Robert Levy

Robert Levy is currently the Managing Director of BrandSpark International, a newly created brand strategy firm. For the past 3 ½ years, Robert was Vice-President of Branding for Cara Operations Limited, one of Canada's leading foodservice companies owning a number of well known Canadian restaurant brands, including Swiss Chalet, Harvey's, Second Cup, and Kelsey's. Robert continues to provide brand strategy consulting to Cara, Winners Merchants Inc. and the Wine Council of Ontario where he is guiding the research and development of a new branding positioning to anchor future marketing strategies.

Cara's mandate when establishing its new branding department was to develop a world class brand management system capable of assessing the relative strengths and weaknesses of each of its brands as well as monitoring the important trends impacting future development. The Branding approach adopted by Cara has integrated all forms of research enabling all stakeholders to have the clearest possible view of the optimal way forward.

Prior to joining Cara, Robert and his wife, Patricia, lived in Geneva, Switzerland where they established an independent legal and business advisory consulting firm representing multinational Swiss and North American companies doing business in the Czech Republic. One project involved the establishment of the first Harvey's restaurant outside of Canada in Prague.

Robert received a Bachelor of Commerce degree from McGill University (Magna Cum Laude), Montreal, and a Bachelor of Laws degree from Osgoode Hall Law School in Toronto. He is a director of the Internet Advertising Bureau of Canada, a governor of the Canadian Council of Christians and Jews and a member of the Board of Muskoka Condominium Corporation #35. He holds Canadian and Swiss citizenships and presently resides in downtown Toronto with his wife, Patricia and their three active sons.