5. Tom Weisz: President & CEO; Effort Trust Co.

By John Mokrycke, architect

When Tom Weisz was only two years old, and astride his father Arthur’s shoulders, in darkness, with his mother Margaret, the family ran through a Czechoslovakian forest to escape communist Hungary. It’s impossible to imagine Hamilton without the Weisz family, who came to this city by bus, in 1950, into the central bus terminal, which is today, the location of Effort Square.

Tom is a graduate of Hess Street School, Westdale, McMaster, Osgoode Hall, and Harvard Law. He came back to Hamilton in 1978, to help his father start Effort Trust. Since then, countless numbers of local builders and investors have received the essential funding to help propel their businesses into major contributors to the economic health of our community.

Tom is President and CEO of Effort Trust and President of the Weisz Family Foundation, as well as Chair of the Hamilton Future Fund. Tom’s other community involvement includes the McMaster Board of Governors, Governor of the Art Gallery of Hamilton, as well as the Jewish National Fund Board.

Tom Weisz is today a man, with a load of ideas that will drive Hamilton’s future prosperity. In the years ahead he is going to be here assisting the new wave of pro- gressive investors in Hamilton, while dabbling in his own creative endeavors.