Anthony (Tony) Cohen
Tony is President & CEO of Global Edge Investments (GEI), a vertically integrated hospitality and management based investment company he founded.
Having just celebrated its 25th year, GEI has been involved with business transactions in the hotel, real estate and Technology spaces totaling over $1.5B.
On the hotel ownership side, GEI was involved in the creation, repositioning, development and ultimate sale of some of Eastern Canada’s most notable hotel transactions, including, but not limited to, Hotel Le Germain Toronto, The Thompson Toronto, which achieved, at the time, the 3rd highest per key price in the history of hotel transactions in Canada, a Boutique hotel in the tony Toronto neighborhood of Yorkville, which sold one of the highest prices per buildable square feet in the history of real estate transactions in Canada and purchase, repositioning and rebranding of Hotel PUR in Quebec City and sold it 4 years later for a 4.5X on equity (in just 5 years).
On the hotel management side, GEI is a partner & Chief Canada Officer in Crescent Hotels & Resorts, the 4th largest North American independent hotel management company operating 120 hotels across the continent.
GEI took an active role in the launch, growth and sale of Wahanda.com (for over €100M) which and has investments in tech start-ups (and other companies) such as, Zonetail, Zoom & Go, PTG, KYC Hospitality, The Bellhops, Thumbtack, Future Vault, SeamlessMD and Fleet Panda as well as Food & Beverage companies Simply Protein, Tequila Tromba, Soto Sake, Daydream and Flow Hydration.
In addition to numerous advisory roles, Tony is currently President, Marriott Owner’s Council Canada and is Vice Chair and Board member at large of the Hotel Association of Canada (HAC).
Tony currently serves on the Birthright Israel Canada Board of Directors and formerly on the Design Exchange Board of Directors. In 1998, in partnership with his wife, he created the Tora Foundation which is focused on four core areas of philanthropy: Education, Youth, Promotion of Canadian and Canadian led initiatives and Jewish Values.
Tony attended the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, VA. Tony is the 2012 recipient of the Ontario Hostelry Institute Gold Award for Hotelier of the Year.