Anthony Lacavera
Lacavera at the Canadian Film Centre (CFC), 2011
Lacavera at the Canadian Film Centre (CFC), 2011
Born1974 (age 4950)[1]
NationalityCanadian
Alma materUniversity of Toronto (1997)
Occupation(s)Businessman, venture capitalist, television host
Years active1998 - present
Known forGlobalive (founder, chairman)
Wind Mobile (founder)
Notable workBeyond Innovation

Anthony Lacavera is a Canadian businessman, venture capitalist, television host, and philanthropist. He is founder, chairman, and former CEO of Globalive, a Toronto-based telecommunications and investment company. He has also founded several other companies including Wind Mobile, a wireless service provider which was sold to Shaw Communications in 2016 for $1.6 billion.

He also started a media company, Globalive Media, which produces the television series Beyond Innovation that airs on Bloomberg TV globally. He has produced Cat on a Hot Tin Roof in 2008 which received Laurence Olivier Award for Best Revival in 2010. He has also produced A Streetcar Named Desire for Broadway.

Early life and education

Lacavera was born in 1974 in Welland, Ontario. His father was a lawyer and a high school teacher.[2] His sister Catherine is also a businesswoman and was among the list of Fortune's 40 Under 40 in 2013.[3]

He went to Notre Dame College School in Welland,[4] and Neuchâtel Junior College in Neuchâtel, Switzerland until 1993.[5][6] He went to University of Toronto and joined Applied Science and Engineering school and graduated in computer engineering in 1997.[7] In 2012, he has also received an honorary diploma in "Business and Entrepreneurship" from the Niagara College.[8]

He played Junior "B" ice hockey leagues in Welland and Thorold.[4]

Career

After graduation, Lacavera founded Globalive in 1998 with a $25,000 small business loan from the Royal Bank of Canada. Globalive is a telecommunications and investment company based in Toronto, Ontario.[2]

The first operating company was Canopco, a communication company in the hospitality industry, supplying hotels and hospitals with a variety of services.[9] In 1999, he founded InterClear, a billing and collection service and then in 2000, Assemble Conferencing. These are three companies were merged into each other and started calling Globalive Communications, which was later converted into Globalive.[10]

In 2001, he co-founded Enunciate Conferencing with two partners, which was sold to Premiere Global Services for USD $28.3 million in 2006.[10][2] In 2003, he founded OneConnect Services through his Globalive, to provide communications technologies to small and medium sized businesses.[11]

Lacavera through his Globalive acquired Yak Communications for all-cash USD $67.7 million in 2006, a communications company founded in 1991 by Charles Zwebner.[12][13]

In 2008, Globalive founded WIND Mobile, a wireless telecommunications provider, and Lacavera became the Founder CEO of the company.[14] He also founded an investment firm, Globalive Capital Inc.[15] In 2015, Lacavera stepped down as a CEO of Globalive Capital and appointed its previously chief financial officer, Brice Scheschuk as the new CEO.[16]

He also started an augmented reality solutions company, a joint venture between Globalive and Gibraltar Ventures's XMG Studios, called Globalive XMG.[17] Globalive XMG was later sold to the Los Angeles-based Civic Resource Group's CivicConnect.[18]

Anthony closed a deal of $1.6 billion to sell WIND Mobile to Shaw Communications in March 2016, which Shaw renamed it to Freedom Mobile.[19][20] The same year in September, Lacavera also sold his other three companies including the Yak Communications to Distributel, OneConnect Services and Canopco to Accelerated Connections Inc (ACI).[21]

In March 2022, Lacavera showed an interest to reacquire Freedom/Wind from Shaw in a pending merger with Rogers Communications for C$3.75 billion to satisfy regulatory concerns.[22][23] After an unresponsive behavior from Rogers, Lacavera's Globalive directly went to Shaw making the same offer to buy the company.[24]

