Silvio De Gasperis and Jack Eisenberger: Community Partners
Silvio De Gasperis and Jack Eisenberger personify community-building, leveraging their personal successes for the greater good.
Smaller only than Mexico City, New York and Los Angeles, the Greater Toronto Area has grown to become North America’s fourth largest metropolitan area due in large part to people like Silvio De Gasperis, founder, president and CEO of the TACC Group of Companies, and Jack Eisenberger, president of Fieldgate Developments.
The two men have not only provided the physical properties and infrastructure that support a region of 6.5 million people through their construction and development partnership, they have also used that success to give back to the community by supporting organizations that provide vital services to ensure its health.
Organizations such as Chai Lifeline Canada, which for the past 18 years has been stepping up to provide the much-needed and sometimes overlooked programs and services a family whose child has a serious illness may need.
Chai Lifeline Canada recently honoured De Gasperis and Eisenberger for their long-time support as Community Builder Honourees at its 18th annual Harmony and Hope Gala event, a glittering evening attended by more than 1,200 guests there to celebrate the two men and enjoy a stirring musical performance by famed Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli. The singer and his wife, Veronica, were also honoured that evening with the organization’s Humanitarian Award.
Chai Lifeline provides important but sometimes overlooked services that range from the simple, like help with getting to doctor appointments and provision of hot meals when children are hospitalized to the extraordinary, including medically supervised overnight camps that give children confidence, courage, a sense of normalcy and the life skills they need to fight dreaded illnesses. Chai Lifeline Canada knows that any child’s illness impacts not just the child who is sick but their entire family, and they provide these programs and services free of charge. Both De Gasperis and Eisenberger know what a difference this type of organization plays in community-building.
“The organization is an easy organization to work with and want to help,” says Eisenberger as he and De Gasperis sat for a recent interview with Dolce. “It’s geared towards assisting families who have a member of the family who has cancer and it provides support for the entire family.”
“Through it I have learned a lot about the Jewish community, and Chai Lifeline is a great organization which serves the entire community, not just the Jewish community,” adds De Gasperis. “It is wonderful to help something when there is such a need out there and they help so many families.”
The interview with Dolce took place at the spectacular Copper Creek community in Kleinburg, just northwest of Toronto. It opened to great acclaim as a championship golf course and the question “Have you played Copper Creek yet?” quickly became familiar, asked by golfers at 19th holes across the region. It is now transforming itself with 800 newly built homes, a pool and an expanded clubhouse with restaurants and bars, along with health and wellness facilities. All the homeowners will have access to the wide array of first-class amenities. It is sure to be another success for De Gasperis and Eisenberger in a working relationship spanning more than three decades.
“Silvio and I have been partners for more than 30 years and we’ve probably had one or two disagreements during that time, so one disagreement every 15 years is not too bad,” laughs Eisenberger.
They may have been raised differently, growing up in Italian and Jewish households, but a strong work ethic and family values bind both the men in their approaches to life and work.
“I Appreciate What We Have Worked For Today Because Without Work, It Doesn’t Happen.”
— Silvio De Gasperis
Born in Italy, De Gasperis is shaped by how his parents lived their lives. “We immigrated to Canada when I was just six years old,” he recalls. “My mother worked in a factory and my father held down two jobs. I grew up with not very nice clothing, with patches over everything, but my parents worked very hard to give our family a good childhood. So I appreciate what we have worked for today because without work, it doesn’t happen.”
That hard work has resulted in the TACC Group of companies, which includes TACC Developments, TACC Construction, DECAST, and DECO Homes. With more than 2,000 employees, the TACC Group is one of the largest privately owned employers in the construction and land development industry in the Greater Toronto Area.
Eisenberger’s Fieldgate Developments began as a small family business in 1957 and today is recognized as one of the foremost builders of superior homes in the Greater Toronto Area, with more than 65,000 homes designed and constructed and more than 143,000 jobs created.
“My parents always impressed upon me to have respect,” says Eisenberger. “When you have respect for your elders, when you have respect for your business partners and your colleagues, you always get respect back. When you give respect to people, you have the ability to nurture strong relationships.”
Not surprisingly, both De Gasperis and Eisenberger share similar philosophies about community-building when it comes to philanthropy. As both men became extremely successful in building their companies, they used that success to give back and build their community from the ground up.
“Community-building is about everything,” says De Gasperis. “Starting from the hospitals to daycare centres to women’s shelters to food banks, TACC gives to them all. Our whole group of companies is involved as they are all proud to be part of the TACC team.”
“I probably spend 20 per cent of my day dealing with charitable organizations,” says Eisenberger. “It almost gives me as much pleasure giving away money as making money. There is no reason we have to be here working all the time in pursuit of making a few bucks if we can’t give back.”
“When You Give Respect To People, You Have The Ability To Nurture Strong Relationships.”
— Jack Eisenberger
Both De Gasperis and Eisenberger are the proud products of their respective family heritages and how they were both raised, and the Greater Toronto Area has been the beneficiary, not only because of the impact their companies have made in the building and housing industries, but also because of their generosity and contribution to the greater good at the grassroots level.
“Giving back was my father’s philosophy,” says De Gasperis. “Starting from nothing, he ended up making good money and was very successful in the construction business. He gave back to the church and he gave back to hospitals. We’ve given to the majority of the hospitals throughout the Greater Toronto Area because it is so important. When we make money, we always like to give back to the community.”
Community-building is hard work. It takes effort, dedication, commitment and passion to ensure that communities are healthy, vibrant, robust and livable. The Greater Toronto Area is all of those things due in large part to the effort, character and strength of the souls of people like Silvio De Gasperis and Jack Eisenberger.
INTERVIEW BY MARC CASTALDO
