Albert D. Cohen

Albert Diamond Cohen, OC, LL.D (born January 20, 1914) is a Canadian entrepreneur, community builder, philanthropist, and Officer of the Order of Canada. Currently, he is Chairman, Co-President and Co-Chief Executive Officer of Gendis Inc. (www.gendis.ca), a Toronto Stock Exchange listed Canadian real estate and investment company headquartered in Winnipeg, Manitoba. At one time, Gendis held a 51% stake in Sony of Canada and owned the SAAN Stores retail chain. He has been married to Irena Cohen since 1953 and they have three children: Anthony, James, and Anna-Lisa. He is the author of several books: The Entrepreneurs: The Story of Gendis Inc...The Triangle of Success: The Gendis/Saan Story...The Story of SAAN...and...I.D.E.A. His interest and talent for writing stems from his close personal friendship with the late British author Ian Fleming.

Background

Cohen came from a poor immigrant family of eight, born in Winnipeg, Manitoba as the son of Alexander and Rose (Diamond) Cohen, and he served with the Royal Canadian Navy from 1942 to 1945.

Albert's five brothers, John, Harry B. Cohen, Morley Cohen, Samuel N. Cohen, and Joseph H. Cohen set up a small retail store and, by 1939, the family had scraped together enough monies to create General Distributors Ltd., a wholesale import firm.

Sony and the Cohen Brothers

By 1950, General Distributors sales amounted to $1 million. In 1952, the company obtained exclusive Canadian rights for Paper Mate pens. Albert negotiated the sale of Papermate in Canada to the Gillette (brand) Company of Boston, Massachusetts in 1955 whereby Gendis continued to distribute the Papermate pen in Canada until 1962 when Gillette fully took over. Then, in 1955, Cohen accomplished feat of landing the Canadian distribution rights to Sony products. Spotting an ad in a Japanese newspaper seeking a distributor for a new portable transistor radio, Cohen met with Sony co-founder, Akio Morita. On the basis of a handshake deal, Cohen cemented a partnership that would last for decades. The Cohen brothers scattered across Canada in order to manage the national business, each brother establishing himself in a major city: Morley (Montreal), John (Toronto), Joe (Vancouver), Harry (Calgary), and both Sam and Albert setting up headquarters (Winnipeg). Gendis' stake in Sony of Canada was sold back to Sony Corporation of Tokyo, Japan in 1995 for $207,000,000. This was a crowning achievement for Albert, the man who launched Sony's first national export business. In recognition of his forty year association with Sony, Albert received the Sony Lifetime Achievement Award in Tokyo in 2000.

SAAN, Metropolitan, real estate, and the Cohen Brothers

The six brothers expanded into real estate and retailing. Over the years, they established several hundred SAAN Stores and Metropolitan junior department stores in all provinces of Canada. The explosive growth of the SAAN Stores chain was guided by Samuel N. Cohen while Metropolitan's expansion was overseen by Morley Cohen. By 1983, the company was a diversified Canadian conglomerate, renamed Gendis. SAAN Stores was eventually sold in 2004 to a Toronto based investor group and sold again in 2008 to Genuity Capital, owner of The Bargain! Shop discount chain.

At one point, it is said the Cohen brothers owned downtown real estate in almost every major Canadian city. Albert began to accumulate real estate in downtown Winnipeg starting in the early 1960s and Gendis finally sold its city block of property to Manitoba Hydro in 2003 for $16.2 million to allow for construction of the new Manitoba Hydro headquarters which officially opened in September 2009.

Oil & Gas, and the Cohen Brothers

Under Albert's guidance, the six brothers participated in various joint ventures and/or owned several minority interests in oil & gas exploration, development, and distribution. The companies included Tripet Resources; Chauvco Resources; Pioneer Natural Resources; Fort Chicago Energy Partners L.P.; and Tundra Oil & Gas.

Gendis Today

Through a variety of investment companies, the Cohen family is the largest shareholder of Gendis Inc., as well as major shareholders of Fort Chicago Energy Partners L.P.,(TSX-listed), and privately held OSUM Oilsands Corporation, both of Calgary, Alberta. James Cohen (Albert's youngest son) is currently the Co-President and Co-CEO of Gendis Inc., President of Gendis Realty, and served as interim President and Chief Operating Officer of SAAN Stores in 2004 during the sale of the retail chain.

Philanthropy

Cohen is considered to be one of the major community builders/philanthropists in Winnipeg. He has been a large contributor to the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, Manitoba Theatre Centre, Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, Manitoba Opera, and various Winnipeg hospitals.

Several of his notable accomplishments include:

Founding Member, Canada-Japan Business Committee
Former President, Manitoba Theatre Centre (1968-1969, 1970-1971, 1976-1981)
Former President, Winnipeg Clinic Research Institute (1975-1980)
Former President, Dr. Paul Thorlakson Research Foundation (1978-1980)
Past Commissioner, Metric ^{[disambiguation needed]} Board, Ottawa (1978)

Awards

Man of the Year, Sales and Advertising Club, Winnipeg (1974)
Member of the Order of Canada (1983)
International Distinguished Entrepreneur Award, University of Manitoba (1983)
National Business Book Award, The Entrepreneurs: the Story of Gendis (1986)
Honorary Doctorate, University of Manitoba (1987)
Order of Excellence Achievement Award, Manitoba Sport Directorate (1990)
Commemorative Medal, 125th Anniversary of Canadian Confederation (1992)
Officer of the Order of Canada (1994)
Canadian Business Hall of Fame (1994)
Albert D. Cohen Management Library at the University of Manitoba's Asper School of Business
The Albert D. Cohen Building at St. John's-Ravenscourt School
Sony Lifetime Achievement Award (2000)

While Cohen has collected an array of awards for business achievements and community service during his life, he is particularly proud of the fact that he holds three Canadian speed skating records in Master 5 Class (over 70 age category), as per the Ottawa Amateur Speedskating Association.