Visionary social entrepreneur David Pecaut’s life demonstrates how to make a positive impact on a community.
City builder David Pecaut has been called a visionary and a pragmatist, passionate and compassionate, a bridge builder, a catalyst, and a trailblazer. Though David was a business leader and management consultant, most of these accolades flow from his volunteer work as a civic entrepreneur. A native of Sioux City, Iowa, David chose Toronto as the beneficiary of his formidable enthusiasm.
When Toronto was in the doldrums because of the SARS scare, David helped the city restore its tourism industry by chairing the Toront03 Alliance, launched by a flamboyant Rolling Stones concert. David was perhaps best known for co-founding Luminato, the international festival that each spring showcases the world’s finest artists to audiences of over a million.
As chair of the Toronto City Summit Alliance, David worked as easily with the homeless, minorities, and poverty activists as with billionaires, corporate CEOs, and labour leaders to tackle pressing social and economic issues. He was the driving force behind the Career Edge youth internship program, the Strong Neighbourhoods Task Force, the Toronto Region Immigrant Employment Council, DiverseCity, the Emerging Leaders Network, the task force on modernizing income security, and Greening Greater Toronto.
David’s efforts to make Toronto the most socially and culturally dynamic urban centre in the world were cut short when he succumbed to cancer in December 2009. When it became obvious that his time was running out, he took copious notes and recorded interviews with friends, colleagues, and family, all of which are the basis for this book, a memoir by his wife Helen Burstyn.
Authors
- Control Number Identifier
- CaOOCEL
- Dewey Decimal Classification Number
- 971.3/54104092
- Dewey Decimal Edition Number
- 23
- General Note
- Includes index Issued as part of the desLibris books collection
- Geographic Area Code
- n-cn-on
- ISBN
- 9781459707931 9781459707924
- Modifying agency
- CaBNVSL
- Original cataloging agency
- CaOONL
- Physical Description | Extent
- 1 electronic text (198 p.)
- Published in
- Canada
- Publisher or Distributor Number
- CaOOCEL
- Rights
- Access restricted to authorized users and institutions
- System Control Number
- (CaBNVSL)slc00230896 (OCoLC)806536113 (CaOOCEL)444112
- System Details Note
- Mode of access: World Wide Web
- Transcribing agency
- CaOONL
Table of Contents
- Cover 1
- Eleven out of Ten 5
- Copyright 6
- Contents 9
- Acknowledgement 11
- Introduction 13
- The Mythical Man 19
- Mergers, Personal and Professional 31
- Eleven Out of Ten 40
- The Harvard Years 55
- Fertilizer, Finance, and Fine Arts 63
- The Green Polyester Suit 68
- You Will Meet a Tall, Blond Stranger 84
- Fast Forward 93
- SARS ’03: The Stones Take Downsview 105
- Hiring Mr. Softee 115
- A Cuisinart with No Off Switch 122
- The Lunch That Launched Five Thousand Dreams 132
- The Absolut David 145
- Greening Greater Toronto 152
- All You Need Is to Be the One 158
- A Wedding and a Funeral 169
- Remembering David 178
- The Last Chapter 188
- Photo Insert 1 193
- Photo Insert 2 201
- Index 209
- Of Related Interest 217
