John Bitove, Sr.
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John L.N. Bitove, Sr. or John Bitov (born 1928 in Toronto, Canada) is a Canadian businessman of ethnic Macedonian descent[1].
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[edit] Biography
[edit] Early life
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Please help improve this article or section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. (January 2008) |
John L.N. Bitove, Sr. was born in Toronto to Nicholas and Vana, who in 1919 immigrated to Canada from Gavros, a village located in the Kastoria Prefecture of Macedonia, Greece.
[edit] Business career
He built, operated and developed many restaurants across Canada, including the JB's Big Boy Family Restaurants. In 1982 one of his companies obtained all of the food and beverage catering at the Toronto Pearson International Airport. In 1983 he obtained the catering rights to Toronto's SkyDome, now Rogers Centre and in 1989, he merged his existing companies to form the Bitove Corporation, at that time one of Canada's largest privately held food service companies. In the same year, he was awarded the Order of Canada.
He is a director of several companies, including Oppenheimer & Co. He also organizes, and is involved in, many charitable activities, most notably the founding of Canadian Macedonian Place, a home for the aged people of Macedonian descent in Canada[2] as well as Pro-Action, a partnership with the Metropolitan Toronto Police to fund programs in high-risk youth areas of Toronto. Bitove, Sr. is also a member of the Board of Directors of the 'Macedonia 2025' project[3] which is a project that was presented by Mike Zafirovski to the Prime Minister of the Republic of Macedonia, Nikola Gruevski, in order to try and improve the economy of the Republic of Macedonia[4].
[edit] Personal life
He is married to Dotsa and has five children — Vonna, Tom, Nick, John and Jordan.
[edit] References
- ^ Cowan, Jane K. (2000). Macedonia: The Politics of Identity and Difference. Pluto Press. p. 77. ISBN 0-7453-1589-5. Google Book Search. Retrieved on January 21, 2008. - "John Bitov is a successful businessman now living in Toronto. Of Slavo-Macedonian origin, he hails from the village of Gavros, Kastoria prefecture."
- ^ Gala Raises $1.3 Million for Scholarships and Canadian Macedonian Palace by Liljana Ristovska. Canadian Macedonian News. November 16, 2006.
- ^ Board of Directors Macedonia 2025
- ^ Nortel office to be opened in Macedonia in 2007 Government of the Republic of Macedonia]
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