Karim Hakimi
Karim Hakimi is an Iranian Canadian entrepreneur and optician, known for founding Hakim Optical, a famous chain of eyeglass stores across Canada. At first, he sold his lenses door-to-door, directly to optician shops. From this beginning as a single retail outlet, Hakimi has built Hakim Optical into a national chain of over 150 outlets with over 600 employees serving the eastern provinces of Canada.
Karim was born in Iran in 1933. At the age of five, his father died, forcing Hakimi to leave school to work to support his family. He found work in Iran grinding discarded window glass into lenses for magnifying glasses and eyeglasses. This experience taught him much about the techniques and equipment needed by an optician. At 14, Karim attended night school to complete his elementary education, learning to read and write. Later, he immigrated first to Germany and then to Switzerland, where he furthered his education in the optician’s craft. In 1967, Hakimi opened his own lens-grinding laboratory in the former Elwood Hotel in Toronto, buying and rebuilding equipment from a shuttered facility in Chicago. Soon he was able to save enough money to open his first retail shop, selling glasses by day and working nights to fulfil orders.
Main Contributions
- Knighted by the Sovereign Military Order of Malta in a Ceremony at Queen’s Park in Toronto, 2005
- Recognized by the City of Toronto by renaming Scarborough Street to Hakimi Street in his honor, 2008
- Named one of Canada’s Top 25 Immigrants by Canadian Immigrant, 2011
- Awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal, 2012
- Lebovic LRT station is renamed Hakimi-Lebovic to include the street to which the station will be located, 2016