Distilled: A Memoir of Family, Seagram, Baseball, and Philanthropy [9781443448482]

Overview

The nationally bestselling memoir of the scion of a Canadian business empire

Billionaire businessman and philanthropist Charles Bronfman has decided it is time to tell his story. The Montreal Gazette praises this telling as “detailed and surprisingly candid.”

Born in 1931, an heir to the fortune of the fabulously wealthy Bronfmans (“the Rothschilds of the New World”), Charles grew up in a twenty-room mansion. Via its control of the distilling giant Seagram, the Bronfman family dominated the liquor business, with brands such as Crown Royal, V.O. and Chivas Regal. By the 1980s, Seagram was the biggest shareholder of DuPont, and by the 1990s, the family’s wealth was in the billions, culminating in the $35-billion sale of Seagram to France’s Vivendi, which led to financial and family disaster. In Distilled, Charles reflects on all of it—his relationship with his parents and his brother, Edgar; working in the family business; landing Canada’s first big-league baseball franchise (the Montreal Expos), leading a philanthropic life by promoting Canadian identity through Heritage Minutes and supporting Israel through countless innovative initiatives, including the globally respected Birthright Israel; and how the Bronfman family splintered over the sale of Seagram.

Much has been written about his father, Sam, but until now there has been no public record of Charles Bronfman’s thoughts about his life, family, career and significant accomplishments. Distilled is just such a record, chronicling key events in the life of the heir of a Canadian dynasty.