Theatre and other media

In 2008, Lacavera co-produced the all-African-American Broadway production of Tennessee Williams' Pulitzer Prize-winning drama Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, starring James Earl Jones, Phylicia Rashad, Anika Noni Rose, and Terrence Howard.[25] The production, with some roles recast, had a limited run (2009 – April 2010) in London's West End Productions. It received Laurence Olivier Award for Best Revival in 2010.[26]

He has also co-produced Broadway's A Streetcar Named Desire in 2012, another play by Williams. It was directed by Emily Mann, starring Blair Underwood, Nicole Ari Parker, Daphne Rubin-Vega, and Wood Harris.[27]

He started a media company, Globalive Media, with journalist Michael Bancroft, produced and premiered its first television series, Beyond Innovation, a weekly technology and business related program, aired in November 2018 on Bloomberg TV globally.[28] In March 2020, the second season of the half-hourly series premiered on Bloomberg.[29]

Philanthropy

In 2012, Lacavera started "Lacavera Prize" in partnership with The Entrepreneurship Hatchery at the University of Toronto, to help university students looking to start an entrepreneurial venture.[30][31] Kepler Communications is one of successful telecommunications companies which won the prize and founded in 2015 by the University's four graduate students.[32]

He is director and co-chair of NEXT Canada, a non-profit organization.[33] He is also a founding partner of the Creative Destruction Lab, a nonprofit organization,[34] with five locations at different educational institutes in Canada and the United States.[35]

Books

  • How We Can Win: And What Happens to Us and Our Country If We Don't (Penguin Random House Canada, 2017)[36]ISBN 073527259X, 9780735272590

