John Bitove

John I. Bitove, Jr. (born 1960 in Toronto, Ontario) is a noted Canadian businessman and sportsman. Through his holding company, Obelysk, he is involved in several entities including; Sirius XM Canada, ^[1] Canada's largest subscriber audio service. He was the founder of Mobilicity a new wireless service focused on Canada's major cities, which was sold to Rogers Communications in July, 2015. He was also the major shareholder of KEYreit, ^[2] Canada's largest "small box" real estate investment trust that was sold in 2013. Bitove is also a founding Principal of Oxford Park Group, a proprietary investment vehicle for Alternative and Special Situation investment opportunities.

In 2005, he established the S’Cool Life Fund, which has raised over $2 million to fund extracurricular activities in Canadian schools. To date S'Cool Life Fund has provided grants for 746 school 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 school kids (K-8).

Bitove was the volunteer president of the City of Toronto bid for the 2008 Olympic Games.^[3] He was the founder of the Toronto Raptors of the National Basketball Association franchise as well as the creator of the new home of sports and entertainment in Toronto, the Air Canada Centre.

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.

Bitove earned an undergraduate Bachelor of Science degree in Business (marketing) from Indiana University 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.^[4]

References

1. "SiriusXM profits". Financial Post.
2. "KEYreit Sold". Globe and Mail.
3. "White Knight". Ottawa Citizen.
4. "Meet John Bitove". Globe and Mail.