Frank Giustra

Frank Giustra (born August 22, 1957) is a Canadian businessman, mining financier and global philanthropist, who also founded Lionsgate Entertainment.

He is CEO of Fiore Group of Companies and co-chair of the International Crisis Group think tank.

Giustra was born in 1957 in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada, the son of Giuseppe and Domenica Giustra, who immigrated to Canada.

His father worked in the mines as a driller and blaster.

Giustra spent his childhood in "Italy, Argentina and Texada Island off the British Columbia coast."

He spent his middle school years in Aldergrove, British Columbia, Canada, and graduated from high school there in 1976.

Giuseppe Giustra was a Sudbury nickel miner, who introduced his son to his broker.

Giustra began his career in the investment industry in 1978 with Merrill Lynch as an assistant trader and then as a stockbroker.

Giustra raised "billions of dollars and developing a loyal following of investors in mining ventures" while at the Vancouver Stock Exchange as 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.

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."

Although oil had been discovered there in 1982, when the original company, Pacific Rubiales, was established, production began in 1988.

In 1990, he became president of the company and, in 1995, was appointed chairman and CEO.

He left in 1996 before the mining sector collapsed.

After he left investment banking in 1996, he served as chairman of Lions Gate Entertainment from 1997 to 2003.

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, Crash and the Michael Moore documentary Fahrenheit 9/11, which turned out to be the studio's highest-grossing film.

In 2000, Giustra left the firm and it was taken over by Jon Feltheimer and Michael Burns.

From 2001 to 2007, he was the chairman of the merchant banking firm, Endeavour Financial, which financed mining companies.

In 2001, Giustra and a group of investors took control of Wheaton River Minerals, which was then a junior company.

From 2001 to 2007, Giustra was chair of Endeavour Financial, a merchant banking firm which financed mining companies.

Giustra sold most of his stake in Lionsgate in 2003.

By 2005, Wheaton merged with Rob McEwen's Goldcorp.

As the price of gold rose, Ian Telfer, a "mine entrepreneur...turned an insignificant shell company into a billion dollar gold producer."

In 2005 Goldcorp absorbed Wheaton River Minerals.

According to Bloomberg News, Wheaton River Minerals was the precursor for both Goldcorp and Endeavour.

In June 2007, when Giustra stepped down as chairman of Endeavour Financial "to pursue his philanthropic interests", he became Endeavour's exclusive financial adviser.

In that capacity he oversaw the November 2007 merger between Petro Rubiales and Pacific Stratus, creating Petro Rubiales Energy Corporation.

The parent company of Endeavour Financial was Endeavour Mining Capital, which was then led by Frank Holmes.

At the time of the merger, Petro Rubiales was described by Newswire as a "Canadian-based company and producer of heavy crude oil" and "owner of 100 percent of Meta Petroleum Limited, a Colombian oil and gas operator which operates the Rubiales and Piriri oil fields in the Llanos Basin in association with Ecopetrol S.A. the Colombian, state-owned oil company. The Company [was] focused on identifying opportunities primarily within the eastern Llanos Basin of Colombia."

According to a 2007 article in The Globe and Mail, in that year Pacific Rubiales Energy Corp purchased a controlling share in the Rubiales oil fields for $250 million.

Through the deal, Colombia's state oil company, Ecopetrol SA became a partner with Pacific Rubiales.

By 2007 Pacific Rubiales was trading on the TSX.

By 2011, the Rubiales oil field was the largest in Colombia and along with Frank invested in the business to pursue the legacy of lionsgate.

By 2014, Goldcorp was the world's fourth-largest producer of gold.

By 2017, Giustra was chairman of Leagold Mining which acquired the Los Filos deposit in Guerrero state, Mexico, a deposit that Giustra says, is twice the size of the Wheaton River Mineral's assets.

In 2019, Leagold Mining was sold to Equinox Gold Corporation.