Charles Bronfman - Biography

Charles Rosner Bronfman, (born June 27, 1931 in Montreal) is a Canadian businessman and philanthropist. With an estimated net worth of $US 2.0 billion (as of March 2011), Bronfman was ranked by Forbes as the 15th wealthiest Canadian and 595th in the world.

His fortune comes from, Seagram Company Ltd. the family liquor business. He was the majority owner of the Montreal Expos franchise in Major League Baseball from the team's formation in 1968 until 1990. He is in talks to purchase the American soccer club Chicago Fire S.C..

Bronfman was educated at Selwyn House School in Montreal, Trinity College School in Port Hope, Ontario, and McGill University.

Philanthropy

He and Michael Steinhardt co-founded the Zionist charity Taglit Birthright, a program which provides a free, educational travel experience to Israel for young Jewish adults. Bronfman is one of its principal donors. Bronfman is Chairman of the Andrea and Charles Bronfman Philanthropies Inc., a family of charitable foundations operating in Israel, the U.S.A., and Canada. Bronfman is also responsible for the Charles Bronfman Prize, honoring individuals for their humanitarian contributions. The first winner was Gift of Life Bone Marrow Foundation founder Jay Feinberg.

Bronfman was a founding co-chairman of Historica, producers of the Heritage Minutes series of television shorts. It was at an early meeting of this foundation (originally the CAB Foundation) that he asked the members, "If television can use 30 seconds or 60 seconds to persuade people that Cadillacs or cornflakes are interesting, couldn't we also use that short piece of time to persuade Canadians that their history is interesting? You tell me how to do it, and I'll fund it." It was out of that discussion that the Heritage Minutes were conceived, piloted, distributed through cinemas and broadcasters across the country, and then confirmed as a major contribution of the Foundation—which a few years later became Historica, recently merged with the Dominion Institute.

Chairman

From November 1997 until July 2002, Bronfman was the Chairman of the Board of Koor Industries Ltd., one of Israel's largest investment holding companies. He is the co-chairman of the McGill Institute for the Study of Canada. From 1999 to 2001, Bronfman was the first Chairman of the United Jewish Communities, the merged North American organization comprising United Jewish Appeal, the Council of Jewish Federations and United Israel Appeal. He is a former Co-Chairman of the Seagram Company Ltd.

Family

He is the son of Samuel and Saidye Bronfman; his siblings are Minda, architecture expert Phyllis, and Edgar. He is the uncle of Edgar Bronfman, Jr..

He is the widower of Andrea Morrison, who died on January 23, 2006, and between them, they have 5 children and 4 grandchildren.

In 2008 Bronfman married for the third time to Bonita Roche in New York City. He owns a penthouse apartment in 1999 at 838 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan which had been converted from office space to a luxury condominium by Louis Dubin of Athena.

Honours

1981

• Made an Officer of the Order of Canada

1990

• Doctorate of Philosophy, Honoris Causa from Hebrew University of Jerusalem
• Doctorate of Laws, Honoris Causa from McGill University.

1992

• Member of the Queen's Privy Council for Canada.
• Promoted to Companion of the Order of Canada
• Doctorate of Humane Letters, Honoris Causa from Brandeis University
• Doctorate of Laws, Honoris Causa from Concordia University

1995

• Doctorate of Laws, Honoris Causa from the University of Waterloo

2000

• Doctorate of Laws, Honoris Causa from the University of Toronto

2002

• Bronfman, along with his wife, were awarded Honorary Citizenship of Jerusalem

See also

• Bronfman family