Samuel Belzberg

Background

Belzberg, Samuel was born on June 26, 1928 in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Son of Abraham and Hinda (Fishman) Belzberg.

Education

Bachelor of Commerce, U. Alberta, Edmonton, 1948.

Career

Born to a Jewish family in Calgary, Alberta and educated at the University of Alberta. In 1962, he founded the provincial trust company, City Savings and Trust in Edmonton which was heavily involved in real-estate development financing. In 1970, he founded First City Financial Corp as the parent company for City Savings and Trust.

By the late 1980s, First City Financial Corp, now a diversified holding company, had assets of $5.4 billion with operations in Canada and the US. First City was involved in many large investment transactions including Bache Securities before it was sold to Prudential, Gulf Oil, Armstrong World (a large building supply company) and Scovill (a manufacturing company which included Yale Locks, Hamilton Beach, NuTone) which they purchased in 1985 for $523 million. During the 1990s, Belzberg founded Balfour Holdings Ltd., a real estate company which, at its peak, operated over 26 projects spreading through the United States. Balfour’s mandate was to profit from the dislocations in value in the United States due to the Savings and Loan crisis.

Balfour subdivided and serviced its purchased lands and sold the lots to National Builders. In 1997, Balfour was sold to The Blackstone Group, a large U.S. private equity group and generated realized returns in excess of 20% per annum. During the 1990s, Mr.

Belzberg was an active acquirer of distressed property in Alberta where values had dramatically declined due to the softness in the oil industry. These properties were subsequently divested when the market recovered. In 1992, Belzberg started a private real estate and equity investments company, which is now called Gibralt Capital Corporation.

Belzberg serves on various Board of Directors and is involved with numerous charities.

Achievements

• Belzberg serves on various Board of Directors and is involved with numerous charities. He was awarded the Order of Canada in 1989 from the Governor General, and also in 1989 he received an honorary doctorate from Simon Fraser University. In 1992, he received the Governor General of Canada Award.
  
  In 2002, Mr. Belzberg was promoted to Officer of the Order of Canada. In 1977, with a donation of $500,000, he helped fund the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles. He is the founder of both the Canadian and American Dystonia Medical Research Foundations.In 1988 he was made a Member of the Order of Canada and was promoted to Officer in 2001.
  
  In 2009, he was made a member of the Order of British Columbia.

Membership

In 2009, he was made a member of the Order of British Columbia.

Connections

Married Frances Cooper. Children: Cheryl Rae, Marc David, Wendy Jay, Lisa.

Father:

Abraham Belzberg

Mother:

Hinda (Fishman) Belzberg

Spouse:

Frances Cooper

child:

Marc David Belzberg

child:

Cheryl Rae Belzberg

child:

Lisa Belzberg

child:

Wendy Jay Belzberg