A SPECIAL TRIBUTE

Peter Munk had an uncanny ability to spot Born into a wealthy Jewish family in on Nov. opportunities, the drive to pursue grand 8, 1927, he was 16 years old when, in the the spring of visions and the courage to create. 1944, Hitler ordered Nazi troops to occupy Hungary. Mr. Munk’s paternal grandfather, Gabor, arranged for When Mr. Munk died in March 2018, at the age of the escape of 14 immediate family members on a train 90, he left a sweeping legacy – as founder of the world’s to Switzerland. The small group included Peter Munk, largest gold producer, financial saviour of one of the his father, Lajos, and his grandfather – but, because his largest international property developers, builder of parents were divorced, his mother was left behind in Porto (a superyacht marina on the Adriatic Budapest and deported to Auschwitz. The family would coast dubbed “the new Monaco” by Forbes), and a survive the Holocaust, including his mother, but it would prominent philanthropist who helped make a cost them everything they owned. global leader in cardiovascular care and research. In 1948, at the age of 20, Peter Munk arrived in Canada with a student visa. He spent his first year as a Grade 13 ‘A SIXTH SENSE’ student at ’s Lawrence Park Collegiate Institute Unlike many billionaires who make their wealth in a learning English, then enrolled at the University of single industry, Mr. Munk pursued disparate ventures Toronto (U of T). He spent his summers working on a Peter Munk arrived in numerous countries and succeeded across multiple tobacco farm in Delhi, Ont. Back on campus, he began penniless in Canada from sectors. his first business by recruiting fellow students to sell war-torn Europe. But he In the early eighties, when he founded what would Christmas trees. He graduated from U of T in 1952 with become Corp., he made a point of letting a degree in electrical engineering and a love of his newly brought giant ambitions people know that, in contrast to most executives in the adopted country. After the dehumanizing regime in and a grateful heart, as he field, he wasn’t a “gold bug.” He looked at the gold- Nazi-occupied Europe, he could only describe Canada began a remarkable journey business with as “paradise.” an outsider’s clarity and Again and again, he toward becoming one of this decided the best way to would gently chide native- country’s greatest business attract investors to the born Canadians for leaders and philanthropists notoriously volatile sector taking their country for was to limit both risk and granted. “You will never upside by hedging against appreciate the immense the future price of gold. debt I have,” Mr. Munk Other producers thought told an audience gathered he was crazy. Why would at Toronto General you build a gold business Hospital in September A DEBT and then bet against the 2017. He was at the precious metal? But the hospital to announce the market had the answer: $100-million gift that he In Barrick’s first 10 years and his wife, Melanie, as a public company, its had made to the Peter REPAID valuation soared. By 1993, Munk Cardiac Centre – 10 years after Barrick’s the largest donation to a initial public offering on Canadian hospital – but the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSE), $1 initially invested his speech that day centred on his love for his adopted in the company was worth $158. homeland. “To do what I can to help this country, to help IN FULL When his holding company acquired real-estate giant repay this country, is never enough.” Trizec Corp. in 1994, he was, by his own admission, Seventy years later, Mr. Munk would still be talking By Simon Avery “not a real estate guy.” Nevertheless, the firm, renamed about those formative years with a sense of wonder and TrizecHahn, quickly acquired an expansive portfolio gratitude for the generosity of his Canadian classmates. of such iconic properties as Chicago’s Sears Tower, the “They were there to show me what a hot dog is, because Watergate Office Building in Washington, D.C., and of Toronto’s CN Tower. Mr. Munk was a risk-taker, but his keen eye for opportunity seldom let him down. “Peter Munk is in the business business,” Canadian corporate chronicler Peter C. Newman wrote in 1996. “[He has] a sixth sense of knowing when and where and how to move.”

FINDING ‘PARADISE’ top: Mr. Munk was a man blessed with eternal optimism and Peter Munk’s 1948 Hungarian passport. charm, and the traits of a natural salesman. Underneath it all, he was a man galvanized to succeed, driven by what bottom: he called an “immense debt” to the country that had Peter Munk, age 20, aboard an ocean welcomed him and his family from war-ravaged Europe. liner on which he His intense patriotism ensured that Barrick, through all sailed from Liverpool, its ups and downs, remained a Canadian-based global England, to Halifax mining company, and, for the most part, he directed his when immigrating to Canada in 1948. philanthropy to causes he believed would strengthen PETER MUNK ARCHIVES his country.

