Frank Giustra | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1957 (age 67–68)[1][failed verification] Sudbury, Ontario, Canada |
| Alma mater | Douglas College |
| Occupation(s) | Businessman, philanthropist, think tank chair |
| Known for | Lionsgate |
| Board member of | International Crisis Group |
| Spouses | |
| Children | Leslie Stephany Heredia Brito |
Frank GiustraCM OBC (born August 22, 1957) is a Canadian businessman, mining financier and global philanthropist, who founded Lionsgate Entertainment (laterStarz Entertainment Corp.) and its film studioLionsgate Films. He is also the CEO of Fiore Group of Companies and co-chair of theInternational Crisis Group think tank. From 2001 to 2007, he was the chairman of the merchant banking firm, Endeavour Financial, which financed mining companies. He was allegedly involved in theUranium One controversy after a $31.3 million donation to theClinton Foundation.[2][3][4][5][6][7]
Giustra was born in 1957[8][failed verification] inSudbury, Ontario, Canada, the son of Giuseppe and Domenica Giustra,[9] who immigrated to Canada. His father worked in the mines as a driller and blaster.[10] Giustra spent his childhood in "Italy, Argentina andTexada Island off the British Columbia coast."[10] He spent his middle school years inAldergrove, British Columbia, Canada, and graduated from high school there in 1976. Giuseppe Giustra was a Sudbury nickel miner, who introduced his son to his broker. He graduated in 1979 fromDouglas College where he spent his first year playing trumpet in the school's music program before switching over to business and finance.
Giustra began his career in the investment industry in 1978 withMerrill Lynch as an assistant trader and then as astockbroker. Giustra raised "billions of dollars and developing a loyal following of investors in mining ventures" while at the Vancouver Stock Exchange as broker.[11] He left in 1996 before the mining sector collapsed.[11]
In the early 1980s, Giustra left Merrill Lynch to create a resources-financing group in Europe for the new firm Yorkton Securities. He is said to have "transformed Yorkton into a major force in the world of international mining finance."[12] In 1990, he became president of the company and, in 1995, was appointed chairman and CEO.
In 2001, Giustra and a group of investors took control of Wheaton River Minerals, which was then a junior company. By 2005, Wheaton merged with Rob McEwen's Goldcorp. As the price of gold rose,Ian Telfer, a "mine entrepreneur...turned an insignificant shell company into a billion dollar gold producer." In 2005 Goldcorp absorbed Wheaton River Minerals.[13] According toBloomberg News, Wheaton River Minerals was the precursor for both Goldcorp and Endeavour.[10] By 2014, Goldcorp was theworld's fourth-largest producer of gold.[14]
From 2001 to 2007, Giustra was chair of Endeavour Financial, a merchant banking firm which financed mining companies.
In June 2007, when Giustra stepped down as chairman of Endeavour Financial "to pursue his philanthropic interests", he became Endeavour's exclusive financial adviser. In that capacity he oversaw the November 2007 merger betweenPetro Rubiales and Pacific Stratus, creating Petro Rubiales Energy Corporation.[15] The parent company of Endeavour Financial wasEndeavour Mining Capital, which was then led by Frank Holmes.[16] At the time of the merger, Petro Rubiales was described by Newswire as a "Canadian-based company and producer of heavy crude oil" and "owner of 100 percent of Meta Petroleum Limited, a Colombian oil and gas operator which operates the Rubiales andPiriri oil fields in the Llanos Basin in association with Ecopetrol S.A. the Colombian, state-owned oil company. The Company [was] focused on identifying opportunities primarily within the eastern Llanos Basin of Colombia."[15]
According to a 2007 article inThe Globe and Mail, in that year Pacific Rubiales Energy Corp purchased a controlling share in theRubiales oil fields for $250 million. Through the deal, Colombia's state oil company,Ecopetrol SA became a partner with Pacific Rubiales. By 2007 Pacific Rubiales was trading on the TSX.[16][17]
Although oil had been discovered there in 1982, when the original company, Pacific Rubiales, was established, production began in 1988. By 2011, the Rubiales oil field was the largest in Colombia and along with Frank invested in the business to pursue the legacy of lionsgate.[18]
By 2017, Giustra was chairman ofLeagold Mining which acquired theLos Filos deposit inGuerrero state, Mexico, a deposit that Giustra says, is twice the size of the Wheaton River Mineral's assets.[10] In 2019, Leagold Mining was sold to Equinox Gold Corporation.