Awards and honors

References

  1. Castaldo, Joe. "Bio: Anthony Lacavera". Canadian Business. Retrieved 28 July 2022.
  2. 1 2 3 "Laughed out of 84 Investor Meetings, by @tommy". ceo.ca. Retrieved 28 July 2022.
  3. "40 Under 40 2013". Fortune. Retrieved 28 July 2022.
  4. 1 2 "Welland man?s company bought for $1.6 billion". niagarafallsreview.com. 4 January 2016. Retrieved 28 July 2022.
  5. Neil, Brenda (6 January 2018). "Students Step Outside of Their Comfort Zones | Neuchâtel Junior College". Preferred Magazine. Retrieved 28 July 2022.
  6. Leong, Melissa (14 September 2013). "How to build a CEO: Raising your kids for business success". Financial Post. Retrieved 28 July 2022.
  7. "Anthony Lacavera - Bachelor of Applied Science (BASc) 1997". University of Toronto Alumni. Retrieved 28 July 2022.
  8. 1 2 "encore - Winter 2013 by Niagara College Canada - Issuu". Issuu. Retrieved 28 July 2022.
  9. Avery, Simon (12 December 2009). "THE NEW PLAYERS". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 28 July 2022.
  10. 1 2 Castaldo, Joe. "How Tony Lacavera is helping Canadian startups cross the "Valley of Death"". canadianbusiness.com. Retrieved 28 July 2022.
  11. "Globalive Capital announces the sale of Yak Communications, OneConnect Services Inc. and Canopco". www.newswire.ca. Retrieved 28 July 2022.
  12. "Yak Communications Inc. to be Acquired for $5.25 per Share in an All Cash Offer by Gl... - Sep. 21, 2006". CNN Business. 21 September 2006. Retrieved 28 July 2022.
  13. "Yak Communications agrees to $67.7M US friendly takeover". CBC. 21 September 2022. Retrieved 28 July 2022.
  14. Lamont, Jonathan (18 December 2021). "Wind Mobile founder Anthony Lacavera wants to buy Freedom Mobile". MobileSyrup. Retrieved 28 July 2022.
  15. "Wind Mobile CEO to step down; Orascom to gain control". Reuters. 18 January 2013. Retrieved 28 July 2022.
  16. "Brice Scheschuk | Globalive Capital by Entrepreneurs in Small Rooms Drinking Coffee". Anchor. Retrieved 28 July 2022.
  17. "Gibraltar AR Investment | Gibraltar & Company News". www.gibraltarcompany.ca. Retrieved 28 July 2022.
  18. Spence, Rick (6 June 2016). "Tony Lacavera: Businesses have to be on the hook to invest in Canadian startups". Financial Post. Retrieved 28 July 2022.
  19. "Shaw Communications buying Wind Mobile in deal valued at $1.6 billion". CBC. 16 December 2015. Retrieved 28 July 2022.
  20. Bradshaw, James (1 March 2016). "Shaw enters wireless market with closing of Wind Mobile deal". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 28 July 2022.
  21. "Globalive Capital announces the sale of Yak Communications, OneConnect Services Inc. and Canopco". www.newswire.ca. 7 September 2016. Retrieved 28 July 2022.
  22. "Freedom Mobile's Original Founder Bids $3.75 Billion to Buy it Back from Rogers | iPhone in Canada Blog". 16 March 2022.
  23. "Globalive offers $3.75 billion in cash for Freedom Mobile, says media report". Financial Post. 16 March 2022. Retrieved 28 July 2022.
  24. "Globalive goes directly to Shaw with its $3.75 billion bid for Freedom Mobile". Toronto Star. 3 June 2022. Retrieved 28 July 2022.
  25. Brantley, Ben (7 March 2008). "Yet Another Life for Maggie the Cat". The New York Times. Retrieved 28 July 2022.
  26. "Cat On A Hot Tin Roof at Novello from 21 Nov 2009". London Theatre. 8 June 2016. Retrieved 28 July 2022.
  27. Rooney, David (22 April 2012). "A Streetcar Named Desire: Theater Review". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 28 July 2022.
  28. "Globalive Media Takes Viewers "Beyond Innovation" With Insider's Look At Technology's Top Changemakers Around The World". www.prnewswire.com. Retrieved 28 July 2022.
  29. "Globalive Media Launches Second Season of "Beyond Innovation" to Discover Technology's Top Entrepreneurs Transforming Our World". Bloomberg Television. 10 March 2020. Retrieved 28 July 2022.
  30. Mitchell, Marit (24 November 2017). "'We need to celebrate our successes': Tony Lacavera tells The Hatchery how Canadian entrepreneurs can win". U of T Engineering News. Retrieved 28 July 2022.
  31. Czikk, Joseph (19 September 2013). "U of T's Modly Takes 2013 Lacavera Prize for Entrepreneurship | BetaKit". BetaKit. Retrieved 28 July 2022.
  32. Irving, Tyler (15 September 2015). "Four student startups - Entrepreneurship Hatchery Demo Day". U of T Engineering News. Retrieved 28 July 2022.
  33. "Tony Lacavera doesn't think Canada should be pursuing a deal with Amazon | IT World Canada News". www.itworldcanada.com. 22 September 2017. Retrieved 28 July 2022.
  34. "Press Release | NYU Stern Announces the Establishment of the First Creative Destruction Lab in the U.S. - NYU Stern". www.stern.nyu.edu. 10 October 2017. Retrieved 28 July 2022.
  35. "Creative Destruction Lab joins UW Foster School of Business, establishing CDL-Seattle". UW News. 20 May 2021. Retrieved 28 July 2022.
  36. "How We Can Win by Anthony Lacavera and Kate Fillion". Penguin Random House Canada. Retrieved 28 July 2022.
  37. "Canada's Top 40 Under 40 - Honourees 2005". canadastop40under40.com. Retrieved 28 July 2022.
  38. "Diversity Magazine's Visionary Stars". diversityexpo.org. Retrieved 28 July 2022.
  39. 1 2 "Anthony Lacavera, Chairman and CEO, Wind Mobile and Globalive Group | C.D. Howe Institute | Canada Economy News | Canadian Government Policy". www.cdhowe.org. Retrieved 28 July 2022.
  40. "Canada Gazette, Part I, Volume 146, Number 13: Government House". canadagazette.gc.ca. Retrieved July 29, 2022.
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