Peter Schwartz, former chief executive officer at Descartes Systems Group Inc. and an investor in and founder of several businesses since his departure.
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Peter Schwartz likes to think local. Sitting in the Bauer Lofts building in Waterloo, the former tech executive talks about heading downstairs to buy dinner for his family in a store that has space in the building he helped develop. It is just one example of Mr. Schwartz's interest in food and developing a culture of buying his meat and produce locally.
"I do cook dinner, a lot more than people might expect," says Mr. Schwartz. "There's a lot of cooking that goes on in our house and a lot of talking about food. I love to cook and I love to shop. Just take [the Bauer Lofts]: I can go down to Vincenzo's [grocery store] and get what I need. The companies in this building are local businesses that have been around for a long time. There are no Toronto companies in here, no chains. I'd like to see more of that."
Mr. Schwartz spends a lot of time thinking about food, making it part of his business and investments. While he became best known for his role as chief executive officer at Descartes Systems Group Inc., a Waterloo tech company that rose to prominence at the start of the Internet era, these days he makes private investments in real estate and entrepreneurial businesses. Several of those businesses have an interest in food, including an investment in a Waterloo restaurant group. He has also been involved with the Stratford Chefs School for years, another example of his keen interest in food, where it comes from, and how it is delivered to the consumer.
His interest in how restaurants operate and how food is prepared started in his university days at the University of Western Ontario in London, Ont., but blossomed when he became CEO at Descartes.
"I had the good fortune to experience some of the great food in the world. If you're meeting with a Fortune 500 CEO in Waterloo, they are probably staying at Langdon Hall and eating at Janet Lynn's Bistro," he says. "Janet was the second biggest inspiration in my life. If my family was out of town, I'd go into the restaurant, and watch what was happening in the kitchen. The amount of care and genuine interest in quality was fascinating. I learned a bit of the science of it, and that got me more inspired."
A business associate, Scott Burk of the investment bank then called Griffiths McBurney and Partners, noticed Mr. Schwartz's interest in food culture and suggested he become involved with the chefs school.
"He said I should get involved," Mr. Schwartz says. "And I started by joining the board and getting to know people there, like Jamie Kennedy, who was on the board, and Jim Morris, who was the [co-founder] of the school. Jim is truly a hospitality genius."
Given that Descartes tracked shipping using the Internet, it is only natural that Mr. Schwartz would become intrigued at how food got to our tables. As time went on, he became increasingly concerned. Even today he'll talk about how apple juice that ends up on our breakfast table and appears to be Canadian, is actually often a product of China and simply packaged in this country. The more he learned about food, the more Mr. Schwartz became a locavore, a term describing people interested in food that comes from their immediate surroundings.
He put that concept in play when he created Oviinbyrd, a private golf club near Port Carling, Ont., in the Muskoka area. As Mr. Schwartz devised a strategy for the club, he focused on its food operation. Spurred on by his wife, Heather, whom Mr. Schwartz credits as being another locavore inspiration, he determined Oviinbyrd would try to deliver unique, high-quality food.
"We were focused on bringing up the next generation of great chefs and people who were inspired by food. There was some selfishness in wanting to eat great food. But we wanted to build a model that would work. I thought the only thing that's worse than a seasonal golf course is a seasonal restaurant. But it worked really well. It allowed us to widen the market to people in the area who weren't interested in golf. It allowed us to be a club, not just a golf club."
Mr. Schwartz also points to the two years he spent in Provence, France, starting in 2007, as a key factor in his changing perspective on food and the culture that surrounds it. Long lunches where people socialize are a big part of the local community, he says.
"They go into the town, which is their living room," he says. "There's a culture about it. We build those comforts into our home."
Mr. Schwartz also started a company called Rare Republic Inc. focused on locally sourced food. He recently integrated that business with a startup called Local Line that is trying to rework the supply chain so local suppliers of produce and meat can be competitive with cheaper, often foreign, alternatives.
"If I had my choice I'd put all my money into my kitchen with a tiny bedroom next door," he says, laughing. "I like to have everyone from my family involved. In our home, people gravitate to our kitchen, and the island in the middle is where you'll find people hanging out."