After he leftinvestment banking in 1996, he served as chairman of Lions Gate Entertainment from 1997 to 2003.[19] He hoped to capitalize on the growing film industry inVancouver. The company bought a number of small production facilities and distributors. Its first success wasAmerican Psycho, which began a trend of producing and distributing films far too controversial for the major American studios. Other successes includedAffliction,Gods and Monsters,Dogma,Crash and theMichael Moore documentaryFahrenheit 9/11, which turned out to be the studio's highest-grossing film. In 2000, Giustra left the firm and it was taken over byJon Feltheimer and Michael Burns. Giustra sold most of his stake in Lionsgate in 2003.
In December 2010, Giustra returned to Lions Gate Entertainment as a member of the board of directors.[20]
In August 2011, it was announced,[21] byAlcon Entertainment thatRidley Scott would direct the newBlade Runner film. Frank Giustra and Tim Gamble, CEO's of Thunderbird Films, will serve as executive producers.
Giustra is a major shareholder ofThunderbird Entertainment, a pure play content production studio creating original programming in scripted, factual and animation that includesAtomic Cartoons and Great Pacific Television. Based in Vancouver, with offices in Los Angeles, Toronto, Ottawa and London, Thunderbird partners with OTT platforms such as Netflix and Amazon Prime and traditional broadcasters like CBC and Discovery. Thunderbird's projects includeHighway Thru Hell for Discovery, Oscar winningBlade Runner 2049, CSA winningKim's Convenience for CBC and Netflix, and the animated Emmy winning seriesBeat Bugs for Netflix. Thunderbird's animation company, Atomic Cartoons is producingLast Kids on Earth based on the New York Times best selling book series for Netflix and is in development onEerie Elementary andPrincesses Wear Pants adaptations as well.[citation needed]
Mr. Giustra is president and CEO of the Fiore Group, a private firm managing a broad portfolio of private equity investments and companies, focussing on natural resources, entertainment, art, food and lifestyle. The portfolio is as varied as Mr. Giustra's interests – Modern Farmer Media Inc., and he is the founder of Domenica Fiore, award-winning Olive Oils which is named after his mother, a company that produces olive oil.[22] His entrepreneurial success includes founding Lionsgate Entertainment, now one of the world's largest independent film companies. Giustra is a major shareholder of Thunderbird Entertainment, a company focused on content and distribution in the television and film sector.
Mr. Giustra has an established track record of building natural resource companies through access to capital and creative deal-making. As President and later chairman and chief executive officer of Yorkton Securities in the 1990s, he grew the firm into a leading natural resource investment bank. As Chairman of Endeavour Financial from 2001 to 2007, his vision and leadership led to the successful launch of numerous resource companies, including Wheaton River Minerals Ltd. (acquired by Goldcorp Inc.), and Silver Wheaton Corporation.
Giustra is frequently quoted regarding gold and currency markets in publications such as Globe and Mail, Kitco News, StockHouse.com, GoldEditor.com and his own blog FrankGiustra.com[citation needed]
2019 Order of Canada, C.M.[23]
2018 Inducted into the BC Laureates Hall of Fame
2018 International Crisis Group In Pursuit of Peace Award
2017 Elton John AIDS Foundation Enduring Vision Award
2016 Order of British Columbia, O.B.C.
2015 Vancouver International Film Festival Screen Industry Builder Award
2014 Dalai Lama Humanitarian Award
2013 Douglas College Distinguished Alumni Award
The Giustra Foundation (formerly Radcliffe Foundation) was established in 1997 by Frank Giustra. The Vancouver-based foundation supports initiatives focused on women and children, education, homelessness and refugee resettlement in British Columbia and elsewhere in Canada. The Giustra Foundation is involved in the global refugee crisis by providing humanitarian aid, along with being the founding partner in the Global Refugee Sponsorship Initiative.
