Stephen Bronfman

Stephen Bronfman (born 23 January 1964) is a Canadian businessperson, philanthropist, environmental activist and scion of the Bronfman family. He is the Chief Revenue Officer of the Liberal Party of Canada and a senior advisor to Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau. He is also the last male Bronfman to have stayed in the family's ancestral city of Montreal.[1]

Stephen Bronfman
Born(1964-01-23)23 January 1964
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
NationalityCanadian
Occupation(s)businessman, philanthropist
Known forBronfman family
SpouseClaudine Blondin Bronfman
Parents

Early life

He was born at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Montreal to Barbara Baerwald, a New York native and Charles Bronfman, a Canadian billionaire.[2] He is from a Jewish family and his parents married two years earlier at Temple Emanu-El in Manhattan in 1962.[3] He is the grandson of Samuel Bronfman and Saidye Rosner Bronfman. He was raised in Westmount, an affluent Montreal enclave.[4] The Canadian senator and Bronfman employee, Leo Kolber was his godparent.[5] Growing up, he was not interested in joining the family business: "I'd see my dad come home in a suit and tie every night, and I didn't want to be like that."[1]He credits his second trip to Israel, where he was a ranger's aide in the Negev desert as a formative experience: "I think that that trip to Israel when I was 19 really had a lot do with my involvement in environmental issues worldwide, the kind of work that I do in Canada" and that “I realized I love this. This is exciting, to be immersed in nature, to preserve it, to teach others about it.”[6][7]

Bronfman completed his undergraduate studies at Williams College and returned to Montreal in 1986. He briefly worked in the marketing department of the Montreal Expos, then owned by his father. In 1990, he studied geology at Concordia University.[1] In 1991, he joined private equity firm Claridge, which was founded by his father in 1987.[8] He shifted his viewpoint about working in business, "I began to realize that the stuff done before me was pretty important and interesting."[1]

Career

Bronfman took the head of the private equity firm Claridge and has served as its CEO since 1997. The firm has invested in artist tours by the Rolling Stones, Madonna, and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young.[9] Bronfman was responsible for increased investment positions in the high-end organic food and beverage industry, mainly through the creation of the Claridge Food Group. As executive chairman he has overseen the firm's direct private equity portfolio invest, amongst others,[10] in Cirque du Soleil, CPI, Dick Clark Productions, TSN, Solotech, The Next Adventure, 49TH Parallel, Champlain Seafood, Circle Foods, NYSE, Tour Telus, Bassins dy Havre, Eagle Creek, Busbud, Cloudify, Facebook, Gigaspaces, Luxury Retreats. Claridge has been investing in Israel since the 1980s and left the market in 2006 after the sale of Koor Industries. It returned to Israel in 2015 as technology investors.[11][12]

In 1999 he joined the board of Seagram, his family's conglomerate as a director: "It was a great honor, but the timing was terrible," as he lamented the sale of the company by his cousin, Edgar Bronfman Jr..[1] He stayed with the board for eighteen months, "I know what I know. I'm very proud of my family history and have great relationships with my cousins."[1]

He is the Chief Revenue Officer of the Liberal Party of Canada and a senior advisor to Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau. He is credited with transforming the party's finances into a considerable force and for his role in Trudeau's successful bid. He has also been described as instrumental in Trudeau's triumph in the 2015 Canadian federal election.[13] He was named in the Paradise Papers in 2017, but he responded that he "has never funded nor used offshore trusts." He also distanced himself from the Kolber Trust that had been linked to Claridge, stating that he had no "direct or indirect involvement" with the trust other than an arm's length loan made "over a quarter century ago" that was repaid five months later. Trudeau was satisfied with Bronfman's explanation: "We have received assurances that all rules were followed, indeed the same assurances made in the public statement released by the family, and we are satisfied with those assurances."[14]

In 2010 he unsuccessfully tried to buy the Montreal Canadiens of the National Hockey League (NHL).[9] Since the departure of the Expos, he has been involved in initiatives aiming to bring a Major League Baseball expansion team to Montreal.[15] In 2022, Major League Baseball rejected Bronfman's proposal for Tampa Bay Rays to play half of its home games in Montreal at a new baseball stadium in the city.[16]

Personal life

He is married to Claudine Blondin Bronfman, a French Canadian and they have four children together that they are raising bilingually.[4] His wife is "Jewish by choice" and they are raising their children in the Jewish faith.[17] They live in Westmount, Montreal in the former home of Bronfman's grandparents, Samuel and Saidye.[4]

