Frank Stronach | |
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Leader of Team Stronach | |
In office 25 September 2012 –31 December 2017 | |
Preceded by | Party established |
Succeeded by | Party dissolved |
Personal details | |
Born | Franz Strohsack 6 September 1932 Kleinsemmering,Styria,Austria |
Nationality | Austrian and Canadian |
Spouse | Elfriede Sallmutter |
Children | Belinda,Andrew |
Occupation | Businessman Racehorse owner/breeder |
Awards | Order of Canada (1999) Thoroughbred horse racing awards:
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Frank Stronach CM (born 6 September 1932) is an Austro-Canadian billionaire businessman and politician.
He is the founder of Magna International, an international automotive parts company based in Aurora, Ontario, Canada, Granite Real Estate, and the Stronach Group. With an estimated net worth of $C3.06 billion (as of December 2017), Stronach was ranked by Canadian Business as the 31st richest Canadian. [1]
In 2011, he entered Austrian politics: founding the Stronach Institute to campaign for a flat tax [2] and lowering national debt. [2] In 2012, he founded the political party Team Stronach for Austria.
In 2024, he was arrested and charged with 13 offenses, including rape, indecent assault on a female, eight counts of sexual assault and one of forcible confinement, involving 10 alleged victims. [3] [4] [5] [6] Police allege that the sexual assaults spanned from the 1980s to 2023. [7]
Of Croatian heritage he was born as Franz Strohsack in Kleinsemmering, Styria, Austria, to working-class parents. [8] [9]
He married Elfriede Sallmutter, a fellow Austrian. They have two children: Belinda Stronach, a former Liberal (and previously Conservative) MP and former CEO of Magna, and Andrew Stronach, who is involved in Thoroughbred horse racing, via the Adena Springs Farms breeding operations. His grandchildren include electronic musician Frank Walker.
In 1956, Stronach started his first business, Multimatic Investments Ltd., in the old manufacturing district of Toronto. In 1969, his firm acquired its first automotive parts contract and merged with Magna Electronics. In 1973, the name was converted from Multimatic Investments Ltd to Magna International Ltd.
Stronach, who is currently[ when? ] the non-executive chairman of Magna International, holds multiple-voting shares of the company, which gives him majority voting power over issues brought to shareholder vote. Although he controls the voting power among Magna's shareholders, Stronach owns only 4% of Magna's equity. His pay packages over the past few years have been between $30 and 50 million CAD. [ citation needed ] In October 2018, he sued the Stronach Group. [10]
On 1 October 2018, he and his wife filed a lawsuit against their daughter Belinda, their grandchildren Nicole and Frank Walker, and Alon Ossip for failure to honour commitments regarding the management of The Stronach Group (TSG), from which Frank Stronach resigned as trustee in 2013 when he ran for office in Austria.[4] The settlement to the lawsuit was announced on 13 August 2020. As part of the settlement, Frank and Elfriede will assume full control and ownership of a stallion and breeding business, all farm operations in North America, and all European assets. Belinda Stronach retains full control of The Stronach Group's horse racing, gaming, real estate and related assets. [11]
Other ventures by Stronach over the years include the "As Prime Minister, I Would…" symposium, the Fair Enterprise Institute think tank, the business magazine Vista, Frank's Energy Drink, and the beef ranch operations of Adena Farms. [12] [13]
In 2011, Stronach along with his daughter Belinda Stronach, founded The Stronach Group, a horse racing, entertainment and pari-mutuel wagering technology company. The Stronach Group horse racing industry brands include; Santa Anita Park, "The Great Race Place"; Pimlico Race Course, home of the Preakness Stakes; Gulfstream Park, one of Florida's entertainment destination centers, and home to the $16-million Pegasus World Cup Invitational, the world's richest Thoroughbred horse race; Laurel Park; Golden Gate Fields; Portland Meadows; and Rosecroft Raceway. The Stronach Group is in pari-mutuel technology through its subsidiaries AmTote and Xpressbet and is a distributor of horse racing content to audiences through Monarch Content Management. A settlement to the lawsuit launched by Stronach on 1 October 2018, was announced on 13 August 2020. As part of the settlement, Stronach assumes full control and ownership of a stallion and breeding business, all farm operations in North America, and all European assets while Belinda Stronach retains full control of The Stronach Group's horse racing, gaming, real estate and related assets. Stronach no longer plays a role in The Stronach Group. [11]
Among his early successes was his partnership with Nelson Bunker Hunt in the filly Glorious Song who was voted the 1980 Sovereign Award for Canadian Horse of the Year.
His horses have won the Queen's Plate in 1994 and 1997, the Belmont Stakes in 1997, and the Preakness Stakes in 2000. His horse Ghostzapper won several major races including the 2004 Breeders' Cup Classic, was voted the Eclipse Award for Horse of the Year, and named the World's Top Ranked Horse for 2004. In Canada, Stronach and/or his Stronach Stables has won the Sovereign Award for Outstanding Owner nine times. In the United States, he earned the Eclipse Award for Outstanding Owner in 1998, 1999, and 2000. In 2000, he won the Eclipse Award for Outstanding Breeder. He subsequently established Adena Springs Farms which owns horse breeding farms in Kentucky, Florida and Canada and won the Eclipse Award for Outstanding Breeder in 2004, 2005 and 2006. [ citation needed ]
In the 1988 Canadian federal election, Stronach was the Liberal candidate in York—Simcoe, receiving 35% of the vote to place second to Progressive Conservative winner John E. Cole.
