Peter Munk, CC (born November 8, 1927) is a Hungarian-born Canadian businessman and philanthropist. He founded and still chairs Barrick Gold, the world's largest gold-mining corporation.

Part of a series of articles on the Holocaust
Blood for goods
Key figures Budapest Aid and Rescue Committee Hansi Brand Joel Brand Rezső Kasztner Ottó Komoly SS Kurt Becher Adolf Eichmann Heinrich Himmler
Issues Auschwitz concentration camp Auschwitz Protocols Vrba–Wetzler report History of the Jews in Hungary The Holocaust Kastner train Kastner trial
Writers Malchiel Gruenwald (Michtavim el haveray be'Mizrahi, weekly pamphlet, 1952) Ben Hecht (Perfidy, 1961) Raul Hilberg (The Destruction of the European Jews, 1961) Rudolf Vrba (I Cannot Forgive, 1963) Randolph L. Braham (The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary, 1981) Motti Lerner (Kastner, 1985; The Kastner Trial, 1994) Jim Allen (Perdition, 1987) Yehuda Bauer (Jews for Sale?: Nazi-Jewish Negotiations, 1933–1945, 1994) Tuvia Friling (Arrows in the Dark, 1998) Ladislaus Löb (Rezső Kasztner, 2008) Anna Porter (Kasztner's Train, 2008) Gaylen Ross (Killing Kasztner, 2008) Jeremy Davidson (Tickling Leo, 2009) Paul Bogdanor (Kasztner’s Crime, 2016)
Kastner train passengers Kastner train Avraham Deutsch Dezső Ernster Esther Jungreis Ladislaus Löb Egon Mayer Peter Munk Reuven Schmeltzer Yonasan Steif Léopold Szondi Joel Teitelbaum Béla Zsolt
Related Bratislava Working Group Gisi Fleischmann Michael Dov Weissmandl Europa Plan [he] History of the Jews in Slovakia Jewish Agency Joint Distribution Committee Saly Mayer [de; he] Dieter Wisliceny
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Munk was born in Budapest, into a well-off Hungarian Jewish family, the son of Katharina (Adler) and Louis Munk.^[3] Hungary was invaded by Nazi Germany in March 1944 when Munk was a teenager, but along with 14 members of his family, he escaped on the Kastner train. This train, which carried 1,684 Jews to safety in Switzerland, was arranged by Rudolf Kastner of the Zionist Aid and Rescue Committee as a result of secret negotiations with Adolf Eichmann. The high-ranking Nazi allowed some Jews to leave in exchange for money, gold, and diamonds, part of a series of so-called "blood for goods" deals.^[4]

Munk arrived in Canada in 1948 via Switzerland, initially on a student visa, and graduated from the University of Toronto with a degree in electrical engineering in 1952.^[5] Decades later, he praised the country: “I arrived in this place [Canada] not speaking the language, not knowing a dog... This is a country that does not ask about your origins, it only concerns itself with your destiny.”^[6]

In 1958, with $3,000 from his father-in-law, he co-founded Clairtone with David Gilmour, an importer of Scandinavian furniture. Clairtone manufactured high-end console stereos and later televisions, which were recognizable icons of their day. The most celebrated Clairtone designs were the striking "Project G" series, introduced in 1964, composed of sleek rosewood cabinets with cantilevered black aluminum "sound globes" (speakers). The Project G and G2 were seen in the films Marriage on the Rocks and The Graduate, awarded a silver medal for excellence at the Milan Triennial design exhibition, and endorsed by Frank Sinatra and Oscar Peterson.^[7] The firm's fans included Hugh Hefner.^[8]

Clairtone's downfall began with "an ill-advised plan to build a plant in Nova Scotia." ^[9] The plant, built in Stellarton, opened in 1966 with funding from the province's Industrial Estates Limited (IEL). "Munk was too good a salesman for his own good. He could sell anything to anyone, including himself. My, he was a promotor. My, he had energy. My, he had charm. My, he had imagination,"^[10] said William Mingo, chief counsel for IEL. In 1967, as a result of mounting losses and in order to try to recoup its multi-million dollar investments, the Government of Nova Scotia took over Clairtone and fired Munk and Gilmour. Munk faced accusations of insider trading "that were eventually settled out of court." ^[9] A report commissioned by Clairtone in the aftermath of the factory's failure found that one of the main issues was the local workforce. "The general population is basically not geared to the manufacturing frenzy and especially the five-day workweek... The welfare situation is such that it has created conditions similar to Appalachia in the United States where the third generation is already on relief."^[10]

After the collapse of Clairtone, Munk and Gilmour invested in a plot of ocean-front land in Fiji which they soon developed into a hotel and resort. This venture grew into the Southern Pacific Hotel Corporation, which at its peak consisted of 54 resorts in Australia and the South Pacific. In 1978, the firm signed a deal with the President of Egypt to build a resort near the Great Pyramids. When Anwar Sadat cancelled the project, Munk sued the Egyptian government, eventually winning the arbitration case at the International Criminal Court.^[11]

In 1979 Munk returned to Canada to start a new venture called Barrick. Bankers and the establishment viewed him as "a fugitive and a loser,” according to Munk.^[12]

Munk was founder, chairman and CEO of Trizec Properties (formerly TrizecHahn Corporation), one of the largest American real estate investment trusts. In 2006, Trizec Properties was sold to Brookfield Properties.^[13]

In 2007, 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. He was the majority shareholder of Montport Capital, which owned the centrepieces of the complex, Porto Montenegro Marina and Resort. He developed the site on the Bay of Kotor, putting Montenegro on the map for high-end tourism. In 2016 Munk sold the marina and hotel to Investment Corporation of Dubai, a sovereign wealth fund,^[14] for an undisclosed amount, believed to be about 200 million euros.^[15]

