followed by Onex Corporation in 1983. He has been a director of Scotiabank since 1999. With an estimated net worth of $US 1.0 billion (as of March 2011), Schwartz was ranked by Forbes as the 24th wealthiest Canadian and 1,140th in the world.

The Gerald Schwartz School of Business at St. Francis Xavier University was named in his honour in recognition of his donations to the university.

In 2005, he was awarded the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year 2005 Ontario Lifetime Achievement award. In 2006, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada.

Gerald W. Schwartz is also an Advisory Council member of the Dancer Transition Resource Centre.

Early life

He received his B.A. and LL.B. degrees from the University of Manitoba where he became an active brother of the Sigma Alpha Mu Fraternity. He later received an MBA degree from Harvard University in 1970.

Personal life

He is married to Heather Reisman, Chief Executive of Indigo Books and Music. Together they have four grown children. Schwartz owns a mansion in Rosedale, Toronto, a house in Palm Beach Florida and a house in Bel Air California.

Support for Israel

One of his initiatives has been to send hundreds of iPods to IDF troops.

In 2005, he started 4-year full scholarship program for IDF's lone soldiers, who came to Israel on their own and served in IDF, called Heseg. [1] The Foundation offers scholarships to successful applicants in order to support their pursuit of academic excellence following their completion of military service. These scholarships consist of full stipends for academic studies as well as financial support for daily living expenses and related benefits.

In 2006, he made a donation to University of Waterloo for $578,000 for an exchange program between University of Waterloo, Canada and University of Haifa, Israel. (more information) He wanted Canada to be working with Israel as partners.

The gold, silver and bronze medals for top academic standing in the JD/MBA program at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law and Rotman School of Management are named after Schwartz.

Schwartz was a founder in 2004 of the Canadian Council for Israel and Jewish Advocacy.

Media

In the Wall Street (1987 film) DVD special features documentary, Gerry provides his feelings on the Financial industry.