Pierre Lassonde

Pierre Lassonde (born 1947) is a Canadian businessman and philanthropist.

Pierre Lassonde was born in Saint-Hyacinthe, Quebec, the third of four children.

He studied at the Séminaire de Saint-Hyacinthe and graduated in 1967 with a Bachelor of Arts.

He then attended the École Polytechnique de Montréal, a school affiliated with the University of Montreal, graduating with a BSc in Electrical Engineering in 1971.

He attended the University of Utah and received his MBA in 1973.

In 1977, he accepted a position in the Strategic Planning Dept. of Rio Algom in Toronto, Ontario.

He joined Beutel, Goodman & Company Ltd., a leading Institutional money management firm in 1980 as mining analyst and precious metal portfolio manager.

There he managed the very successful Dynamic Gold Fund for a period of 10 years.

In 1982, he co-founded, along with his business partner Seymour Schulich, Franco-Nevada Corporation, the first publicly traded gold royalty company.

He earned his CFA designation in 1983.

After receiving his MBA from the University of Utah, he joined the Mining and Metals Division of Bechtel, based in San Francisco, California.

In 1985, Franco-Nevada acquired for US$2 million a royalty on a small mining operation in the heart of the Carlin gold belt of Nevada.

Two years later, the property was acquired by Barrick Gold, who discovered the world class Goldstrike deposit.

In addition, Lassonde authored in 1990 The Gold Book: The Complete Investment Guide to Precious Metals.

Lassonde is an active and engaged philanthropist in both Canada and the United States in the fields of education, the arts and the community in which he lives.

His donations total over $100 million and have gone to create iconic programs such as the Lassonde Entrepreneur Institute and Lassonde Studios at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, the Lassonde School of Engineering at York University in Toronto, the Lassonde Mining Engineering program at the University of Toronto, and scholarships in Canadian universities.

In 1993, Lassonde led a group of investors in another startup, Metallica Resources.

The company was responsible for the discovery of the world-class El Morro deposit in Chile and the Cerro San Pedro mine in Mexico.

In 1995, Lassonde backed his late wife Claudette MacKay-Lassonde in the startup of Enghouse Systems Ltd, a provider of software to the telecommunication companies.

From inception to February 2002, when the company was sold to Newmont Mining for US$3.2billion, Franco-Nevada provided its shareholders a 36% annualized rate of return.

Lassonde served as President of Newmont Mining Corp. from February 2002 to 2007 and vice-chairman in 2007.

Lassonde served as Chairman of the World Gold Council from 2005 to 2009.

Lassonde served as chairman of the Board of the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec from 2005 to 2016.

He led the $110 million fundraising campaign for the creation of the Pierre Lassonde Pavilion dedicated entirely to Canadian art.

In 2008, Lassonde revived Franco-Nevada by joining forces with David Harquail and the rest of the original Franco-Nevada team to acquire Newmont's royalty portfolio.

The born-again Franco-Nevada became the largest mining IPO (initial public offering) ever offered on the TSE (Toronto Stock Exchange) at that time.

In 2010, Metallica merged with Peak Gold and Newgold and later on with Western Goldfields Resources to create a leading mid-size gold-producing company.

He left the Board of Newgold in 2014.

In July 2015, Lassonde was appointed chair of the Board of the Canada Council for the Arts.

Under his leadership the CCA has seen a deep transformation and board renewal that led to a doubling of the budget to $360 million by 2021.

His insistence on measuring the impact of the investments has led to the CCA's recognition as a world leader in the field.

The market capitalization of the company was more than US$25 billion in December 2020.

After 35 years with Franco-Nevada, at the Annual Meeting of May 6, 2020, Lassonde stepped down as chairman and was elected Chairman Emeritus.

The company today has revenues of over $500 million per year and market capitalization of over $3 billion (December 2020).

He is the second-largest shareholder and a Director of the company.

Lassonde remains involved in gold mining through his private family office Firelight Investment LLC.

He is one of the main shareholder of Orla Mining, which he helped create, as well as companies such as America Gold and Silver, Prime Mining, and Marathon Gold.

The Pavilion has revitalized the MNBAQ as it has won numerous architectural awards over the past four years to the end of 2020.

His five-year term came to an end in July 2020.

In March 2020, Lassonde was named Principal and Chair of Polytechnique Montréal’s Board of Directors for a five-year period.