John I. Bitove (Jr.)[1] (born 1960 in Toronto, Ontario) is a noted Canadian businessman and sportsman. He is the founder of the Toronto Raptors of the NBA.[2] Through his holding company, Obelysk, he is involved in several entities including; Sirius XM Canada,[3] Canada's largest subscriber radio service.[4] and Bird the global leader in electric scooters, operating in over 350 cities in 34 counties. He is the founder of Mobilicity, a mobile wireless service, which was sold to Rogers Communications in July, 2015. He was also the major shareholder of KEYreit,[5] Canada's largest "small box" real estate investment trust that was sold in 2013.[6] [7]
John Bitove | |
|---|---|
| Born | John I Bitove, (Jr.) 1960 (age 63–64) |
| Nationality | Canadian |
| Education | |
| Occupation | Businessman |
| Notable work | Founder of Toronto Raptors |
| Parents |
|
On September 30, 1993 the National Basketball Association awarded a group led by Bitove to be the 29th team to join the league. In addition to being the Founder of the Toronto Raptors basketball team, he led the creation of what is now the Scotiabank Arena formerly the Air Canada Centre, the major home of sports and entertainment in Toronto, including some new, state-of-art stadium features.
In 2005, he established the S'Cool Life Fund, which has raised over $2.8 million to fund extracurricular activities in Canadian public schools. To date S'Cool Life Fund has provided grants to over 1,000 schools for D.R.E.A.M.S. (Drama, Recreation, Extra-Curricular, Arts, Music, or Sports) projects across Canada helping to make school life more enjoyable for thousands of public elementary children in grades K-8.
Bitove was the volunteer president of the City of Toronto bid for the 2008 Olympic Games.[8]
He has also been the volunteer organizer for the 1993 IAAF World Indoor Championships in Athletics (track and field) and the 1994 FIBA World Championship of Basketball. In 2005, he received the first James Naismith Award of Excellence by Canada Basketball.[9]
Bitove earned an undergraduate Bachelor of Science degree in Business (marketing) from Indiana University Bloomington in 1983. He is a member of the Beta Eta chapter of Sigma Nu fraternity. He also received a Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of Windsor in 1984 and was called to the bar and admitted to the Law Society of Upper Canada (Ontario) in 1986. Since 2007 he has served on the board of trustees of Wake Forest University in North Carolina. He is the son of John Bitove, Sr. and is of Macedonian heritage.[1] He is married to Randi Zenner Bitove and has three children.
References
edit- ^ a b "Meet John Bitove". Globe and Mail.
- ^ "Raptors founder John Bitove still on the bandwagon after all these years | The Star". thestar.com. Retrieved 2019-07-01.
- ^ "SiriusXM profits". Financial Post.
- ^ "Meet John Bitove". Retrieved 2019-07-01.
- ^ "KEYreit Sold". Globe and Mail.
- ^ KEYreit. "KEYreit Offer Valued at $325 Million by Plazacorp is Completed". www.newswire.ca. Retrieved 2019-07-01.
- ^ "Toronto entrepreneur who founded Raptors beams with pride about success of basketball in Canada". Global News. Retrieved 2020-06-10.
- ^ "White Knight". Ottawa Citizen.[permanent dead link]
- ^ "Raptors' founder to receive Canada Basketball honour". Retrieved 2019-07-01.
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