Peter Munk (entrepreneur)

Peter Munk (born November 8, 1927 in Budapest ; † March 28, 2018 in Toronto ) was a Canadian entrepreneur , investor and patron of Hungarian-Jewish origin.

Career

Super Pit Mine in Australia owned by Barrick Gold, 2006

Born and raised in a wealthy Budapest family, his mother was Katharina Adler, his father Lajos "Louis" Munk, descendant of Hungarian rabbis , university professors and chocolate makers . Munk escaped on June 30, 1944 with the “Kastnerzug” from Nazi-occupied Hungary to Switzerland . Only his mother could not escape, was taken to the Auschwitz concentration camp , survived, but later died by suicide. Munk moved on and enrolled in the University of Toronto on a student visa . There he obtained a degree in electrical engineering . In 1958 he founded the consumer electronics company "Clairtone" with David Gilmour. After initial success, the company was taken over by the government of Nova Scotia in 1970 and got a new management. 1956 Munk married Linda Joy Gutterson. He had three children with her. The marriage ended in divorce in 1970. In 1973 he married Melanie Jane Bosanquet. She gave him two more children.

From 1970 to 1980, Munk and Gilmour worked in the global real estate industry. So they developed holiday destinations in the Fiji Islands, Egypt and Montenegro . In the 1980s, Munk first founded "Barrick Petroleum". A collaboration with Glencore gradually resulted in Barrick Gold , the largest gold mining company in the world in 2020 .

Munk retired from day-to-day operations at the mine in 2016 and died in Toronto in 2018 at the age of 90.

Awards

Munk has received honors, honorary degrees and awards, including the second highest order of Hungary and the highest civilian honor in Canada.

Web links

• Barrick

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Eric Reguly: Peter Munk: The extraordinary life of a business legend, philanthropist and national champion. In: The Globe and Mail. March 29, 2018, accessed on August 7, 2020 (eng).