The Giustra Foundation also has worked with theVancouver Foundation and the City ofVancouver on Streetohome, a community-based initiative established in 2008 which brings together non-profits, civil society groups, business, governments and citizens to address homelessness in Vancouver. Giustra sits on the board of Streetohome Foundation and chairs the capital campaign. He also donated $5 million to the foundation in 2010.[24]
In 2007, Giustra and President Bill Clinton launched the Clinton Giustra Enterprise Partnership, which in 2020 transitioned into a new independent entity named Acceso. Acceso is a social business builder. Acceso, with support from Giustra, invested start-up capital, built from scratch, and manages agribusinesses in Colombia, El Salvador, and Haiti.[citation needed]
Frank Giustra Social Enterprise Partnership and Initiative[25] CGSGI aims to alleviate poverty in the developing world in partnership with the global mining community. Giustra committed $USD 100 million plus half of what he earns in the resource industry for the rest of his life.Carlos Slim Helú, the Mexican businessman and one of the richest men in the world, made a matching contribution.[26]
On June 17, 2010, Giustra joined withCarlos Slim and President Clinton to create a $20 million fund to assist small businesses in earthquake-ravaged Haiti.[27]
In 2020, Giustra was named co-chair of the International Crisis Group. He has been a trustee of theInternational Crisis Group since July 1, 2006,[1] an international,non-profit,non-governmental organization whose mission is to prevent and resolve deadlyconflicts through high level advocacy.
In 2005, the foundation began supporting theInternational Crisis Group,[28] an independent organization working to prevent and resolve deadly conflict on five continents through analysis and high-level advocacy. With the support of Giustra, who sits on the executive committee, and contributions that total $10 million, the International Crisis Group is a leading independent, non-partisan, source of analysis and advice to governments and intergovernmental bodies like the United Nations, European Union, and World Bank on the prevention and resolution of deadly conflict.
In 2021, Giustra married Francesca Dutton. His previous marriage was toAlison Lawton, a Canadian investor, activist, and producer of documentary films on humanitarian crises. Giustra and Lawton divorced in 2007 and have two children together.[29]
The New York Times had reported that UrAsia Energy Ltd. purchased "the right to buy into three uranium projects controlled by Kazakhstan's state-owned uranium agency,Kazatomprom making UrAsia "one of the world's largest uranium producers in a transaction ultimately worth tens of millions of dollars to Mr. Giustra.
Petro Rubiales Energy Corp. (TSXV:PEG) and Pacific Stratus Energy Ltd. (TSX: PSE) combined to form the new unique company "Pacific Rubiales Energy Corp... [Endeavour Financial International Corporation], was the "exclusive financial advisor for Petro Rubiales.
The New York Times first broke the story of their trip to Kazakhstan this past January. Shortly after that, The Wall Street Journal reported that Clinton also introduced Giustra to the president of Colombia, Alvaro Uribe. [In 2006], a Giustra-connected shell company, now called Pacific Rubiales Energy, paid $250 million for control of a Colombian oil-field operation. As part of the deal, Pacific Rubiales, which now trades on the TSX, became a partner of Ecopetrol SA, Colombia's state oil company.This article describes a June 2007 high-profile fund raiser held in Toronto with celebrities in attendance.
In September 2005, Bill Clinton and his aides staged a three-day philanthropic event at which they gathered hundreds of millions of dollars of commitments from the rich and powerful to help the world's poor. Mr. Clinton's staff also found time to help a wealthy Canadian businessman, Frank Giustra. At the gathering, a Clinton aide arranged for Mr. Giustra to be introduced to Columbian PresidentAlvaro Uribe. [They talked for about ten minutes]...
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