Magna Cum Laude: How Frank Stronach Became Canada's Best-paid ManThe first biography of one of Canada’s most elusive and controversial billionaires. This is a solid, thorough business book about Frank Stronach, Canada’s most famous rags-to-riches story. The outline is well known: a young Austrian immigrant arrives in Canada in 1955 with fifty dollars in his pocket. He takes menial jobs like washing dishes until he can start a tiny machine shop in Toronto in 1957. The Auto Pact opens up the car-parts business. The company grows and grows, spawning many small union-free factories, until from its Aurora base it employs more than seventy thousand people, and Frank as chairman and owner can pay himself over $54 million in salary. Yet Wayne Lilley’s book will be the very first about this eccentric, larger than life figure. As a result of dogged research, he has built up a detailed, step-by-step picture of how Magna grew — and recovered from the brink of disaster in 1990, to its present gigantic size. It’s an amazing story of business success, stranger than fiction, that along the way takes us into the world of car-making, of horse racing (Stronach owns more than 1,000 thoroughbreds and 11 tracks in North America), and of politics (where Frank and his daughter Belinda have both played a role). Yet all the while a shareholders’ 2006 lawsuit against Stronach’s control of the company is ticking like a time bomb . . . |
Contents
Shareholders Revolt | 1 |
Strohsack to Stronach | 15 |
Magna Takes Off | 33 |
Frank Grabs the Reins | 50 |
Thriving in a Recession | 64 |
The Sinc Stevens Affair | 84 |
Riding Off in All Directions | 102 |
Magna on the Brink | 125 |
Mr Stronach Goes to Vienna | 171 |
The Austrian Messiah | 187 |
Magnas MiddleAge Spread | 208 |
MEC Leaves the Starting Gate | 234 |
Taking on the | 257 |
Incurring Shareholders Wrath | 287 |
Oh And Another Thing | 316 |
Epilogue | 342 |
Other editions - View all
Magna Cum Laude: How Frank Stronach Became Canada's Best-Paid Man Wayne Lilley No preview available - 2008 |
Magna Cum Laude: How Frank Stronach Became Canada's Best-Paid Man Wayne Lilley No preview available - 2008 |
Common terms and phrases
American annual assets Aurora Austrian auto auto-parts automakers automotive become Belinda biggest bought Canada Canadian capital cash cent chairman Churchill Downs company’s contract corporate Cosma cost Czapka Czernohorsky deal debt Decoma Dennis Mills Dillon director Doddridge Don Walker employees executive Fair Enterprise Frank Stronach Greenlight Greenlight Capital Gulfstream horse racing hydroforming industry interest investment investors Jaekel land MAGNA CUM LAUDE Magna Electronics Magna Europe Magna International Magna Steyr manufacturing McAlpine MEC's meeting MID's million U.S. Multimatic Nicol non-automotive Noreen Stevens North America North American car Ontario operations owner Pabst partners plant production profit public company racetrack real-estate restructuring Santa Anita says seat sell shareholders shares simulcast Sinc Stevens Sinclair Stevens slots soccer spinoff strategy suppliers television Tesma theme park things thoroughbred Tobin told Toronto tracks ventures vote wanted York