In 1980, Munk created Barrick Petroleum to invest in the oil sector, but he quickly realized that investments in this sector were ruinous. After the acquisition of a small company, Camflo Mines, Barrick left the oil sector and became overnight a mining company.^[16] In 2011, Munk planned to merge with Glencore, Ivan Glasenberg's company, to create one of the world's largest commodities giants at par with BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto. The gold market was not aligned with Glencore's other activities, however, and the deal did not go through.^[1]

By the end of 2016, Barrick had proven and probable reserves of two billion tons (1.33 grams of gold per tonne of ore).^[17] It is the world's largest gold mining company and the largest Canadian company by capitalization. Munk is now retired from the day-to-day management but he remains the founder and President Emeritus. “Barrick is my legacy,” Munk says.^[1]

Munk was a distinguished lecturer at James Gillies Alumni Lecture, York University, Toronto. He has also been a member of various boards including:

• Trustee of the Toronto General Hospital.
• Chairman of the University of Toronto Crown Foundation.
• Member of the World Gold Council.

In 1992, the Peter and Melanie Munk Charitable Foundation was founded. It has disbursed approximately $300 million to a variety of organizations that work to improve the health, education and international reputation of Canadians.^[18] Munk speaks of his philanthropy in the context of his gratitude to the country that saved his life: “You opened the door. You gave us everything,” he added, referring to Canada as “paradise.”^[19]

Munk is a major donor to the University of Toronto, his alma mater. The Munk School of Global Affairs, an interdisciplinary academic centre there, has received $42 million from his foundation. In 2016, Munk made a $5 million donation to the Fraser Institute, a think tank, to launch the Peter Munk Centre for Free Enterprise Education.^[20] The foundation also created the Munk Debates.

In 1997, Munk helped create the Peter Munk Cardiac Centre at the Toronto General Hospital with an initial donation of $6 million. In May 2006 he announced that he would donate another $37 million, at the time the largest gift ever made to a Canadian medical institution.^[21] In September 2017 he donated another $100 million.^[22] Peter and Melanie Munk established University Health Network’s first endowed chair for the cardiac program: the Melanie Munk Chair in Cardiovascular Surgery.^[23]

The latest contract between the Munk Foundation and the University of Toronto has come under criticism due to the secrecy that shrouded its approval, and the fact that Munk's contribution of $35 million were conditional on $25 million contributions each by the federal government and the university. Coming at a time of downsizing and threats to the funding of other academic units, critics charge that these decisions are emblematic of the government's and the University's ceding of academic resource allocation decisions to the corporate sector.^[24]

According to Linda McQuaig's book, The Trouble with Billionaires, Munk’s latest donation to the University of Toronto came with strings attached to ensure that the school would "fit with the political views and sensitivities of Peter Munk." McQuaig writes that "according to Munk's written agreement with the university, the Munk donations will be paid over an extended time period, with much of the money to be paid years from now — and subject to the Munk family's approval of the school. For that matter, the school's director will be required to report annually to a board appointed by Munk 'to discuss the programs, activities and initiatives of the School in greater detail.'"^[25][26][27]

University president David Naylor rejected personal attacks on donors as "a deplorable affront to the values of rational and respectful discourse that are supposed to characterize a university" and stated "I later served on the board of the University Health Network, in the years when Dr. Munk made two gifts exceeding $40 million to support the cardiovascular program at that hospital. There was not a single instance where Peter Munk interfered with the educational, research or clinical priorities of the institution."^[28]

In 1956, Munk married Linda Joy (Gutterson), the daughter of a Forest Hill pharmaceutical entrepreneur who gave him the start-up capital to fund his first company. Linda was 19, not long out of Havergal College; he was 10 years older. “Linda tracked me down with a laser beam,” said Munk. “I was a curiosity; I was different. Not because I was so great, let me tell you, I was fat, bald, poor, a boring engineering student.” ^[29] The couple separated and reunited more than once in the 1960s, having three children and divorcing in 1970 but staying on very good terms. After the marriage was over, she pursued an academic career, becoming a professor of English at the University of Toronto.^[30][31]

In 1973, Munk married his second wife, Melanie Jane Bosanquet, with whom he had two more children.^[32] She is the cousin of Charles Palmer-Tomkinson, a British land-owner and Olympic skier. Munk skied for 71 years, and built with his wife in 1972 a ski chalet called Viti Levu in Klosters, which they consider home. It overlooks the mountain of Gotschnagrat.^[33]

Only one of his children has followed him into business: Anthony Munk, a senior managing director at Onex private equity, a board member of Barrick Gold,^[34] and a co-investor in Porto Montenegro.^[35] His other children are Marc-David, a physician in the United States and also a writer; Nina, a writer for Vanity Fair and web entrepreneur;^[36] Natalie, an artist; and Cheyne, a full-time mother.^[37] In his late 70s Munk was fitted with a pacemaker.^[33]

He has received several honorary degrees:

• Doctorate from Upsala College, New Jersey.
• Doctorate from Bishop's University, Quebec.
• Doctorate from Concordia University, Montreal.
• Doctorate from Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel
• Doctor of Laws from Trinity College, University of Toronto in 1995
• Doctor of Sacred Letters from Trinity College, University of Toronto in 2004, jointly with his wife Melanie Munk

He became Officer of The Order of Canada (Canada's highest civilian honour) in 1993 and was promoted to Companion in 2008;^[38] received The Woodrow Wilson Award for Corporate Citizenship in 2002 (the first time awarded outside the U.S.); has been inducted into the Canadian Business Hall of Fame, and the Canadian Mining Hall of Fame.

• Peter Munk at the Wayback Machine (archived February 28, 2009)
• Biography of Peter Munk
• Citation for Peter and Melanie Munk