In 1989, architect and real estate developer David J. Azrieli established the Azrieli Foundation to fulfill his philanthropic vision of funding initiatives in key areas, including the Jewish community, medical research, arts and culture and Holocaust education. Thirty-seven years later, the organization is now Canada’s largest non-corporate public foundation, surpassing $1 billion in charitable contributions, roughly one-third of which was disbursed in the past two years. 

In light of this recent growth, the foundation is undergoing a “leadership evolution,” bringing on board its first CEO from outside of the family, former business executive André Beaulieu, and creating a new expanded board chair position for Naomi Azrieli, who has led the foundation for nearly 20 years, the organization announced this week.

Beaulieu comes with a background in corporate leadership, notably an 18-year career at Bell Canada, a telecommunications company, where he spent nearly a decade as senior vice president of corporate services. For the past five years, Beaulieu has served on the Azrieli Foundation’s board, also chairing its financial oversight, risk and compliance committee. 

After nearly 20 years as CEO, longtime leader Naomi Azrieli, David Azrieli’s daughter, will retain her position as the foundation’s chair, albeit with greater responsibilities.

As chair, Azrieli told eJewishPhilanthropy that she plans to focus on opportunities for thought leadership and “shaping the foundation’s mission,” and strategic priorities.

“I think it’s absolutely the right time in terms of the scale and scope of what we’re doing,” Azrieli said. “And it allows me to really devote myself to articulating our values and our vision as a world-class philanthropic organization to the public, to really focus on our long-term strategic priorities. So it’s a very exciting time. I’m thrilled to have reached this point in our evolution as an organization and in my evolution as a leader.” 

Azrieli noted that in its first 25 years, the foundation distributed $100 million. In the decade since, its operations have expanded dramatically, fueled in large part by David Azrieli’s decision to leave his entire estate to the foundation following his death in 2014.

Those disbursements have touched both Canada and Israel, where the foundation has given significant gifts to academic institutions, donating $10 million for an advanced nursing center at the University of Haifa in May and $50 million to create a neuroscience center at the Weizmann Institute in 2021. 

The foundation also gave heavily to emergency campaigns in the wake of Hamas’ Oct. 7 terror attacks. As the Israel-Hamas war dragged on, the organization has focused on supporting mental health and rehabilitation initiatives throughout Israel, Azrieli told eJP. 

According to Beaulieu, in the next five to six years, the foundation plans to disburse another $1 billion. As the foundation continues to grow, streamlining its operations will become more of a priority, he said, adding that he plans to bring a “business management method” to philanthropic work.

“I’m very excited by the fact that we can use our scale to, of course, respond to emergencies, but also think long-term about our involvement in science and research, about our community involvement, and having reached really a critical mass of activities in Israel — education and health care in particular, but also music and the arts — I think it’s also an incredible opportunity, over the next few years to continue building on what we’ve established in Israel and take it, take it further and deepen our impact,” he told eJP. 

“We really achieved so much in my 20 years, but now we’re actually positioned for even more. We’re positioned to do more in science and health care, more in the arts, and to continue our mission as always in Jewish education and Holocaust education. So you know, the vision is continuity, but not to sort of sit around and do more of the same…We’re young in a way, and we have a culture of being entrepreneurial and innovative, as well as very collaborative and strategic. And the type of partnerships that we’re developing, and there’ll be more and more of that. So watch this space and stay tuned, because there are lots of exciting things that are going to happen,” said Azrieli.