John I. Bitove (Jr.) (born 1960 in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

) is a noted

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

businessman and sportsman. He is the Founder of the

Toronto Raptors The Toronto Raptors are a Canadian professional basketball team based in Toronto. The Raptors compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Atlantic Division. They play their home games a ...

of the NBA. Through his

holding company A holding company is a company whose primary business is holding a controlling interest in the securities of other companies. A holding company usually does not produce goods or services itself. Its purpose is to own shares of other companies ...

, Obelysk, he is involved in several entities including;

Sirius XM Canada Sirius XM Canada Holdings Inc. (commonly referred to as Sirius XM Canada) is a Canadian radio broadcasting company, which operates as a Canadian affiliate of Sirius XM Radio. The company received approval from the Canadian Radio-television and ...

, Canada's largest subscriber radio service. He is the founder of Mobilicity, a mobile wireless service, which was sold to

Rogers Communications Rogers Communications Inc. is a Canadian communications and media company operating primarily in the fields of wireless communications, cable television, telephony and Internet, with significant additional telecommunications and mass media ass ...

in July, 2015. He was also the major shareholder of

KEYreit KEYreit (formerly Scott's Real Estate Investment Trust) was a publicly traded real estate investment trust in Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the P ...

, Canada's largest "small box" real estate investment trust that was sold in 2013. On September 30, 1993 the

National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball sports league, league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues i ...

invited a group led by Bitove to be the 29th team to join the league. In addition to being the Founder of the

basketball team, he led the creation of the

Air Canada Centre Scotiabank Arena (French: ''Aréna Scotiabank)'', formerly known as Air Canada Centre (ACC), is a multi-purposed arena located on Bay Street in the South Core district of Downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is the home of the Toronto Ra ...

the new home of sports and entertainment in Toronto, including some new, state-of-art stadium features. In 2005, he established the S'Cool Life Fund, which has raised over $2.8 million to fund extracurricular activities in Canadian public schools. To date S'Cool Life Fund has provided grants to over 1,000 schools for D.R.E.A.M.S. (Drama, Recreation, Extra-Curricular, Arts, Music, or Sports) projects across Canada helping to make school life more enjoyable for thousands of public elementary children in grades K-8. Bitove was the volunteer president of the City of

bid for the

2008 Olympic Games The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and also known as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 Nat ...

. He has also been the volunteer organizer for the 1993

IAAF World Indoor Championships The World Athletics Indoor Championships are a biennial indoor track and field competition served as the global championship for that version of the sport. Organised by the World Athletics, the competition was inaugurated as the ''World Indoor G ...

in Athletics (track and field) and the 1994

FIBA The International Basketball Federation (FIBA ; French: ) is an association of national organizations which governs the sport of basketball worldwide. Originally known as the (hence FIBA), in 1989 it dropped the word ''amateur'' from its nam ...

World Championship of Basketball. In 2005, he received the first

James Naismith James Naismith (; November 6, 1861November 28, 1939) was a Canadian-American physical educator, physician, Christian chaplain, and sports coach, best known as the inventor of the game of basketball. After moving to the United States, he wrote ...

Award of Excellence by Canada Basketball. Bitove earned an undergraduate Bachelor of Science degree in Business (marketing) from

Indiana University Bloomington Indiana University Bloomington (IU Bloomington, Indiana University, IU, or simply Indiana) is a public research university in Bloomington, Indiana. It is the flagship campus of Indiana University and, with over 40,000 students, its largest c ...

in 1983. He is a member of the Beta Eta chapter of

Sigma Nu Sigma Nu () is an undergraduate college fraternity founded at the Virginia Military Institute on January 1, 1869. The fraternity was founded by James Frank Hopkins, Greenfield Quarles and James McIlvaine Riley shortly after Hopkins witnessed w ...

fraternity. He also received a

Bachelor of Laws Bachelor of Laws ( la, Legum Baccalaureus; LL.B.) is an undergraduate law degree in the United Kingdom and most common law jurisdictions. Bachelor of Laws is also the name of the law degree awarded by universities in the People's Republic of Ch ...

degree from the

University of Windsor , mottoeng = Goodness, Discipline and Knowledge , established = , academic_affiliations = CARL, COU, Universities Canada , former_names = Assumption College (1857-1956)Assumption University of Windsor (1956-1963) , type = Public universi ...

in 1984 and was called to the bar and admitted to the

Law Society of Upper Canada The Law Society of Ontario (LSO; french: Barreau de l'Ontario) is the law society responsible for the self-regulation of lawyers and paralegals in the Canadian province of Ontario. Founded in 1797 as the Law Society of Upper Canada (LSUC; frenc ...

(Ontario) in 1986. Since 2007 he has served on the board of trustees of

Wake Forest University Wake Forest University is a private research university in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Founded in 1834, the university received its name from its original location in Wake Forest, north of Raleigh, North Carolina. The Reynolda Campus, the un ...

in North Carolina. He is the son of John Bitove, Sr. and is of

Macedonian Macedonian most often refers to someone or something from or related to Macedonia. Macedonian(s) may specifically refer to: People Modern * Macedonians (ethnic group), a nation and a South Slavic ethnic group primarily associated with North Ma ...

heritage. He is married to Randi Zenner Bitove and has three children.

References

1960 births Living people Businesspeople from Toronto Canadian radio executives Canadian people of Macedonian descent Indiana University Bloomington alumni Canadian sports businesspeople Toronto Raptors executives Wake Forest University people University of Windsor alumni Canadian chairpersons of corporations Canadian real estate businesspeople {{Canada-business-bio-stub