The Aquilini Investment Group founded more than 50 years ago by the hard-working visionary Luigi Aquilini who arrived in Canada with nothing, has grown into one of the largest, most diverse and most successfully run family businesses in Canada. The Vancouver-based company owns and manages a national real estate portfolio that includes commercial properties, office buildings, hotels, golf courses, and cranberry and blueberry farms, as well as develops and constructs commercial and residential properties. The portfolio also includes ownership of the Vancouver Canucks NHL Franchise. Today, Luigi continues to oversee the business empire he founded 50 years ago, along with his three sons, Francesco, Roberto and Paolo, who have followed in the footsteps of their father. Mr. Luigi Aquilini contributed directly to the success of the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver by becoming a major sponsor of that event. His successful story as an entrepreneur, and his generosity for the Italian Canadian community in this country was recognized and awarded by the Italian Republic on several occasions. In 2005 the President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi invested Aquilini with the Order of Merit from the Republic of Italy giving him the status of Commendatore (Commander).