Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts
Founded in 1960 in Canada by Isador Sharp, the son of Jewish immigrants from Poland, the company opened its first hotel in the red-light district of Toronto. In 1970, the chain's first overseas hotel opened in London. In 1986, the company went public, entering the stock market, but in 2007 it became private again (Sharpe bought shares from the market and resold them to private funds).