Leslie Dan

Leslie Lewis Dan, CM , O.Ont , MBA , LL.D , B.Sc (born November 26, 1929) is a Canadian businessman and philanthropist.

Born in Budapest, Dan came to Canada in 1947. As a teenage Jew, he survived the Holocaust by using false identity papers. He came to Canada in 1947 and graduated from the University of Toronto School of Pharmacy in 1954 obtaining a Bachelor of Science degree. He completed his Master of Business Administration degree in 1959. In 1960, he founded a company which distributed over-the-counter drugs.

In 1965, he founded Novopharm. In 2000 when he sold the company to Israel's Teva Pharmaceuticals for an estimated $430 million, it had sales of $750 million and employed 3,000 people. He then started a new company, Viventia (formerly Novopharm Biotech), which specializes in the discovery and development of products for the treatment of cancer. He is currently the chairman.

In 2003, he had an estimated net worth of $1.26 billion.

Dan is well-known as a philanthropist. His perspective on helping others is formed out of faith in truths from the Jewish Torah and Talmud. From the latter, Dan has noted writings in the Bava Bathra chapters, including: "Charity is equal in importance to all other commandments combined." And, "Who gives charity in secret is greater than Moses." [As reported on Charity Village 1995. Main Street, Resources & Library. Research Articles.]

His donations and honours include:
*He donated $15 million to the University of Toronto.
**The University of Toronto Leslie L. Dan Pharmacy Building, designed by Sir Norman Foster and completed in 2006, is named in his honourcite news
url=http://www.greatspaces.utoronto.ca/projects/pharmacy.htm
publisher=University of Toronto
title=U of T Capital Projects; Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy
date=unknown] .
*He founded the Canadian Medicine Aid Programme (CAN-MAP) in 1985, an organization which provides life-saving medicines and other aid to the sick in the Third World.
*In 1996, he was made a Member of the Order of Canada and awarded the Order of Ontario.
*He received an honorary Doctorate of Laws Degree from Dalhousie University in 1996 and the University of British Columbia in 1995.
*In 1997, he received the Distinguished Business Alumnus Award by the University of Toronto Joseph L. Rotman Faculty of Management.
*The Aish HaTorah's Dan Family Building is named in his honour.
*He has donated to Yad Vashem.

He married Judith in 1958. She died in 1995. They had three children, Dr. Michael D. Dan, Aubrey Dan, and Andrea Dan-Hytman. He married Anna in 1996. They share no children. Aubrey Dan is president of Dancap Private Equity and Andrea Dan-Hytman is co-owner of Viventia Biotech Inc. Dan's second son, Aubrey, brought suit against Leslie Dan in order to obtain his inheritance prior to his father's death.

References

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External links

* [http://www.gg.ca/honours/search-recherche/honours-desc.asp?lang=e&TypeID=orc&id=3571 Order of Canada Citation]
*Canadians of Hungarian ancestry