Stephen Bronfman (born in

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 ...

) is a Canadian businessperson.

Early life

A member of the

Bronfman family The Bronfman family is a Canadian family, known for its extensive business holdings. It owes its initial fame to Samuel Bronfman (1889–1971), the most influential Canadian Jew of the mid-20th century, who made a fortune in the alcoholic distille ...

, a prominent Quebec family, he is the son of billionaire

Charles Bronfman Charles Bronfman, (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 $2.5 billion (as of 2021), Bronfman was ranked by ''Forbes'' ...

and grandson of

Samuel Bronfman Samuel Bronfman, (February 27, 1889 – July 10, 1971) was a Canadian businessman and philanthropist. He founded Distillers Corporation Limited, and is a member of the Canadian Bronfman family. Biography Samuel Bronfman was born in Otaci, So ...

and

Saidye Rosner Bronfman Saidye Rosner Bronfman (December 9, 1896 – July 6, 1995) was a Canadian-Jewish philanthropist. Her husband, Samuel Bronfman (1891–1971), founded the Seagram, Seagram Company and the family took a leading role in the History of the Jews in Cana ...

. Bronfman completed his undergraduate studies at

Williams College Williams College is a Private college, private liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Williamstown, Massachusetts. It was established as a men's college in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim Williams, a col ...

and returned to Montreal in 1986. He briefly worked in the marketing department of the Montreal

Expos The Montreal Expos (french: link=no, Les Expos de Montréal) were a Canadian professional baseball team based in Montreal, Quebec. The Expos were the first Major League Baseball (MLB) franchise located outside the United States. They played in t ...

, then owned by his father. In 1990, he studied geology at

Concordia University Concordia University ( French: ''Université Concordia'') is a public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1974 following the merger of Loyola College and Sir George Williams University, Concordia is one of the t ...

. Also in 1991, he joined private equity firm Claridge, which was founded by his father in 1987.

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 The Rolling Stones are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for six decades, they are one of the most popular and enduring bands of the album era, rock era. In the early 1960s, the Rolling Stones pioneered the g ...

Madonna Madonna Louise Ciccone (; ; born August 16, 1958) is an American singer-songwriter and actress. Widely dubbed the " Queen of Pop", Madonna has been noted for her continual reinvention and versatility in music production, songwriting, a ...

, and

Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young Crosby, Stills & Nash (CSN) were a folk rock supergroup made up of American singer-songwriters David Crosby and Stephen Stills and English singer-songwriter Graham Nash. When joined by Canadian singer-songwriter Neil Young as a fourth member, ...

.Martin Patriquin, ''Stephen Bronfman is betting big on Montreal's future'', Macleans.ca, 17 juin 201

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, 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. In 1999 he was named a director of

Seagram The Seagram Company Ltd. (which traded as Seagram's) was a Canadian multinational conglomerate formerly headquartered in Montreal, Quebec. Originally a distiller of Canadian whisky based in Waterloo, Ontario, it was once (in the 1990s) the lar ...

, his family's conglomerate. In 2010 he unsuccessfully tried to buy the

Montreal Canadiens The Montreal CanadiensEven in English, the French spelling is always used instead of ''Canadians''. The French spelling of ''Montréal'' is also sometimes used in the English media. (french: link=no, Les Canadiens de Montréal), officially ...

of the

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...

(NHL). Since the departure of the Expos, he has been involved in initiatives aiming to bring Major League Baseball back to Montreal. Bronfman was named in the ''

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 ...

'' in 2017. In December 2021, The Washington Post reported that Bronfman funded a Cayman Islands trust that is among the investors in Pretium Partners which is behind Progress Residential, a firm that "reaps big profits from stressed American renters amid national affordability crisis." The scheme was described as an effort to profit from the 2008 housing crisis by "buy ngtens of thousands of foreclosed homes across the U.S. sunbelt and rent ngthem to heavily-indebted Americans who can’t get a mortgage."

Political ties

Bronfman and his family came to prominence within Canada as key fundraisers for the

Liberal Party of Canada The Liberal Party of Canada (french: Parti libéral du Canada, region=CA) is a federal political party in Canada. The party espouses the principles of liberalism,McCall, Christina; Stephen Clarkson"Liberal Party". ''The Canadian Encyclopedia'' ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bronfman, Stephen 21st-century Canadian businesspeople Stephen Bronfman Businesspeople from Montreal Living people Williams College alumni Year of birth missing (living people)