Industry & Services >> CEO Interviews >> March 2, 2000
JAY S. HENNICK, President and CEO of FirstService Corporation, became a
successful entrepreneur as a teenager, founding Superior Pool, Spa &
Leisure Ltd., a company that provided lifeguards and serviced swimming
pools for apartments, hotels and owner residential communities. Superior
is now part of American Pools, North America's largest commercial
swimming pool operator and a profitable subsidiary of FirstService
Corporation. Mr. Hennick continued operating Superior while completing a
Bachelor of Arts degree as well as a Bachelor of Law Degree and then
while pursuing a successful law career. During the late 1980s, while
still practicing law, Mr. Hennick sought to establish a company of his
own and believed the service sector was his opportunity. He found the
service sector was growing faster than any other segment of the economy
and with the changing demographics and trends toward outsourcing, he
concluded that this market would continue to grow in the future. Raising
money from family and friends, he established FirstService in 1989,
integrated Superior and began to write, what is today, the 'FirstService
Story'. In 1998, he won Canada's Entrepreneur of the Year award and was
named CEO of the year in 2001 by Canadian Business magazine. Profile
Mr. Hennick: FirstService was founded in 1989 and went public in June
of 1993, but the predecessor company was founded back in 1973
