Gaetan Croteau
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Born in Montreal Quebec Canada on March 12, 1954
- Age 9, professional magician in Montreal theatres under the name “The Great Donovan”
- Age 13, summer job in a remake of Harry Houdini’s handcuffed underwater mailbag escape (for Expo ‘67 in Montreal)
- Age 14, world hypnotism record: keeps a 24-year-old woman (Miss Metropole) under hypnosis for 4 days in a row in a furniture store display window (Ameublement Léger in Montreal)
- Age 15, writes a book on hypnotism, An Approach to Hypnotism in 6 Lessons (French version only)
- Age 16, founder of the Canadian Academy of Hypnotism at the Palais du Commerce in Montreal (therapeutic hypnotism school)
- Age 26, receives a trophy for owning and promoting the best nightclub in the province of Quebec: Cabaret 1390 in Montreal (between the ages of 18 and 26 owns a total of 5 high-profile nightclubs in the city)
- Age 27, founder and president of Aerostatics Development Corp, which produced first solo crossing of the Atlantic in a gas balloon, with Colonel Joe W. Kittinger, Jr. as pilot, an internationally acclaimed achievement: The "Balloon of Peace" flight. Signs sponsorship contract with prestigious Americans Major Corporation to finance his nearly-$1 million project. Manages a team consisting of 5 former United State Air Force colonels
- Age 30, successfully negotiates an important sponsorship contract for the flight across the Atlantic with the select and prestigious National Geographic Society in Washington, D.C. The successful expedition was honoured at the White House by Ronald Reagan, at the Vatican, the Paris City Hall and the Presidential Palace in Rome, Italy (National Geographic, Feb. 1985).
- Age 31, real-estate promoter; with Loft Concept Inc. develops one of the first projects of its kind in Montreal, rehabilitating a slum building into an affordable loft-concept apartment complex (today totalling 185 apartments)
- Age 35, important lecture before high-ranking scientists of the Centre National d’Étude Spatiale (C.N.E.S.) in Albertville, France. Topic: “How to Get Sponsorship for Space Travel” (The Great Race to the Moon Project – Photon Solar Sailship)
- Age 36, development of a Condominium project in Port au Prince, Haiti: the Ibo Beach Club Condominium
- Age 40, birth of his first and only child, Nicolas
- Age 41, senior adviser in real estate investment for the Montreal firm of Arthur Andersen
- Age 42, writes a complete real-estate course called "Profit à l'Achat" to help the individual buyer avoid the trap of the market (350 page book, 6 hours of video and a real-estate transaction analysis software sold via infomercial)
- Age 45, decides to devote the rest of his professional life to promoting a new concept in housing from a French designer Philippe Starck
- Age 46, awarded the Great Medal of the City of Paris (Silver level), one of the highest forms of recognition France grants to a civilian
- As a sailor, combined 21 years’ experience sailing boats longer than 12 metres; sailed all over Caribbean, Mediterranean, Atlantic East coast, Gulf of Mexico, for a total of over 20,000 nautical miles (40,000 km) in six differents sailboats, including 8,000 nautical miles (15,000 km) solo
