2017 Update
Tom Mauro (ACPP '77), founder of Albi Homes, retired
"In 2009, I still owned Albi Homes. I was chairman of the company that I built, starting in 1982. Everybody in the company had a quality attitude. I built the organization to care about what we did, how we did it and the customer. In 2015, I was turning 65 and Brookfield Developments approached us. The strategy in setting up the company was to sell it one day. I have always believed that you have to move on, that when one door closes another one opens.
We have been travelling and doing lots of charity work. My wife and I are getting more involved in the communities where we have homes, which includes Kelowna and Scottsdale. But we're still based in Calgary. I am a board member of the Sheldon Kennedy Child Advocacy Centre and my wife Deb is co-chair. We are helping a group in Kelowna do the same thing. We also work with an organization in Arizona called Child Help that is modelled after the Sheldon Kennedy Advocacy Centre.
We are involved because Deb and I were brought up in poor families and we were both taught to help those less fortunate than ourselves. Deb is extremely passionate and is on so many boards, I can't list them all. She's also on the board of the Patron of The Arts in the Vatican Museums, Canadian Chapter. We raise funds to restore art in the Vatican Museum. That one is personal for us."
After selling Albi Homes in 2015, Tom Mauro and his wife, Debra, have devoted themselves to their extensive charity work, which includes sitting on the board of the Sheldon Kennedy Child Advocacy Centre. They are also doing a lot of travelling, especially to Tom's native Italy.