Lewis Rose

Lewis Rose is a Canadian businessman born in South Africa. He is the Chief Executive Officer of BakerStone International,^[1] a manufacturer, marketer and distributor of pizza ovens and BBQ accessories to national retailers in the United States and Canada. BakerStone has offices in Los Angeles and Toronto. Lewis is a former executive of Maple Leaf Foods, Alliance Atlantis, Wood Gundy, CryptoLogic and used to be the Partner at Farber Financial Group,^[2] responsible for the Turnaround Management Practice.

Early life and education

Rose^[3][4][5] was raised in South Africa where he was educated at Sea Point Boys' High School in Cape Town. After high school, he attended the University of Toronto in Ontario, Canada. Rose graduated from the school in 1981 with a Bachelor of Commerce degree. In Toronto, he obtained his Chartered Accountant's designation with Coopers & Lybrand, now Price Waterhouse Coopers. He has been a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario since 1983, and has completed further education courses at Harvard University, including the Harvard Business School's Agribusiness Executive Program.

Rose is a graduate of the University of Toronto/Rotman School of Management Directors' Education Program and is a certified Director of the Institute of Corporate Directors, Canada, 2011.^[6]

Career

Rose is the Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and a shareholder of BakerStone International.^[7] With offices in Los Angeles and Toronto, BakerStone International is an award- winning manufacturer, marketer and distributor of pizza ovens and BBQ accessories to national retailers in the United States and Canada, with plans for Australia, the U.K., South Africa and other international markets. Lewis is charged with the development and growth of this unique, patent pending consumer product from a single SKU into a global branded business.

Rose used to be head of Farber Turnaround Management, part of the Farber Financial Group (http://www.farberfinancial.com^[8]), a professional financial services firm based in Toronto, Canada. Farber Turnaround maximizes the value of businesses in the face of strategic, operational or management challenges to ensure sustainable and profitable growth. Lewis returned under-performing North American and global, public and private companies to sustained profitability.^[9][10]

Rose has also written on the topic of effective Executive Management and Corporate Governance, such as : "When to fire your CEO: CP Rail’s five lessons for Boards of Directors".^[11]

Rose is a Principal and co-founder of Blueprint Partners International^[12] a Toronto-based corporate advisory firm specialising in advising boards of directors on strategic, operational, and financial matters to maximise the value of their business.

Rose served as President, Chief Executive Officer and a Director of CryptoLogic Inc., ^[13][14][15] a publicly traded global software development company listed on the London Stock Exchange, the TSX, and NASDAQ, for five years until the relocation of its executive offices to Ireland in 2007, when he chose to stay in Toronto for family reasons. Under his leadership, CryptoLogic became known as the "Blue Chip" software provider to the global Internet market, having been regulated and licensed in Alderney, considered to be the top jurisdiction in the world for online gaming regulation. During his tenure, CryptoLogic won numerous Industry awards for innovation and world class software and customer support,^[16] and partnered with customers such as William Hill plc (the largest sports bookmaker in the United Kingdom), Holland Casino (the national lottery managed by the Government of the Netherlands), the Ritz Club London (the exclusive hotel and casino in London, England), and Playboy Inc.(the iconic global brand), and license partners such as Marvel Entertainment for the licensing of characters such as The Hulk, X-Men, Daredevil, Blade, Silver Surfer, and Bejeweled. With Rose as CEO, CryptoLogic's market capitalization grew from $90 million to over $400 million,^[17] with operations in Toronto, London, Dublin, Singapore, Cyprus, Vancouver, Alderney and Curaçao.^[18] Rose's role as a shepherd of regulation-based on-line gaming while CEO at CryptoLogic increased dissension with a former disgruntled licensee of CryptoLogic. Along with other Cryptologic executives, Rose personally became target of an online smear campaign that endures; as of 2010, action against internet libel is ineffective based on complications involved in enforcement across international jurisdictions.

From 1996 to 2000, Rose was President and a Director of Atlantis Communications Inc. and then Alliance Atlantis Communications Inc, the Academy- and Emmy- award-winning international creator, international producer and distributor of television and motion pictures, with ownership interests in a number of specialty broadcast television networks. Alliance Atlantis was subsequently acquired by CanWest Global and Goldman Sachs for $2.3 billion.

In his role as Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Director, Rose was instrumental in the creation of Maple Leaf Foods Inc., the largest publicly traded food processing company in Canada with revenues in excess of $5 billion and 24,000 employees - the result of the reverse takeover of Canada Packers Inc. by Maple Leaf Mills Limited in 1990. In his eight years with the group, Rose served as a Director of publicly traded baked goods manufacturer Canada Bread Company, Ltd. and Country Style Food Services (subsequently acquired by CAI Capital Management); had financial responsibility for real estate development and the Caribbean flour, feed and poultry interests; and as President of Maple Leaf Grocery Products Division, he spearheaded the profitable turnaround of the consumer branded and private label manufacturing, sales and distribution business from a loss in 1994 to a profit in 1995.

Rose was Assistant Vice President at Wood Gundy Inc. (now CIBC World Markets) from 1984 to 1987, first in Treasury and Operations Management and then in the Mergers and Acquisitions/Corporate Finance Department before joining Maple Leaf Mills as CFO in 1987.

References