Frank Stronach
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Frank Stronach, CM (born September 6, 1932 as Franz Strohsack) is an Austrian and Canadian businessman. He is the founder of Magna International, an international automotive parts company based in Aurora, Ontario, Canada, and Magna Entertainment Corp., which specializes in horse-racing entertainment.
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Early life
Born Franz Strohsack in the small town of Kleinsemmering, Styria, Austria to a working-class couple. His childhood was marked by the Great Depression and the Second World War. At 14 he left school to apprentice as a tool and die maker. In 1954 he arrived in Montréal, Canada, and later moved to Ontario.
He is married to Elfriede Sallmutter, also from Austria originally, and has two children: Belinda, a Canadian MP, and Andrew, who is recognized as one of the keenest analysts of horse bloodlines.
Business career
In 1957 he 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 convered from Multimatic Investments Ltd to Magna International Ltd., Over the following decades, after several mergers and acquisitions, his business gradually became the major force it is today. Even though Frank Stronach was part of the labour movement in the 1970's and 80's he is well known for his opposition to trade union representation for his employees.
Recently, Stronach has been criticized for his multiple voting shares, which allow him to have majority voting power despite only owning only 4% of Magna's equity. His pay packages in the past few years which have been around 30 to 50 million $CDN have also aroused concern since he only holds the non-operational role of non-executive chairman, although he still wields vast power in this position (Brian Tobin quit as CEO of Magna's entertainment division, likely because Stronach would not give him autonomity to operate). As a result, Ontario Teachers Pension fund withheld their votes from Stronach and his close allies when it came time to re-elect Magna's board of directors. Some proponents of corporate governance have even made analogies between Stronach and Conrad Black's control of Hollinger Inc. Stronach's blunt response was to tell unhappy investors "if they don't like the resturant, then don't eat there". However, Stronach may be forced to curtail his control of Magna if he ever gets the attention of crusading New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer.
Politics
He was a candidate of the Liberal Party of Canada in the 1988 federal election for the riding of York—Simcoe, but was defeated by the Progressive Conservative John Cole. He is the father of Belinda Stronach, the Liberal MP for Newmarket—Aurora.
Magna International has also been noted also for its connections to the Ontario PC Party and the Ontario Liberal Party,
In 2003 the Progressive Conservative under Ernie Eves presented the provincial budget at a Magna plant leading to accusations that the government was violating centuries of parliamentary tradition. It is believed that this decision had a negative impact on the Progressive Conservatives in the next provincial election.
Activities in Austria
In 1986, Magna Europa was founded, its headquarters being located in Oberwaltersdorf, Lower Austria.
Stronach started to become a notable figure also in the Austrian public in the late 1990s. In 1997, he announced the project to build an amusement park in Ebreichsdorf, which would have included a giant globe representing earth which would have been 110m high and visible from every point in the Vienna Basin. The project failed due to severe public opposition.
In 1998, Magna took over Steyr Daimler Puch. In the newly merged company Magna Steyr, he successfully prevented the establishment of works councils, in violation of Austrian labor law by reprimanding workers who were cooperating with unions. In 2003, Stronach also planned to take over VOEST, but this project failed.
In 2004, a leisure center and the horse racing site Magna Racino were inaugurated at Ebreichsdorf.
Besides horse racing, Stronach is also interested in football. He is the current president and main sponsor of FK Austria Vienna, which, in spite of a budget three times larger than that of its strongest competitors and the fact that Stronach is at the same time the president of the Austrian Bundesliga, has failed to completely dominate the league, winning the Austrian Championship only once since the club was taken over by Stronach. Stronach also founded the Frank Stronach Football Academy in Hollabrunn to train and educate adolescent players.
Stronach also has close ties to many Austrian top politicians from various parties. Current finance minister Karl-Heinz Grasser (then member of the Austrian Freedom Party, now supported by the Austrian People's Party) worked for Magna for some time after leaving politics after a dispute with his mentor Jörg Haider. Andreas Rudas, a former leading member of the Social Democratic Party of Austria, is currently employed by Stronach.
Honors
In 1999 he was made a member of the Order of Canada.
On November 22, 2004, Frank Stronach was awarded the title of an honorary professor of practical business management at the Graz University of Technology.de:Frank Stronach fr:Frank Stronach