Pierre Lassonde | |
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 Lassonde in 2015 | |
| Born | April 17, 1947 Saint-Hyacinthe, Quebec, Canada |
| Alma mater | Université de Montréal (BSc) University of Utah (MBA) |
| Spouse(s) | Claudette MacKay-Lassonde (1970-2000) deceased; Janelle Muntz Lassonde (2002- ) |
| Children | 3 |
Pierre Lassonde OC GOQ [1] (born 1947) is a Canadian businessman and philanthropist.
Pierre Lassonde was born in Saint-Hyacinthe, Quebec, the third of four children. He studied at the Séminaire de Saint-Hyacinthe and graduated in 1967 with a Bachelor of Arts. He then attended the École Polytechnique de Montréal, a school affiliated with the University of Montreal, [2] graduating with a BSc in electrical engineering in 1971. He attended the University of Utah and received his MBA in 1973. [3] He earned his CFA designation in 1983.
After receiving his MBA from the University of Utah, he joined the Mining and Metals Division of Bechtel, based in San Francisco, California. In 1977, he accepted a position in the Strategic Planning Dept. of Rio Algom in Toronto, Ontario. He joined Beutel, Goodman & Company Ltd., a leading Institutional money management firm in 1980 as mining analyst and precious metal portfolio manager. There he managed the very successful Dynamic Gold Fund for a period of 10 years. [4]
In 1982, he co-founded, along with his business partner Seymour Schulich, Franco-Nevada Corporation, the first publicly traded gold royalty company. In 1985, Franco-Nevada acquired for US$2 million a royalty on a small mining operation in the heart of the Carlin gold belt of Nevada. Two years later, the property was acquired by Barrick Gold, who discovered the world class Goldstrike deposit. From inception to February 2002, when the company was sold to Newmont Mining for US$3.2billion, Franco-Nevada provided its shareholders a 36% annualized rate of return. [5]
Lassonde served as President of Newmont Mining Corp. from February 2002 to 2007 and vice-chairman in 2007.
In 2008, Lassonde revived Franco-Nevada by joining forces with David Harquail and the rest of the original Franco-Nevada team to acquire Newmont's royalty portfolio. The born-again Franco-Nevada became the largest mining IPO (initial public offering) ever offered on the TSE (Toronto Stock Exchange) at that time. [6] The market capitalization of the company was more than US$25 billion in December 2020. After 35 years with Franco-Nevada, at the Annual Meeting of May 6, 2020, Lassonde stepped down as chairman and was elected Chairman Emeritus. [7]
In 1993, Lassonde led a group of investors in another startup, Metallica Resources. The company was responsible for the discovery of the world-class El Morro deposit in Chile and the Cerro San Pedro mine in Mexico. In 2010, Metallica merged with Peak Gold and Newgold and later on with Western Goldfields Resources to create a leading mid-size gold-producing company. He left the Board of Newgold in 2014.
In 1995, Lassonde backed his late wife Claudette MacKay-Lassonde in the startup of Enghouse Systems Ltd, a provider of software to the telecommunication companies. The company today has revenues of over $500 million per year and market capitalization of over $3 billion (December 2020). He is the second-largest shareholder and a Director of the company.
Lassonde remains involved in gold mining through his private family office Firelight Investment LLC. He is one of the main shareholders of Orla Mining, which he helped create, as well as companies such as America Gold and Silver, Prime Mining, and Marathon Gold.
Lassonde served as Chairman of the World Gold Council from 2005 to 2009. [8] [9]
In addition, Lassonde authored in 1990 The Gold Book: The Complete Investment Guide to Precious Metals. [10]
Lassonde is an active and engaged philanthropist in both Canada and the United States in the fields of education, the arts and the community in which he lives. His donations total over $100 million and have gone to create iconic programs such as the Lassonde Entrepreneur Institute and Lassonde Studios at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, the Lassonde School of Engineering at York University in Toronto, the Lassonde Mining Engineering program at the University of Toronto, and scholarships in Canadian universities.
Lassonde served as chairman of the Board of the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec from 2005 to 2016. He led the $110 million fundraising campaign for the creation of the Pierre Lassonde Pavilion dedicated entirely to Canadian art. The Pavilion has revitalized the MNBAQ as it has won numerous architectural awards over the past four years to the end of 2020.
In July 2015, Lassonde was appointed chair of the Board of the Canada Council for the Arts. Under his leadership the CCA has seen a deep transformation and board renewal that led to a doubling of the budget to $360 million by 2021. His insistence on measuring the impact of the investments has led to the CCA's recognition as a world leader in the field. His five-year term came to an end in July 2020.
In March 2020, Lassonde was named Principal and Chair of Polytechnique Montréal’s Board of Directors for a five-year period. Polytechnique Montréal is one of the oldest engineering school in Canada. With over 10,000 students coming from around the world, it's also one of the most diverse and recognized schools.
The Université du Québec à Montréal, is a French-language public research university based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is the largest constituent element of the Université du Québec system.
Polytechnique Montréal is a public research university affiliated with the Université de Montréal in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The school offers graduate and postgraduate training, and is very active in research. Following tradition, new Bachelors of Engineering (B.Eng) graduating from Polytechnique Montréal receive an Iron Ring, during the Canadian Ritual of the Calling of an Engineer ceremony.
