Emanuele "Lino" Saputo, (; born June 10, 1937) is an

Italian-Canadian Italian Canadians ( it, italo-canadesi, french: italo-canadiens) comprise Canadians who have full or partial Italian heritage and Italians who migrated from Italy or reside in Canada. According to the 2021 Census of Canada, 1,546,390 Canadians ...

billionaire businessman. He is the founder of the Canadian cheese manufacturer

Saputo Inc. Saputo Inc. is a Canadian dairy company based in Montreal, Quebec, founded in 1954 by the Saputo family. It produces, markets, and distributes a wide array of dairy products, including cheese, fluid milk, extended shelf-life milk and cream prod ...

According to ''

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also re ...

'', he has an estimated net worth of US$4.7 billion as of November 2022.

Early life

Saputo was born in

Montelepre Montelepre (; scn, Muncilebbri) is a town and ''comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Palermo, Sicily, Italy. It is known for having been the native city of Sicilian bandit Salvatore Giuliano, of architect Rosario Candela, as well as the ancest ...

Sicily (man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographi ...

, Italy, in 1937, to Giuseppe Saputo, a

cheesemaker Cheesemaking (or caseiculture) is the craft of making cheese. The production of cheese, like many other food preservation processes, allows the nutritional and economic value of a food material, in this case milk, to be preserved in concentrat ...

, and his wife Maria. He completed his secondary schooling in the early 1950s, and shortly thereafter, the Saputo family immigrated to

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

Career

Saputo became

chairman of the board The chairperson, also chairman, chairwoman or chair, is the presiding officer of an organized group such as a board, committee, or deliberative assembly. The person holding the office, who is typically elected or appointed by members of the grou ...

and

president President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...

in 1969, and he was named chairman and

chief executive officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

(CEO) in 1997 when the company went public. In March 2004, his son Lino Saputo Jr. was appointed to the position of president and CEO, while Saputo continued as the company's chairman. In August 2017, Lino Saputo Jr. assumed the role of chairman, and Saputo remains the majority shareholder of Saputo Inc. Possible links to the Mafia have been raised in the past, more recently in January 2020 with Radio-Canada investigative program '' Enquête''. Saputo has repeatedly denied those allegations, writing in his book ''Entrepreneur: Living our dreams'': "We respected the law, kept our distance from criminal organizations, and avoided crossing the wrong people". Saputo was named in the 2017

Paradise Papers The Paradise Papers are a set of over 13.4 million confidential electronic documents relating to offshore investments that were leaked to the German reporters Frederik Obermaier and Bastian Obermayer, from the newspaper'' Süddeutsch ...

because he held shares in an

offshore company The term "offshore company" or “offshore corporation” is used in at least two distinct and different ways. An offshore company may be a reference to: * a company, group or sometimes a division thereof, which engages in offshoring business pro ...

, an aviation company, in Bermuda which he had sold off in 2010. A spokesperson said that "was justified for business reasons and not for fiscal considerations".

Other interests

Saputo owns a significant stake in a trucking company,

TransForce TFI International Inc. is a Canadian transport and logistics company based in Saint-Laurent, Quebec, a borough of Montreal. It operates primarily in Canada, the United States, and Mexico through 4 business segments: less than truckload (LTL), ...

, and has extensive investments in real estate, forest products, hotels and golf courses. Saputo committed C$7.5 million towards the construction of Montreal Impact's

Saputo Stadium Saputo Stadium (french: link=no, Stade Saputo) is a soccer-specific stadium at Olympic Park, Montreal, Olympic Park in the borough of Mercier–Hochelaga-Maisonneuve in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The stadium opened on May 21, 2008, and is the cu ...

at Olympic Park in July 2006.

Honours

In 2011, he was made an Officer of the

National Order of Quebec The National Order of Quebec, termed officially in French as ''l'Ordre national du Québec'', and in English abbreviation as the Order of Quebec, is an order of merit in the Canadian province of Quebec. Instituted in 1984 when Lieutenant Gove ...

. He was appointed a Member of the

Order of Canada The Order of Canada (french: Ordre du Canada; abbreviated as OC) is a Canadian state order and the second-highest honour for merit in the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, after the Order of Merit. To coincide with the ...

(CM) in 2012, per the Government House announcement on June 29, 2012, and the ''

Canada Gazette The ''Canada Gazette'' (french: Gazette du Canada) is the official government gazette of the Government of Canada. It was first published on October 2, 1841. While it originally published all acts of the Parliament of Canada, it later also publ ...

'' on September 1, 2012. His son Lino Saputo Jr. was named "Canada's Outstanding CEO of the Year" for 2019 by the ''Financial Post''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Saputo, Lino 1937 births Living people People from Montelepre Canadian billionaires Canadian people of Sicilian descent Cheesemakers Businesspeople from Sicily Italian emigrants to Canada Officers of the National Order of Quebec Members of the Order of Canada Businesspeople from Montreal People from Senneville, Quebec Naturalized citizens of Canada People named in the Paradise Papers

Early life

Career

Other interests

Honours

See also

References