Frank Giustra

Frank Giustra is a Canadian business executive, who has been particularly successful in the mining and filmmaking industries, and is a noted philanthropist.

Early life

Giustra was born in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada in 1957, and lived in Italy and Argentina as a child. [ [http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/story.html?id=1227e085-a744-4f9e-aef8-cf646d92f72f Archived Profile: Frank Giustra ] ]

Giustra spent his middle school years in Aldergrove, British Columbia, Canada, and graduate high school there in 1976.

Giustra's father was a Subury nickel miner, who was interested in the stock market introduced his son to his broker.

He graduated in 1979 from Douglas College where he spent his first year playing trumpet in the school's music program before switching over to business and finance.

Investment industry

Giustra took a securities course and began his career in the investment industry in 1978 with Merrill Lynch as an assistant trader and then a stockbroker. In the early 1980s, Giustra left Merrill Lynch to create a resources-financing group in Europe for the new firm Yorkton Securities. He is said to have "transformed Yorkton into a major force in the world of international mining finance." [ [http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20070622.GIUSTRA22/TPStory/National The pursuit of wealth for the greater good] , By PATRICK BRETHOUR, ANDY HOFFMAN and SINCLAIR STEWART, "The Globe and Mail," June 22, 2007] In 1990, he became President of the company and, in 1995, was appointed Chairman and CEO. [ [http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?id=4234 International Crisis Group - Frank Giustra ] ] .

Lions Gate Entertainment

Giustra also helped to resurrect Lions Gate Entertainment.

After he left investment banking in 1996, Giustra formed Lions Gate in 1997. He hoped to capitalize on the growing film industry in Vancouver. The company bought a number of small production facilities and distributors. Its first success was "American Psycho", which began a trend of producing and distributing films far too controversial for the major American studios. Other successes included "Affliction", "Gods and Monsters", "Dogma", and the Michael Moore documentary "Fahrenheit 9/11" (which turned out to be the studio's highest grossing film in their history).

In 2000, Guistra left the firm and it was taken over by Jon Feltheimer and Michael Burns. Giustra sold most of his stake in Lions Gate in 2003.

Other Work

Giustra and is now chair of Endeavour Financial, a merchant banking firm which finances mining companies.

He became close with former US President Bill Clinton during fundraising efforts for tsunami relief in 2004. Giustra is a member of the board of trustees of the Clinton Foundation. Guistra provided his corporate jet for Clinton's fundraising campaign in Africa. The two play the card game Oh Hell during flights.

"Vancouver Magazine" ranked Giustra as number 10 in its "Power 50" list of the most powerful people in Vancouver. [Citation
title =The Power 50: Our 7th annual ranking of Vancouver's most powerful people
newspaper =Vancouver Magazine
pages =
year =2007
date =December 2007
url =http://www.vanmag.com/articles/07dec/Power505.shtml ]

In September 2005, Giustra flew Clinton to Kazakhstan as part of a a three-country philanthropic tour. Clinton praised the Kazakh autocrat for "this statement you have made about opening up the social and political life [of Kazakhstan] . Within two days of the former President's meeting with Kazakhstan’s president Nursultan Nazarbayev, Giustra's fledgling uranium company signed preliminary agreements giving it the right to buy into three uranium projects controlled by the state-owned uranium agency, Kazatomprom. "The monster deal stunned the mining industry, turning an unknown shell company into one of the world’s largest uranium producers." [ [http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/31/us/politics/31donor.html An Ex-President, a Mining Deal and a Big Donor] , By JO BECKER and DON VAN NATTA Jr., New York Times: January 31, 2008] [ [http://www.mywire.com/pubs/AFP/2005/09/07/994677?extID=10037&oliID=229 Clinton hails Kazakhstan's planned reforms] AFP: September 7, 2005]

In 2006, in the months after Mr. Clinton's visit secured Giustra's company the right to mine uranium in Kazakhstan, Mr. Giustra donated $31.3 million to the Clinton Foundation. [ [http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/31/us/politics/31donor.html An Ex-President, a Mining Deal and a Big Donor] , By JO BECKER and DON VAN NATTA Jr., New York Times: January 31, 2008]

In February 2007, a company called Uranium One agreed to pay US$3.1 billion to acquire UrAsia. Giustra, a director and major shareholder in UrAsia, would be paid $7.05 per share for a company that just two years earlier was trading at 10 cents per share. [ [http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/31/us/politics/31donor.html An Ex-President, a Mining Deal and a Big Donor] , By JO BECKER and DON VAN NATTA Jr., New York Times: January 31, 2008]

In May 2007 Giustra was one of four chairs of the 2006 Global Leadership Awards dinner in New York where Clinton was honoured along with out-going UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.

In June 2007, Giustra joined with Clinton to launch the Clinton-Giustra Sustainable Growth Initiative to address global poverty. Giustra committed $USD 100 million plus half of what he makes in the resource industry for the rest of his life.
Carlos Slim Helú, the Mexican businessman and second richest person in the world, made a matching contribution and Giustra is expected to enlist others in the Canadian resource industry.

Giustra cited Andrew Carnegie as an influence in his philanthropy but credited his wife, Alison Lawton, a dot-com millionaire turned human rights activist and producer of documentary films on humanitarian crises, with inspiring him about sustainable growth. [ [http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/story.html?id=1a649a5f-6e05-4d0f-a985-3822227455dd&k=3602 Huge donation ] ] .

Giustra is also a director of the International Crisis Group, an international, non-profit, non-governmental organization whose mission is to prevent and resolve deadly conflicts through high-level advocacy.

Personal life

In 2000, Giustra married Alison Lawton, a human rights activist and producer of documentary films on humanitarian crises. [ [http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/story.html?id=99788ffd-9432-4805-a6d6-b2463ead2d0b Archived Profile: Alison Lawton, human rights activist and documentary filmmaker ] ] They live in West Vancouver.

References

* [http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070622.wdonation22/BNStory/National/home Tycoon rallies industry to help the poor] , By SINCLAIR STEWART AND ANDY HOFFMAN, "The Globe and Mail", June 22, 2007
* [http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/story.html?id=1227e085-a744-4f9e-aef8-cf646d92f72f Archived Profile - Frank Giustra] , By Doug Ward, "The Vancouver Sun," June 21, 2007