Frank Stronach

Frank Stronach (born 6 September 1932) is an Austrian and Canadian businessman and politician. He is the founder of Magna International, an international automotive parts company based in Aurora, Ontario, Canada, Granite Real Estate, and The Stronach Group. With an estimated net worth of $CAD 3.06 billion (as of December 2017), Stronach was ranked by Canadian Business as the 31st Richest Canadian. In 2011, he entered Austrian politics: founding the Stronach Institute to campaign for classical liberalism and against the euro. In 2012, he founded the political party Team Stronach for Austria. Of Croatian heritage he was born as Franz Strohsack in Kleinsemmering, Styria, Austria, to working-class parents, Stronach's childhood was marked by the Great Depression and the Second World War. At age 14, he left school to apprentice as a tool and die maker. In 1954, he arrived in Montreal, Quebec, and later moved to Ontario. He married Elfriede Sallmutter, a fellow Austrian. They have two children: Belinda Stronach, a former Liberal (and previously Conservative) MP and former CEO of Magna, and Andrew Stronach, who is involved in thoroughbred horse racing, via the Adena Springs Farms breeding operations. He divides his time between Oberwaltersdorf, Austria, and Aurora, Ontario. Frank and Elfriede Stronach have three grandchildren, Frank Walker and Nicole Walker who are Belinda Stronach’s children and Selena Stronach who is Andrew Stronach’s only child. In 1956, Stronach started his first business, Multimatic Investments Ltd., in the old manufacturing district of Toronto. In 1969, his firm acquired its first automotive parts contract and merged with Magna Electronics. In 1973, the name was converted from Multimatic Investments Ltd to Magna International Ltd. Stronach, who is currently the non-executive chairman of Magna International, holds multiple-voting shares of the company, which gives him majority voting power over issues brought to shareholder vote. Although he controls the voting power among Magna's shareholders, Stronach owns only 4% of Magna's equity.