Charles Bronfman, PC CC (born June 27, 1931) is a Canadian / American businessman and philanthropist and is a member of the Canadian Jewish Bronfman family. With an estimated net worth of $2 billion (as of 2013), Bronfman was ranked by Forbes as the 14th wealthiest Canadian and 736th in the world.
Biography
Bronfman was born in Montreal. He is the son of Samuel Bronfman and Saidye Rosner Bronfman. He has two older sisters, the art patron Baroness Aileen “Minda” Bronfman de Gunzberg, and architecture expert and developer Phyllis Lambert. His older brother, Edgar Bronfman, Sr., was his fellow Co-Chair of Seagrams. Edgar Bronfman Jr. is Edgar’s son. He was educated at Selwyn House School in Montreal, Trinity College School in Port Hope, Ontario, and McGill University. Bronfman said he is Canadian in his heart but wanted to get dual citizenship in order to vote in the United States.
Career
Bronfman held various positions in the family’s liquor empire, Seagrams, from 1951 to 2000. In 1951 Bronfman’s father Samuel Bronfman gave Charles a 33% ownership stake in Cemp Investments, a holding company for him and his 3 siblings which controlled the family’s corporate empire. Under the leadership of Charles and brother Edgar, it controlled billions of dollars in liquor, real estate, oil and gas, and chemical companies.
Bronfman and his brother, Edgar, inherited the Seagram spirits empire in 1971 after the death of their father, Sam Bronfman. Bronfman is a former Co-Chairman of the Seagram Company Ltd. On the demise of the company: “It was a disaster, it is a disaster, it will be a disaster,” he says. “It was a family tragedy.”
Bronfman was also well known for his forays into professional sports. He was majority owner of the Montreal Expos franchise in Major League Baseball from the team’s formation in 1968 until 1990. In 1982, a day after the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League collapsed due to financial troubles, Bronfman bought their remains and used them to start a new franchise, the Montreal Concordes. This venture proved far less successful – despite later rebranding the team as the Alouettes, the team folded prior to the start of the 1987 CFL season.
Since 1986, he has served as Chairman of The Andrea and Charles Bronfman Philanthropies, Inc. He plans to close the foundation in 2016.
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.
In April 2013, Bronfman was one of 100 prominent American Jews who sent a letter to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urging him to “work closely” with Secretary of State John Kerry “to devise pragmatic initiatives, consistent with Israel’s security needs, which would represent Israel’s readiness to make painful territorial sacrifices for the sake of peace.”
| Charles Bronfman | |
|---|---|
| Born | Charles Rosner Bronfman June 27, 1931 Montreal, Quebec, Canada |
| Nationality | Canadian / American Dual citizenship (February 2013) |
| Alma mater | McGill University |
| Occupation | Businessman Philanthropist |
| Net worth |  $2.1 billion (September 2014) |
| Spouse(s) | –Barbara Baerwald (1961–1982; divorced) –Andrea “Andy” Brett Morrison (1982–2006; her death) –Bonita “Bonnie” Roche (2008–2011) –Rita Mayo (2012–present) |
| Children | with Baerwald: –Stephen Bronfman –Ellen Bronfman Hauptman stepchildren: –Jeremy Cohen –Pippa Cohen –Tony Cohen |
| Parent(s) | Samuel Bronfman Saidye Rosner Bronfman |
| Relatives | Minda de Gunzberg (sister) Phyllis Lambert (sister) Edgar Bronfman, Sr. (brother) |
- Charles Bronfman is long removed from the 2000 deal in which he and nephew Edgar Jr. sold their family’s Seagram spirits to Vivendi for $34 billion.
- His father Samuel Bronfman, a Russian immigrant to Canada, started a small distillery in 1924 and eventually bought out competitor Seagram.
- Since the sale, Charles, who once co-chaired Seagram, has turned toward philanthropy, authoring two books on the matter and signing The Giving Pledge.
- Bronfman has given away or pledged at least $350 million, mostly toward promotion of Canadian culture and the Jewish community’s connection to Israel.
- Bronfman’s son, Stephen, now runs Claridge, the Montreal-based private investment firm that Charles founded in 1987.
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