5 I’d never heard of a hot dog. treatments for heart patients Mr. Munk’s first business and his On the eve of his departure They showed me how to eat and develop entirely new, “first love,” she added: “Measured from Barrick at the age of 86, doughnuts at the University life-saving therapies. coldly in dollars and cents, it was Mr. Munk gave an interview with of Toronto, which made me Separately, at his alma his smallest and least-successful The Economist, offering some Canadian,” he said in his mater, Mr. Munk and his company; yet nothing my father closing thoughts on his business speech at Toronto General wife, Melanie, donated has done since then has affected career: “How else can you build Hospital. “They treated me $47-million to create the him the way Clairtone did.” a company unless you believe in like a brother.” Munk School of Global Years later, Mr. Munk spoke your views, unless you articulate Affairs and Public Policy at about the collapse of the company those views, and unless you are PURSUING U of T. Another $12-million in a New York Times interview, prepared to live and die by those EXCELLENCE was given to fund the semi- describing how the ordeal had views?” he asked rhetorically. By the time of Mr. Munk’s annual Munk Debates, which taught him to be more cautious. death last spring, the have achieved international “Clairtone was the single most END OF AN ERA Peter and Melanie Munk recognition by bringing formative experience in my life Mr. Munk’s passing on March Charitable Foundation public intellectuals and because it was so traumatic,” he 28, 2018, at the age of 90, was had donated almost thought leaders to Toronto said. The greatest takeaway from keenly felt – in the Canadian $300-million to health to debate major policy issues. the experience was that it gave business community, in the care and education. Separately, the Munks have him “self-confidence” as he set philanthropic community and Having promised to leave given $40-million to the Barrick to go up against mining at his namesake centre, the Peter most of his fortune to his Technion – Israel Institute of competitors Newmont Mining Munk Cardiac Centre. foundation, Mr. Munk’s Technology in Haifa, Israel. Co. and Placer Dome. Writing on Twitter, Prime philanthropy will continue Mr. Munk and Mr. Gilmour Minister said of well into the future with the ‘FIRST LOVE’ headed to London to embark Mr. Munk: “He was an immigrant guidance of his wife. Mr. Munk’s business on their next venture – building who came to Canada with big Mr. Munk always ventures matched his a resort in Fiji that would grow dreams, surpassed them beyond dreamed big, unwilling to philanthropic projects in into Southern Pacific Properties, any imagination, and shared his settle for half measures. ambition. After graduating a chain of more than 50 hotels good fortune through historic In his philanthropic efforts, from U of T, he teamed around the Pacific Basin. philanthropy. Thank you, Peter that meant a strategy to up with David Gilmour, Munk, for your enormous enhance Canada’s stature a furniture importer, to A GOLDEN LEGACY contributions to our country. as a global leader. In today’s blend high-fidelity sound Mr. Munk returned to Canada You will be missed.” world of volatility and equipment and modern in 1979, and, two years Toronto mayor John Tory said, conflict, the country’s open- Scandinavian design. later, sold Southern Pacific “Peter Munk was a business mindedness and diversity is Armed with this novel idea Properties, netting himself some legend. But more importantly, a beacon, he told the crowd and $2,800 from the father $100-million, out of which came he was a legendary good citizen.” during the Toronto General of Mr. Munk’s first wife, the seed money for Barrick. And former Prime Minister Hospital speech. “Canada Linda Gutterson, the pair of If Clairtone was his first love, said, “His life must become the moral charismatic self-promoters Barrick was to become his serves as an inspiration for us all.” guidance for the whole founded Clairtone Sound corporate legacy. The company At the Peter Munk Cardiac world.” above: In 1958, Peter Munk and Corp. to manufacture high-end stereo consoles in a small started as a small oil-and- Centre, messages of condolences He believed that improving health care provided David Gilmour founded Clairtone factory in a Toronto suburb. They hired the political gas concern called Barrick poured in from employees and Sound Corp., manufacturing high- one more testament to the world that it should aspire end stereo consoles with modern strategist Dalton Camp to create smart advertising, as Petroleum. Before long, however, patients. Messages such as these: to Canadian values and accomplishments. But the Scandinavian design. well as future presidential speechwriter and columnist he saw that gold offered far more “My husband has had two major country’s national healthcare system could only provide PETER MUNK ARCHIVES William Safire to promote the company in the United opportunity; it was out of favour, heart surgeries. This place has the framework, he noted. It could not “play favourites.” States. Then they began winning endorsements from prices had tumbled, and South saved his life.”

