Seymour Schulich


Seymour Schulich, OC is a Canadian businessman, investor, author and philanthropist.

Biography

Schulich was raised in a Jewish family in Montreal, Quebec. He graduated from McGill University with a BSc in 1961 and an MBA from the Desautels Faculty of Management in 1965. He earned the Chartered Financial Analyst designation from the University of Virginia in 1969.
He is married to Tanna and they live in Willowdale, a neighbourhood of Toronto. They have two daughters and four grandchildren.

Career

His first job was at Shell Oil Company. From 1968 to 1990, he worked at Beutel, Goodman & Company Ltd., a pension fund management company which manages in excess of $10.6 billion CAD, becoming president and vice-chairman.
In 1978, Schulich, along with partner Pierre Lassonde, helped pioneer the concept of royalty payments in the mining industry: their Franco-Nevada and Euro-Nevada companies discovered some precious minerals, but their royalty arrangements allowed them to gain ownership stakes in some of the world’s most profitable mines. A $1,000 investment in Franco-Nevada's stock in 1983 was worth $1.2 million in 2002, equivalent to a 40% average annual rate of return. In 2002, Franco-Nevada merged with Normandy Mining Limited of Australia and Newmont Mining Corporation, creating the largest gold mining company in the world, Newmont Mining Corporation. Schulich was Director of Newmont Mining and Chairman of its merchant banking division from 2002-2007.
In 2007, Schulich published a book titled Get Smarter: Life and Business Lessons.

Philanthropy

Schulich has donated funds to numerous Canadian universities including York, Western Ontario, Calgary, Dalhousie, McGill, Nipissing, and Queen's. The first and largest donation that was made was to the Schulich School of Business at York University. All degrees issued by the Schulich School of Business now bear the signature of Seymour Schulich. His philanthropy also extends beyond universities, to the Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto, and outside Canada to the University of Nevada, Reno and Technion – Israel Institute of Technology.
On October 15, 2009, Schulich officially presented a donation in the amount of $20 million to Dalhousie University's Law School; in doing so, the Law School has now been renamed the Schulich School of Law.
On October 14, 2011, Schulich announced a $100 million scholarship program targeting students entering the science, technology, engineering and math fields in Canada and Israel. This gift is being co-administered by UJA Federation of Greater Toronto and the Schulich Foundation. The program is called Schulich Leader Scholarships, the largest undergraduate STEM scholarship opportunity in each country.

Honours