Lawrence Tanenbaum, OC
Chairman & CEO
Lawrence Tanenbaum has extensive experience as an operating executive and private equity investor and is Chairman & CEO of the Kilmer Group’s principal holding company, Kilmer Van Nostrand Co. Limited (KVN). He also has a distinguished record of public service to a variety of organizations.
In recognition of his contributions in the areas of philanthropy, business and volunteerism, Mr. Tanenbaum was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada on October 25, 2007. The Order of Canada is the centrepiece of Canada’s honors system and represents its highest civilian award.
From 1968 to 2000, Mr. Tanenbaum was President & CEO of KVN. Under his direction KVN developed into a multi-faceted civil engineering construction company with operating divisions and subsidiaries covering road building and paving, ready-mix concrete, aggregates, heavy construction, trucking and pipe manufacturing. The heavy construction operations included projects in Canada, the United States and South America and specialized in constructing subways, elevated transit system guideways, bridges and tunnels including the design-build of the Toronto Zoo elevated transit system, the elevated transit system in Miami and subways in Caracas, Atlanta, Calgary and Toronto. In 1984 this unit was merged with Canadian Foundation Company Ltd. which itself was later merged with Bannister International. From that time through December 2000 Kilmer’s road building, paving and aggregates operations were conducted through Kilmer’s wholly owned subsidiary, The Warren Paving & Materials Group Limited.
Mr. Tanenbaum served as Chairman of Warren, which, until its merger with Lafarge North America, was Canada’s largest national asphalt paving company with operations serving approximately 44 communities. Warren’s activities also included major commercial aggregates operations, liquid asphalt trading and distribution and road maintenance. In December 2000 Warren was merged into Lafarge North America Inc., North America’s largest diversified construction materials company and supplier of cement, aggregates and concrete, and other materials for residential, commercial, institutional and public works construction in the United States and Canada. As a result of this merger, Kilmer became a significant shareholder in Lafarge NA, and Mr. Tanenbaum served on the Board and chaired its Finance Committee until the 2006 buyout by Lafarge SA.
From 1975 to 1994 Mr. Tanenbaum served on the Board of Directors and the Executive Committee of CUC Broadcasting Limited in which Kilmer was a significant shareholder. At the time of its sale in 1994 CUC was Canada’s fifth largest cable company. CUC was also a key participant in the introduction of cable television in the United Kingdom. Other operations included paging, publishing, satellite, and radio broadcasting.
Mr. Tanenbaum has had a long-standing interest in the sports and entertainment area and to that end in 1991 he spearheaded the effort to bring a NBA franchise to Toronto. In 1996 an interest was acquired in the Toronto Maple Leafs hockey club and arena. In 1998 Mr. Tanenbaum was an active force in the acquisition of the Toronto Raptors basketball team and the Air Canada Centre, which, with the Toronto Maple Leafs, formed Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment Limited. Mr. Tanenbaum is Chairman of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment Limited, and is a Governor of the NBA (Toronto Raptors), the NHL (Toronto Maple Leafs) and Major League Soccer (Toronto FC).
Kilmer also has or has had significant investments in various sports-related entities, including Insight Sports Ltd., a leading sports media company involved in the creation, production, and broadcasting, on all platforms, of sports and related lifestyle content and which itself had investments in several Canadian specialty television services including The NHL Network, Score Media and the World Fishing Network (WFN).
In addition to the above and various other private investments, Mr. Tanenbaum serves as Chairman of Kilmer Capital Partners Limited, the general partner of two private equity investment funds, which provided equity capital to small to mid-market companies, including Give & Go Holdings Corp. (two-bite brownies), Unisync Group Ltd., Hydropool Industries Inc., McGregor Industries Inc., Altasciences Company Inc., Coalision Inc., and Tribal Sportswear Ltd., Atelka Enterprises Inc., and Compact Power Equipment Centres Inc.
Mr. Tanenbaum is a member of the Advisory Council, Toronto Board of Trade. He recently served as a member of the Ontario Investment and Trade Advisory Council, as a member of the Fiscal Review Panel of the City of Toronto, and the Mayor’s Economic Competitiveness Advisory Committee of the City of Toronto.
Mr. Tanenbaum’s involvement in Community Associations includes the following: Vice-Chairman, Board of Directors, Mount Sinai Hospital – a tertiary care teaching hospital associated with the University of Toronto; Co-Chairman of the Research Committee for the Lunenfeld Tanenbaum Research Institute; Member, Board of Directors, Brain Canada; Member, University Council, Cornell University; Member, Advisory Board, Baycrest Centre for Geriatric Care; Member of the Advisory Board, Montreal Neurological Institute; Member, Dean’s Advisory Council, Schulich School of Business, York University; Founding Member, Right To Play; Founding Member, Canadian Council for Israel and Jewish Advocacy, Executive Committee, UJA Federation, and Co-Chair, Tomorrow Campaign (UJA).
In June, 2012 Mr. Tanenbaum was awarded an honorary degree of Doctor of Laws by the University of Toronto. He was inducted into the Ontario Road Builders’ Hall of Fame in February, 2013 and was the recipient of the 2015 Region Builders Award from the Toronto Board of Trade in January, 2015.
Mr. Tanenbaum has a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics from Cornell University (1968).