Pursuing the highest levels of excellence falls to opposite page celebrities who fell in love with their product, including African output was declining. “Thank you for giving our philanthropists, he said. top: Dr. Robert Bell (left), former , and Dizzy Gillespie. He transformed his new mother a new lease on life. “Excellence means [having] that extra heft, which President and CEO of University Clairtone went public on the TSE in 1963, and the two company into Barrick Resources, Without your generosity, that comes from the top people,” he said. “But the top people Health Network, with Melanie and entrepreneurs were celebrated as Canadian visionaries. a low-cost North American gold may not have been possible.” Peter Munk in 2006, when the will only come here…if you give them the tools to achieve Munks donated $37-million to the “Nothing at all thrilled my father so much as seeing his producer that grew quickly “My brother is here today thanks their breakthroughs; if you give them the diagnostic Peter Munk Cardiac Centre. upstart company listed alongside Canada’s old guard,” by making one opportunistic to the amazing care he received at and technological means to excel and to come up with Mr. Munk’s daughter wrote in her 2008 acquisition after another, yet the Peter Munk Cardiac Centre. breakthroughs.” That’s where philanthropists can come bottom: Melanie and Peter Munk book The Art of Clairtone: The Making of a Design Icon. limited its risk by hedging Thank you so much, Peter Munk, at the 2017 event celebrating their in, continued Mr. Munk. “We can provide the extra landmark $100-million donation She recalled her father telling her: “In those days, the against the future price of gold. for your contributions. You have funding that the government cannot. And that extra to the Peter Munk Cardiac Centre. TSE was as WASP a club as you can get. I was not only The company’s $62-million (US) helped the lives of so many.” funding can make the difference.” not WASP – I was Jewish, I was an immigrant, and I purchase of Nevada’s Goldstrike At His gifts to the Peter Munk Cardiac Centre have had an accent.” mine in 1986 proved to be not in September 2017, giving what indeed made a difference in cardiac care in Canada But for once in his life, Mr. Munk’s big dreams got only shrewd, but legendary. The mine was valued in would be his closing public remarks on his philanthropic and around the world, and they have helped the centre too far ahead of him. Lured by financial incentives expectation of holdings of 600,000 ounces. But actual career, Mr. Munk echoed the same fierce resolve that become a pioneering, world-leading institution on the from the Nova Scotia government, Clairtone moved holdings turned out to be more than 35 times greater, characterized his entire life. “Please remember, we are cutting edge of cardiac care. All told, since 1993, the its manufacturing operations to Stellarton, a remote giving Barrick one of the richest known deposits on not talking about charity,” he said, referring to his many Munks have donated $177-million to Toronto General coal-mining town. The move was disastrous, creating Earth. Suddenly, the company and its founder vaulted gifts to the Peter Munk Cardiac Centre. “We’re talking & Western Hospital Foundation. A $37-million gift in both supply-chain and labour problems for the young into the big leagues. about repaying a debt. That debt comes from the 14 2006 transformed the Peter Munk Cardiac Centre into company. At the same time, Mr. Munk was distracted With Mr. Munk at the helm, Barrick continued people, including me, [who were] needy, with zero to a state-of-the-art facility with advanced techniques by an opportunity to buy the exclusive assembly rights to acquire. In 2006, it spent an industry record of offer, no skills, no money, nothing to contribute but with and procedures. Another $19.5-million gift in 2011 of Toyota and Isuzu vehicles in Canada, a move that was about $10-billion (including debt) to purchase British our hands out [asking] ‘Please help us, please take us was used to establish four chairs in advanced cardiac both prescient and ill-timed. Columbia-based Placer Dome. Barrick’s market value in, please look at us as human beings.’ That was me, my therapeutics, aortic disease research, cardiovascular In 1967, as Clairtone unravelled, Mr. Munk and Mr. peaked in 2011, but when the company paid $7.3-billion father, my 87-year-old grandfather… . molecular medicine and multinational clinical trials – all Gilmour lost control of the company to the Nova Scotia that year to acquire the copper company Equinox “How can you thank me? It is for me to thank you. Every four chairs now occupied by some of the country’s most government. “My father remembers it as the worst year Minerals, investors balked and the share price began a dollar I give, everything I have been able to offer, has innovative researchers, leading the charge to improve of his life,” Nina Munk wrote in her book. Clairtone was long slide from which it has yet to recover. been because I was taken into this country.”

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