ALL TICKETS TO THIS LUNCH $50 AND ALL TABLES $500.
Isadore Sharp, Founder, Chairman and CEO of Four Seasons Hotels, explains how he parlayed one small Toronto motel into a globe-spanning chain of prize-winning luxury hotels and resorts. It’s a story of entrepreneurial insight, unique in Canadian business history: how a young architect-builder, heading an obscure little hotel company, invaded U.S. and world markets dominated by giant chains. And by rethinking conventional hotel management practices and—at critical junctions of company growth—holding to his convictions despite widespread disparagement, has continually set new standards of excellence for luxury hotels worldwide.
Isadore (“Issy”) Sharp founded Four Seasons in 1960 with the opening of his first hotel on Jarvis Street in downtown Toronto. After a decade of trial and refinement Mr. Sharp created a single vision that today has made Four Seasons the leading luxury hotel operator (and largest luxury hotel management company in the world)exclusively focused on mid-size luxury hotels and resorts of exceptional quality.
Mr. Sharp has been recognized around the globe for his leadership and entrepreneurial skills. Some of his selected achievements include: being inducted into the Canadian Business Hall of Fame (1998); receiving the International Distinguished Entrepreneur Award (1999); receiving an Honorary Doctor of Commerce Degree from Ryerson University in recognition of his exceptional career accomplishments, distinguished leadership in business and the hotel industry, and outstanding commitment and contribution to the community (2003) and receiving the Ontario Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year Program’s Lifetime Achievement Award (2003). In addition Mr. Sharp is actively involved in a range of community activities and charities. He was the first recipient of the Ruth Hartman Frankel Humanitarian Award for work on behalf of the Canadian Cancer Society. And he is Founder of the annual Terry Fox Run Program (the largest single-day fund raising event for cancer research worldwide, having raised over $220 million to date).
