Mark Pathy (born July 1969) is a Canadian businessman, philanthropist and

commercial astronaut A commercial astronaut is a person who has commanded, piloted, or served as an active crew member of a privately funded spacecraft. This is distinct from an otherwise non-government astronaut, for example Charlie Walker, who flies while represe ...

. He is the CEO of Mavrik, a privately owned Canadian investment company. He is also the chairman of

Stingray Group Stingray Group Inc. (formerly Stingray Digital and Stingray Digital Group) is a publicly traded Canadian media and entertainment company based in Montreal, Quebec, with offices in the United States, Belgium, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, S ...

and the former co-CEO of

Fednav Fednav is a privately owned group of Canadian companies, divisions, and subsidiaries in the maritime transport industry.Fednav, 2007. ''Fednav Divisions''. Primarily involved in transporting over 30 million tonnes of bulk cargo and break bulk ...

, a private shipping company co-founded by his great-uncle, Ernest Pathy, who was an immigrant from Hungary.

Biography

His mother Constance was born in the Netherlands while his father, Laurence Pathy, was born in Egypt to Hungarian parents and is a close friend and former business partner of

Paul Martin Paul Edgar Philippe Martin (born August 28, 1938), also known as Paul Martin Jr., is a Canadian lawyer and politician who served as the 21st prime minister of Canada and the leader of the Liberal Party of Canada from 2003 to 2006. The son o ...

. His father is also a cousin of

Mariette Pathy Allen Mariette Pathy Allen (Alexandria, 1940) is a photographer for the transgender, genderfluid, and intersex communities and a writer. She has published five books, ''Transformations'': ''Cross-dressers and Those Who Love Them (1989)'', ''Masked Cult ...

. He grew up in Montreal and attended

Selwyn House School Selwyn House School (SHS) is an English-language independent K-11 boys' school located in Westmount, Quebec. The school was founded in 1908 by Englishman Captain Algernon Lucas and was named in honour of Selwyn College at the University of Cam ...

, where he was classmates with politician

Greg Fergus Gregory Cristophe Fergus (born May 31, 1969) is a Canadian Liberal politician, who was elected to represent the riding of Hull—Aylmer in the House of Commons of Canada in the 2015 federal election. Early life Fergus’ grandfather immigra ...

and businessmen

Vincenzo Guzzo Vincenzo "Vince" Guzzo (; born 11 June 1969) is a Canadian entrepreneur, philanthropist and television personality. He currently serves as CEO of Cinémas Guzzo, Groupe Guzzo Construction inc., Guzzo Medical and Guzzo Hospitality. He has also ...

and Michael Penner. He has an undergraduate degree from the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...

and an MBA from

INSEAD INSEAD, a contraction of "Institut Européen d'Administration des Affaires" () is a non-profit business school that maintains campuses in Europe ( Fontainebleau, France), Asia (Singapore), the Middle East (Abu Dhabi, UAE), and North America (San ...

. The Pathy Family Foundation, which he serves as secretary, had more than $252 million CAD in assets as of 2018. Mark Pathy and his wife Jessica recently contributed to a fundraising campaign for the Montreal Jewish General Hospital (JGH) Foundation which raised $5.5 million to date and saw the recently created Centre of Excellence in Infectious Diseases named in their honour. The JGH’s Jess and Mark Pathy Centre of Excellence in Infectious Diseases focuses on advancing knowledge of antibiotics and vaccines; preventing infections; developing rapid diagnostics and mapping the molecular structure of infections.

Spaceflight

In January 2021, it was announced that Pathy paid for a seat on board SpaceX Axiom Space-1 as a mission specialist alongside

Larry Connor Larry Connor (January 7, 1950) is an American real estate and technology business person, as well as a space tourist. Connor is the head of the Connor Group, a real estate investment firm located in Dayton, Ohio. Education Born in 1950 in Alb ...

Eytan Stibbe Eytan Meir Stibbe is an Israeli former fighter pilot, businessman and commercial astronaut. In November 2020 he paid Axiom Space to become a space tourist on a ten day mission to the International Space Station aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon spac ...

and

Michael López-Alegría Michael López-Alegría (born Miguel Eladio López Alegría on May 30, 1958) is an astronaut, test pilot and commercial astronaut with dual nationality, American and Spanish; a veteran of three Space Shuttle missions and one International Space ...

. The mission launched on April 8, 2022. He received his astronaut pin during the welcoming ceremony at the ISS, 584th space traveller in the world. Mark Pathy paid $50 million USD for the trip. He became the third Canadian private citizen, after

Guy Laliberté Guy Laliberté, (born 2 September 1959) is a Canadian billionaire businessman, and poker player. Along with Gilles Ste-Croix, he is the co-founder of Cirque du Soleil. In January 2018, Laliberté was ranked by ''Forbes'' as the 11th wealthiest ...

and

William Shatner William Shatner (born March 22, 1931) is a Canadian actor. In a career spanning seven decades, he is best known for his portrayal of James T. Kirk in the ''Star Trek'' franchise, from his 1965 debut as the captain of the starship USS Enterpri ...

, and 12th Canadian overall in space. The Ax-1 mission saw Pathy take part in over a dozen research projects on board involving Canadian universities as well as the Montreal Children's Hospital Research Institute.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pathy, Mark 1969 births Living people 21st-century Canadian businesspeople Canadian people of Dutch descent Canadian people of Hungarian descent Canadian philanthropists Axiom Space 21st-century philanthropists

Biography

Spaceflight

See also

References