Ernest Cormier was a Canadian engineer and architect. He spent much of his career in the Montreal area, designing notable examples of Art Deco architecture, including the Université de Montréal original main building, the Supreme Court of Canada Building in Ottawa, and the Cormier House.
Barrick Gold Corporation is a mining company that produces gold and copper with 16 operating sites in 13 countries. It is headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It has mining operations in Argentina, Canada, Chile, Côte d'Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Dominican Republic, Mali, Papua New Guinea, Saudi Arabia, Tanzania, the United States and Zambia. In 2023, it produced 4.05 million ounces of gold at all-in sustaining costs of $1,335/ounce and 420 million pounds of copper at all-in sustaining costs of $3.21/pound. As of 31 December 2023, the company had 77 million ounces of proven and probable gold reserves.
Newmont Corporation is an American gold mining company based in Greenwood Village, Colorado. It is the world's largest gold mining corporation. Incorporated in 1921, it owns gold mines in Nevada, Colorado, Ontario, Quebec, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Australia, Ghana, Argentina, Peru, and Suriname. In addition to gold, Newmont mines copper, silver, zinc and lead.
Pierre Dansereau was a Canadian ecologist from Quebec known as one of the "fathers of ecology".
Seymour Schulich is a Canadian businessman, investor, author, and philanthropist.
Lorne M. Trottier, OC is a Canadian engineer, businessman and philanthropist. He co-founded Matrox, a computer corporation that specializes in computer graphics. Trottier sits as an advisor to Canada's Ecofiscal Commission.
Rob McEwen, CM is a Canadian businessman. He is the chairman and chief executive officer of McEwen Mining and was the founder and former chairman and chief executive officer of Goldcorp. In January 2019, Goldcorp merged with Newmont creating Newmont Goldcorp Corporation, which today is the largest gold mining company in the world. McEwen followed his father into the investment industry and also developed a passion for gold. As of 2016 he is one of the top one-hundred wealthiest Canadians, with an estimated personal net worth over $800 million.
Hatch is a global multidisciplinary management, engineering and development consultancy. Its group companies have more than 10,000 staff in 70+ offices. In 2015, Hatch was ranked as a top 20 International Design Firm according to the Engineering News-Record (ENR) rankings.
The Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, abbreviated as MNBAQ, is an art museum in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. The museum is located in National Battlefields Park and is a complex of four buildings. Three of them were purpose-built for the museum and one was originally a provincial prison.
The Centre des arts Juliette-Lassonde is a cultural complex located in Saint-Hyacinthe, Quebec, Canada.
Polytechnique is a 2009 Canadian drama film directed by Denis Villeneuve and written by Villeneuve and Jacques Davidts. Starring Maxim Gaudette, Sebastien Huberdeau, and Karine Vanasse, the film is based on the 1989 École Polytechnique massacre and re-enacts the events of the incident through the eyes of two students who witness a gunman (Gaudette) murder fourteen young women.
Montreal's economy is the second largest of all cities in Canada and the first in Quebec. Montreal is a centre of commerce, industry, technology, culture, finance, and world affairs. In 2022, Metropolitan Montreal was responsible for $233 Billion CDN of Quebec's $425 Billion CDN GDP, with a population of 4.37 million people. Montreal's economy, therefore, comprises approximately 54.8% of Quebec's overall GDP.
Franco-Nevada Corporation is a Toronto, Ontario, Canada-based, gold-focused royalty and streaming company with a diversified portfolio of cash-flow producing assets. It is traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange and New York Stock Exchange.
The Lassonde School of Engineering is the professional engineering school of York University in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Lassonde incorporates crossover programming with York University’s Schulich School of Business and Osgoode Hall Law School to study business and law, respectively, alongside the engineering program.
The Schulich Leader Scholarships is a Canadian and Israeli undergraduate award program that provides scholarships for students enrolled in STEM areas of study. Established in 2011 following a $100 million gift from Canadian businessman and philanthropist Seymour Schulich and co-administered by the UJA Federation of Greater Toronto, the program was initiated with the goal of producing STEM leaders to strengthen the economic competitiveness of Canada and Israel. In the inaugural year, 977 high schools and CÉGEPs across Canada put forward a nominee to compete in the annual award competition. In 2015, 1,250 students were nominated, fifty of whom were selected for the scholarship by one of the twenty participating universities. In 2020, the size of the program doubled in Canada, offering 100 scholarships annually totalling $11 million CAD.
AtkinsRéalis Group Inc., previously known as SNC-Lavalin Group Inc., is a Canadian company based in Montreal that provides engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) services to various industries, including mining and metallurgy, environment and water, infrastructure, and clean energy. AtkinsRéalis was the largest construction company, by revenue, in Canada, as of 2021.
Claudette MacKay-Lassonde was a Canadian engineer who became the first woman president of the Professional Engineers Ontario.
Claude Provencher OAQ, OAA, AAPPQ, ARAC (RCA), FRIAC was a Canadian architect. In 1983, together with Michel Roy he founded the architecture firm Provencher_Roy in Montréal. He is considered one of the pioneers of modern urban architecture.
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