28 Facts About Peter Munk

Peter Munk was a Hungarian-Canadian businessman, investor, founder and philanthropist.

Peter Munk was the founder and chief executive officer of a number of high-profile business ventures, including the hi-fi electronics company Clairtone, real estate company Trizec Properties, and Barrick Gold, formerly the world's largest gold-mining corporation.

Peter Munk is well known for supporting the Munk Debates.

Peter Munk's grandfather, Gabor "Gabriel" Munk, had descended from a family of rabbis, was a brother of the noted linguist and ethnologist Bernat Munkacsi, and uncle of the Hungarian jurist and writer Erno Munkacsi.

Hungary was occupied by Nazi Germany in March 1944, when Peter Munk was aged 16; along with 14 members of his family, he escaped on the Kastner train, which carried 1,684 Jews to safety in Switzerland.

Peter Munk arrived in Canada in 1948, via Switzerland, initially on a student visa, then graduated from the University of Toronto, in 1952, with a degree in electrical engineering.

In 1979, Peter Munk returned to Canada to start a new venture called Barrick, which he would eventually build into the world's largest gold company.

Peter Munk was founder, chairman, and CEO of Trizec Properties, one of the largest American real estate investment trusts.

In 2007, Peter Munk invested with partners in Porto Montenegro, a former naval base on the Adriatic Sea, turning it into a superyacht destination to rival Cannes and Monte Carlo.

Peter Munk was the majority shareholder of Montport Capital, which owned the centrepieces of the complex, Porto Montenegro Marina and Resort.

Peter Munk developed the site on the Bay of Kotor, putting Montenegro on the map for high-end tourism.

In 2016 Peter Munk sold the marina and hotel to Investment Corporation of Dubai, a sovereign wealth fund, for an undisclosed amount, believed to be about 200 million euros.

In 1980, Peter Munk created Barrick Petroleum to invest in the oil sector, but he quickly realized that investments in this sector were ruinous.

In 2011, Peter Munk planned to merge with Glencore, Ivan Glasenberg's company, to create one of the world's largest commodities giants on par with BHP and Rio Tinto.

Peter Munk retired from the day-to-day management but he remained the founder and President Emeritus.

Peter Munk was a major donor to the University of Toronto, his alma mater.

Subsequently, Peter Munk established the semi-annual Munk Debates in 2008 with a $12 million donation from Aurea Foundation, a sub-division of his primary charitable foundation.

On September 3,1956, Peter Munk married Linda Joy Gutterson, the daughter of a Forest Hill pharmaceutical entrepreneur who gave Peter Munk the start-up capital to fund his first company.

On June 26,1973, Peter Munk married his second wife, Melanie Jane Bosanquet, in London with whom he had two more children.

Peter Munk is the cousin of Charles Palmer-Tomkinson, a British land-owner and Olympic skier.

Peter Munk skied for 71 years, and built with his wife in 1972 a ski chalet called Viti Levu in Klosters, which they consider home.

Peter Munk's children are: Anthony Munk, a senior managing director at Onex private equity; Nina Munk, a journalist and contributing editor for Vanity Fair; Marc-David Munk, a physician and healthcare executive; Natalie; and Cheyne.

In 2008, Peter Munk praised Canada for being a place where he could come as an immigrant, without wealth, knowledge, language skills or a network and set up a successful business and grow it into an empire.

Peter Munk died in Toronto on March 28,2018, at the age of 90.

The cause of death was not disclosed, but Peter Munk had been dealing with heart problems for several years and wore a pacemaker.

Peter Munk became Officer of The Order of Canada in 1993 and was promoted to Companion in 2008; received The Woodrow Wilson Award for Corporate Citizenship in 2002 ; was inducted into the Canadian Business Hall of Fame, and the Canadian Mining Hall of Fame.

In 2012 Peter Munk was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal.

Peter Munk's homeland awarded him the Commander's Cross with Star of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Hungary in 2016.