In 2011, Stronach entered Austrian politics, proposing the establishment of a new political party: a "Citizens' Alliance" advocating tax, health, and education reform. [14] In November 2011, he called for an 'intellectual revolution' in Austria, suggesting that he would be willing to fund a student-led political party. [15]
Stronach's plans to form a new party gained prominence in 2012. He called for a flat tax of 20%, a reduction in bureaucracy by 10% over five years, and a balanced budget. [16] Stronach argued that Austria should stay in the EU, but that the euro was a 'monstrosity'. [17]
His programme was compared to the Alliance for the Future of Austria (BZÖ); Stronach had admired the BZÖ's leader Josef Bucher as the only politician in Austria that represented economic liberalism. [18] This led to suggestions that Stronach would take over the BZÖ ahead of the 2013 elections so as to give his movement seats in Parliament. [19]
The new party, called Team Stronach, was launched in September 2012. [20] [21] Four MPs – Gerhard Köfer of the Social Democratic Party, Elisabeth Kaufmann-Bruckberger of the BZÖ and independents Robert Lugar and Erich Tadler agreed to join the party. [22] The endorsement of at least three members of the National Council was required for a party to compete in general elections (alternatively, a quorum of 2,600 signatures in support of the party's candidacy have to be collected). [23] [24]
On 6 September 2005, Stronach announced that he and Magna International were committing $2 million to start a model community for people displaced by Hurricane Katrina. The Toronto Star reported that "Magna Entertainment Corp. is [currently] providing housing for about 260 evacuees from the New Orleans area at a racetrack training facility in Palm Beach County, Florida and will move them to a new community in November. Auto-parts giant Magna International Inc. and MEC are scouting for about 500 to 1,000 acres (2 to 4 km2) in an area of Baton Rouge in Louisiana to set up trailers and infrastructure. "[W]e would like to build a small community where we would try to be sponsors for the next five to seven years", Stronach said in an interview with The Star. [25]
In 1999, Stronach was made a Member of the Order of Canada. [26]
Belinda Caroline Stronach is a Canadian businesswoman and philanthropist, and was a Member of Parliament (MP) in the House of Commons of Canada from 2004 to 2008. Originally elected as a Conservative, she later crossed the floor to join the Liberals. From May 17, 2005, to February 6, 2006, Stronach was the Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development and Minister responsible for Democratic Renewal in the government of Paul Martin. After leaving politics, she served as the executive vice-chairman of Magna International, Canada's largest automotive parts manufacturer, until December 31, 2010.
The Alliance for the Future of Austria is a right-wing populist, national conservative political party in Austria.
Stronach Group, doing business as 1/ST, is an entertainment and real estate company in North America with thoroughbred horse racing and parimutuel gambling at the core.
Peter Westenthaler is an Austrian politician. He assumed his mother's maiden name Westenthaler instead of his former surname Hojač (Czech). A member of Jörg Haider's Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) up to the so-called "Knittelfeld Putsch" of 2002, he then worked for Frank Stronach's Magna Steyr, and in June 2006 was elected chairman of the newly founded Alliance for the Future of Austria (BZÖ).
Eclipse Award for Outstanding Breeder is an American Thoroughbred horse racing honor for breeders. Created in 1971, it is part of the Eclipse Awards program and is awarded annually.
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The Sovereign Award for Outstanding Breeder is a Canadian Thoroughbred horse racing honor created in 1975 by the Jockey Club of Canada. It is part of the Sovereign Awards program and is awarded annually to the top breeder whose horse(s) have competed in Thoroughbred races in Canada during the year.
Stronach Stables is the North American racing arm of Thoroughbred horse racing owner and breeder, Frank Stronach, who also owns the horse breeding operation Adena Springs. Stronach is also the CEO of the Stronach Group which owns racetracks that include Santa Anita Park, Gulfstream Park, Pimlico Race Course and Laurel Park
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Lit de Justice is an American Champion Thoroughbred racehorse. He was bred by Robert Sangster's Swettenham Stud and purchased by the French racing operation Mise de Moratalla, who named him for a famous Parlement of Paris known as the Lit de justice. The colt was sired by El Gran Senor, who was an outstanding son of Northern Dancer and earned Irish and English Champion honours at age two in 1983 and at three in 1984. He was out of the mare Kanmary, whose sire Kenmare was a French Group One winner and the Leading sire in France in 1988 and 1989.
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Ewald Johann Stadler, is an Austrian right-wing conservative politician. He was a member of the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) until 2007, and a member of the Alliance for the Future of Austria (BZÖ) from 2007 until 2013. He ran for the European Parliament in 2009 as BZÖ's leading candidate and was a member of the European Parliament from 2011 to 2014. In 2014 he was chosen as the first party leader of The Reform Conservatives (REKOS).
Adena Springs Ranch is the former name of a 30,000-acre cattle ranch in Florida's Marion County now known as Sleepy Creek Ranch Lands. Adena Ranches is a related cattle ranch property in Levy County. Both are owned by Canadian billionaire Frank Stronach.
Legislative elections were held in Austria on 29 September 2013 to elect the 25th National Council, the lower house of Austria's bicameral parliament.
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Adena Springs is a Thoroughbred horse breeding operation owned by Frank Stronach and his family. The main farm is located in Paris, Kentucky, with satellite locations in Florida and Ontario, Canada. Adena Springs has won the Eclipse Award for Outstanding Breeder eight times, one of which was Stronach winning the award in his own name. Adena Springs has won the Canadian Sovereign Award for Outstanding Breeder eight times, plus four earlier wins under Stronach's own name.
Stronach is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: