(an article written by Pamela Stowers)
Murray Saxe, owner and founder of, Foresight Lighting, has an eye for opportunity and a drive for success that has lead him to grow, Foresight Lighting, into a focused and thriving lighting fixture company. Murray graduated Sir George William University with a Commerce degree and spent his early career as an accountant. It wasn’t long before Murray was looking for other avenues to advance his career and earn a living to support his growing family. He credits a family member, an electrician, for giving him the idea of lighting products as a business. Starting with commodity, fluorescent lamps, his business grew into a full electrical and lighting wholesale distributorship.The real turning point for Murray happened in 2003 when he identified a niche opportunity providing T5 fixtures to the local display market and opened Foresight Lighting. Murray realized that he could offer an attractive solution to the furniture and display makers by providing a local source for T5 lighting fixtures, whereas they had been importing these from the West Coast of the US or overseas. Foresight’s first location was opened in Ville Lasalle, a suburb of Montreal Canada, with a small office area and a few pallet located in a metal fabricators warehouse. Utilizing the metal bending source and assembling onsite, Foresight started to build a solid reputation for quality products and on time delivery. The company added an imported under cabinet system called “T5 Interlink” to his offering.
Murray credits his wife Janet for naming the company, Foresight Lighting, and says “We were looking ahead and hoping for a bright future for the business and our family; The name fit.”
Murray expanded the product offering by adding architectural and decorative linear fluorescent fixtures, T5 Highbay fixtures up to 10 lamps, decorative sconces and recessed fixtures. Just a few short years later Foresight expanded into a larger space in Ville St-Laurent (2007) with offices for a growing administrative staff and a full warehouse and assembly area. Foresight has recently moved into an even larger space to accommodate the growing business and expanding product lines.
One of the most important decisions Murray has made for his business was to bring his son Jonathan onboard in2005. Murray has a real pride in his son’s abilities and says working together has been a real joy. “He brings fresh ideas and understands the modern business principles in a fast changing industry,” praises Murray, “Jonathan is progressive and methodical; People recognize his business talent when they work with him.”
Murray and Jonathan share a key business philosophy: Taking care of the customer is the number one priority. He claims his customer service focus and the idea of making things right comes from his years as a wholesale distributor. Murray says, “I encourage the customer to tell me about any problem they have. The customer shouldn’t have to worry; we’ll always do our best to make it right.”
When asked where Foresight will be in 10 years, he says he hopes that growing gradually, purposefully and never losing sight of the customers’ needs will put Foresight in a position to become an important supplier to the Canadian and North American market. “I want the company to be needed by our customers and seen as a key supplier and partner,” explains Murray, “And at the core of it, I want Foresight to provide a good living for the people who work for us.”