Philanthropy

Bronfman and his wife Claudine have donated over $100 million to various charitable causes over the past two decades.[18] In 2002 he founded The Charles Bronfman Prize with his sister, Ellen Bronfman Hauptman, and brother-in-law, Andrew Hauptman in honour of his father. Since 2004, the $100, 000 prize has been awarded to individuals "whose accomplishments enrich Jewish life."[19] Notable recipients include Amy Bach, Etgar Keret, Becca Heller, Eric Rosenthal, Jared Genser, Sasha Chanoff, Amitai Ziv, Alon Tal and Jay Feinberg.[20]

He is also involved in Birthright Israel, a free program for young Jewish people in the diaspora to visit Israel for ten days.[6] The program was co-founded by his father in 1994. In 2023, together with his wife, his sister and brother-in-law, he made a "transformational gift" to the organisation which will support a five-year greening project, where the organisation will integrate environmental content and activities into Israel visits.[21]He has also been supporting the David Suzuki Foundation, a non-profit environmental organization for over twenty-five years.[6][22] In addition he is responsible for the Stephen Bronfman Scholarship in Environmental Studies, a $7,500 second-year or later graduate scholarship in environmental studies.[23]

He is also a donor to the Canadian Centre for Architecture and sits on its board of trustees.[24] In addition, each year, the Claudine and Stephen Bronfman Fellowship in Contemporary Art is awarded to two emerging artists in Montreal — one from Université du Québec à Montréal and one from Concordia University.[25]Since 2009, The Claudine and Stephen Bronfman Family Foundation works in collaboration with the Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal to offer the SéminArts educational program on the art of collecting contemporary art.[26]

References
  1. The Other Bronfman Forbes. 19 August 2006
  2. Mrs. Bronfman Has a Son The New York Times. 5 February 1964
  3. Barbara Baerwald Is Bride Of Charles Bronfman Here The New York Times. 8 May 1962
  4. Stephen Bronfman Montreal Gazette. 15 May 2023
  5. Billionaires' law firm helped wage 'Kill Bill' campaign to block offshore tax legislation CBC. 5 November 2017
  6. One Family’s Philanthropic Legacy Journal of Jewish Communal Service, Volume 86, Nos. 1/2, Winter/Spring 2011
  7. Bronfman-funded group encourages teens to go ‘green’ The Canadian Jewish News. 21 February 2008
  8. "Claridge inc". Claridge inc. Retrieved 10 February 2020.
  9. Martin Patriquin, Stephen Bronfman is betting big on Montreal's future, Macleans.ca, 17 juin 2011 .
  10. "Claridge inc". Claridge inc. Retrieved 16 November 2020.
  11. Bronfmans Are Back in Israel After Nine Years, This Time as Technology Investors Haaretz. 12 February 2015
  12. Stephen Bronfman sets up Israel investment fund Globes. 11 February 2015
  13. What to Know About the 'Paradise Papers' Leak Time. 6 November 2017
  14. Trudeau 'satisfied' with Stephen Bronfman's explanation on Paradise Papers, Opposition not so much CBC. 8 November 2017
  15. Rajeshni Naidu-Ghelani (21 June 2019). "Meet the business leaders behind the move to bring the MLB back to Montreal - BNN Bloomberg". Bnnbloomberg.ca. Retrieved 16 May 2023.
  16. Bronfman strikes out in bid to lure pro baseball back to Montreal, casting doubts on downtown revival plan The Globe and Mail. 25 January 2022
  17. Bronfmans lead effort to revitalize community The Canadian Jewish News. 19 February 2009
  18. Why the Molsons, Bronfmans and Saputos give away millions every year Montreal Gazette. 21 December 2019
  19. The Jewish MacArthur Award Jewish Telegraphic Agency. 21 June 2002
  20. Recipients at a glance The Charles Bronfman Prize. Retrieved on 16 October 2023
  21. Birthright Israel set to announce five-year ‘greening’ process The Times of Israel. 19 March 2023
  22. Brownstein: David Suzuki talks transport — and not F1 — in Montreal Montreal Gazette. 16 June 2022
  23. Stephen Bromfman Scholarship in Environmental Studies The Jewish Community Foundation of Montreal. Retrieved on 16 October 2023
  24. CCA Board of Trustees Canadian Centre for Architecture. Retrieved on 16 October 2023
  25. 2018 Claudine and Stephen Bronfman Fellowship in Contemporary Art Concordia University. 2018
  26. SéminArts, an introduction to collecting contemporary art: ongoing registration for the Montreal and Toronto series Quebec Government. 20 September 2017
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