Avison Young CEO and chair Mark Rose is leading his company on a grand expansion campaign, opening seven offices and acquiring seven more in 2014 alone (for 60 total). AY is now Canada’s third-largest real estate services provider, he says, “and we’re getting darned close to Colliers."

Title: CEO, Avison Young

Job: Guiding Avison Young in its bid to conquer the real estate services world.

Photo: Mark's office at 18 York Street, overlooking Maple Leaf Square, adorned with NHL banners. A New York native, the Rangers are his squad.

Born: New York City.

Home: Family’s based in Chicago; Mark shuttles between the Windy City and TO.

Deal he's most proud of: In 1988, as the 27-year-old CEO of the US REIT of British Coal’s pension fund, he recommended the trustees sell the REIT. “It was the right thing to do for shareholders.” The sale took place a year before the US property market crash, and made British Coal’s investment management team one of the best in Europe, he notes, “because they had no exposure to US real estate after that.”

Daily habit: Running (did a triathlon in Chicago this summer; seen below).

Favourite music: Springsteen | Album: Can’t pick just one.

Movies: Loves them; can’t choose a favourite. “I can go from action movies to (1985 courtroom thriller) Jagged Edge to Star Wars.”

Book: (Malcolm Gladwell’s) "Outliers." Also, “Younger Next Year.”

Food: Self-described foodie. Loves "anything you can buy in an Italian restaurant, and lobster.”

Recent vacation: Family trip to the UK. “The train between Edinburgh and London was the best part… with my family for four and a half hours, face to face, talking to each other.”

First job: Paper boy, age 12, New York.

Bucket list: Great Wall of China; Pyramids of Egypt.

Person (living/dead) you’d want to meet: Other than Bruce, Abraham Lincoln.

Startling fact: Dropped from 255 lbs to 195 lbs in under six months. “I decided to no longer be unhealthy and overweight.”