John Zsolt: BOMA President's Award
On April 23rd, 2009 the Toronto chapter of Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) held their annual awards dinner. We are very proud that John Zsolt posthumously received the President's Award. This award is granted to an individual in recognition of outstanding contributions to the industry and the organization.
Jonathan Fleischer, Executive Vice President of Redcliff Realty Management Inc. is the current BOMA president. Here are his words from the presentation:
The President's Award was introduced in 2003 as a way of acknowledging an individual who, at the sole discretion of the President, has continuously contributed to the success, visibility and recognition of the BOMA organization in the real estate community.
As your new president I am truly honoured to have the opportunity to present this award.
Tonight's recipient not only made a significant contribution to BOMA, but to the real estate industry in Canada. In the early 1990's, he took an emerging technology, the CAD file, and designed a system that makes all of us in this room more effective at what we do. Not content with dominating the market in terms of calculating building areas, he was until recently creating new initiatives that will continue to improve our collective effectiveness long into the future. I am proud to say that we at Redcliff (or Emerald as we were in those days) were one of his early clients, and have every intention of continuing to support his company.
John Zsolt encouraged me to get involved with the board of BOMA Toronto and I had the privilege of serving with him in my early days on the board. John was a major contributor in charting a new course for this association in 2004, a course that has been so successful in getting us to where we are today.
In addition to serving on the Board John was active on numerous BOMA committees at the local, national and international level. He personally saw that his company sponsored, and he was involved with numerous BOMA events and activities. An expert in his field, he freely offered sage advice and guidance on technical matters.
John Zsolt (or "jaz" as he signed off on his emails) was an architect by training, a born entrepreneur, an accomplished sailor and an outstanding skier and snowboarder. He was devoted to his family, and a good friend to many in this room. I have listed many reasons why John is a deserving recipient. Most of all, I decided to award this to John so that his family, who are with us tonight, would know how widely respected and well liked he was.
Ladies and gentlemen, I am proud to present this year's BOMA Toronto President's Award posthumously to Mr. John Zsolt. I would ask Chris Gadula, president and CEO of Space Database to come up and receive the award on behalf of John's family.
John would have been delighted. He got a standing ovation which is a true testament of his contribution - it showed how deeply he touched so many people. He hadn't just built a wide network of professional relationships, John had also built real friendships with many folks in the room.