- Founder and Chairman of Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts to be honoured at Washington, D.C. ceremony -
MONTREAL, March 5, 2013 /CNW Telbec/ - Canadian business icon Isadore Sharp has been selected to receive the International Horatio Alger Award in 2013, the Horatio Alger Association of Canada announced today.
The International Horatio Alger Award is presented by the Washington, D.C.-based Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans Inc., to one individual from Canada each year who has persevered through adversity to become a successful entrepreneur or community leader. Recipients of the International Horatio Alger Award become lifelong members of the Horatio Alger Association of Canada and serve as role models for its young scholarship recipients. Mr. Sharp will be honoured in Washington, D.C., during the 66th Annual Horatio Alger Awards Induction Ceremonies from April 4-6, 2013.
"Isadore Sharp is a man of exceptional achievement and a most deserving winner of this award," said Dominic D'Alessandro, President of the Horatio Alger Association of Canada. "His life story demonstrates what it means to overcome difficult circumstances and achieve success. Isadore is an example not only for today's youth, but for us all."
Isadore Sharp is the Founder and Chairman of Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts. The son of Polish immigrants, Mr. Sharp grew up in Toronto's Jewish ghetto and moved 15 times by the age of 16. After working in construction, he founded the Four Seasons Hotel in Toronto in 1961, at the age of 29.
Over the next five decades, Mr. Sharp grew Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts into what it is today - a luxury chain boasting 90 properties in 36 countries. Today, Mr. Sharp remains Chairman of the company, which was taken private in a $3.4 billion transaction in 2007.
"I am truly honoured and humbled to receive this award," said Mr. Sharp.
About the Horatio Alger Association of Canada
The Horatio Alger Association of Canada, the Canadian affiliate of the Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans, Inc., is a non-profit educational organization dedicated to the simple but powerful belief that hard work, honesty and determination can conquer all obstacles. The Association honors the achievements of outstanding individuals in our society who have succeeded in spite of adversity and who encourage young people to pursue their dreams through higher education. The Horatio Alger Association of Canada currently awards scholarships annually to deserving young people in Ontario and Quebec and will expand its scholarship giving across Canada by 2015. Members of the Association include Dominic D'Alessandro, David Foster, Wayne Gretzky, Rebecca MacDonald, the late G. Wallace F. McCain, the Rt. Hon. Brian Mulroney, Jim Pattison, Robert J. Schlegel, Prem Watsa and Rick Waugh.
SOURCE: Horatio Alger Association of Canada
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Adam Daifallah, HATLEY Strategy Advisors, 514.262.2982 [email protected]
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