Nobody can accuse Frank Giustra of being greedy.

The Vancouver mining entrepreneur recently committed $100 million of his personal fortune to the charitable foundation headed by former U.S. president Bill Clinton. He also pledged 50 per cent of his future income in the natural-resources sector to the William J. Clinton Foundation.

Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim Helu, whom Forbes Magazine has ranked as the world's second-richest person, has also committed $100 million, which will focus on alleviating poverty in Latin America and other countries.

Clinton's foundation will implement sustainable social, economic and environmental systems funded by the Clinton-Giustra Sustainable Growth Initiative (CGSGI).

Photo courtesy of the Pace Group
Frank Giustra, right, and Bill Clinton look on as Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim Helu discusses the charitable initiative.

Giustra will contribute some of the money he earned while financing and launching mining companies such as Wheaton River Minerals Ltd., Lionsgate Entertainment and Endeavour Financial, which have been involved in billions of dollars worth of takeovers. He is also attempting to convince the global mining sector to participate at the local level.

It's believed to be the first time that someone has tried to unite an entire industry sector behind a charitable cause.

Which begs the question: Who is Frank Giustra?

1. Where were you born and raised?

"I was born in Sudbury, lived in Italy and Argentina until I was nine, and then came to the Vancouver area at the age of nine and was raised here. I was about two years old when we left (Sudbury.) My father moved the family several times and eventually settled us here in British Columbia. My father was a miner - a blaster and a driller."

2. You had an early desire to be a musician. What prompted your interest in music?

"I started playing the trumpet in high school. I thought I was pretty good at it and by high school standards, I guess I was. Then I went to (Douglas College in New Westminster, B.C.), took a year of music and realized I wasn't that good. At that point, I decided to switch programs to finance. In the middle of that program, I was hired by Merrill Lynch. During my last year of college, I was working at Merrill Lynch as an assistant desk trader in 1978."

3. How did you get the job with Merrill Lynch?

"I bought a three-piece suit and I went in and asked."

4.What else did you do there?

Frank Giustra

"I was a desk trader and then they put me through the broker training program in New York. (I was there for) about two and a half years. I joined Yorkton (Securities) in 1980."

5. How did you end up going into mining?

"Yorkton was a very small firm in those days. I opened up its London office in 1983. I moved there and I spent the next seven years of my life living in London and Zurich. I opened up the London office, Zurich office and Paris office for Yorkton during those seven years. While I was there, I had the idea to copy the U.K. approach to mining teams and I created a mining team made up of institutional salesmen, analysts, corporate finance people (and) economists. We started to do larger and larger transactions, and produced research. I became president of Yorkton in 1990 and brought that philosophy back to Canada to put it into place in Toronto. I became chairman and CEO in 1995 and then I left in December '96. I started Lionsgate in November of '97."

6. Why did you make such a radical shift to the film industry?

"Well, I'd always been interested in the film industry. During my tenure with Yorkton, and starting in about 1996, I had a movie interest with a partner in Los Angeles. We started out as a small distribution company, which became a foreign distribution company, which then became a producer of films. Over the years, between '86 and about 1993, we produced a lot of films. So by the time I left Yorkton in '96, I had a desire to do something on a larger scale. That's why I created Lionsgate."

7. Did you ever dream of being an actual producer or director?

"No, not director. Producer? Yes, because it was more the business side of film-making. But I ended up running the company day to day, which took all of my time."

8. What are some of your memorable movies from Lionsgate?

"The one that won Halle Berry the Academy Award, Monster's Ball. Dogma was also good, and the very controversial American Psycho. Just shortly after I left, we made Crash, which won the Academy Award (in 2005 for Best Picture). I was the chairman when I left and I hired a great CEO, who is still there and doing a fantastic job of running Lionsgate, John Feldhammer. I had an 18-member board and I had already started the Endeavour (Financial) business, which was taking more and more of my time. Managing a Lionsgate board of 18 people was a lot of work and I decided I just couldn't do it anymore. I had to focus on one thing. The mining business was starting to get very active by 2003."

9. What motivated you to start Endeavour?

"It was my belief, and I'd published some articles on this back in 2001, that the gold market was going to turn around. Gold had been a bear market for a long time and I believed that the U.S. dollar was going to come down substantially and that gold would go up correspondingly. The two were inversely correlated.

So I wrote some articles on it and decided to put my money where my mouth was and get into the business of investing in gold-mining companies. That's how Wheaton River was created."

10. Did you anticipate that Wheaton River would grow the way it did?

"No. I knew that we had a business plan. Wheaton River was exactly the business plan that we deployed. But that it would eventually become Goldcorp and have a market cap of $20 billion? Naw. I think that was a pleasant surprise."

11. When did you start to develop your philanthropic bent?

"It started small - about 15 years ago - and has grown to become a very substantial part of my life, where now it's the most important thing in my life. (Initially), there was a lot of local stuff here in the community, dealing with some issues related to children and some foreign initiatives dealing with children in other countries, like health and education needs. A lot of housing issues. Support issues. But mostly related to children."

12. How did you meet Bill Clinton?

"I met him through an event that we threw in my home in Vancouver (about two and a half years ago) to raise money for the tsunami relief effort. We had a number of celebrity entertainers and we raised close to $2 million. Because Bill Clinton was one of the spokesmen for the relief effort for the (United Nations), we had a friend approach him to see if he would provide a videotaped address to our guests, thinking that would be a nice little twist. Through that, we started communicating. I started to ask him questions about the foundation, and before I knew it, I was flying into Latin America on a trip with him. We got to know each other and became very good friends.

I became a substantial (financial) supporter of the foundation, and I've travelled extensively with him throughout the world in the last few years. Throughout Africa, Asia, Central Europe, Russia. We've been everywhere. Mostly for the HIV/AIDS (campaign). That's really been a big part of what he's done and a big part of what I have supported."

13. Can you tell us a little about the Clinton Foundation?

"The Clinton Foundation was set up by President Clinton when he left office.

It has a number of different initiatives. The HIV/AIDS (campaign) is the most well known, where he has brought together the private sector and governments to bring down the costs of the anti-retroviral drugs. It's done a fantastic job. It's in 66 countries now, delivering the drugs to millions of people, so that was an incredible effort. He's launched a climate-change initiative, where he's brought the 40 major cities of the world together to aggregate their purchasing power, share technology and emit less greenhouse gases. (He has also brought together) five major banks around the world to provide $5 billion in loans to retrofit (older) buildings so that they will be more energy-efficient and emit less greenhouse gases. He brought Microsoft in to donate $1 billion of software to retrofit these buildings and make them more efficient. Then there was the childhood obesity campaign, which was very near and dear to the president's heart. He negotiated with the soft- drink manufacturers and the snack food manufacturers to replace snacks in schools over a number of years. So those are really his three major initiatives. There are lesser initiatives, but those are the ones he's best known for."

14. How has he influenced you?

"He's inspired me. His heart is definitely in the right place. He works really hard, he's very smart, he's got great people around him and he's a tireless, tireless worker. I'm just absolutely amazed about how much he cares about the problems of other people around the world. He truly cares. That in itself was a tremendous inspiration to me. It allowed me to start thinking carefully, more and more, about what I can do."

15. How did you get involved with your current project, in which you're donating the $100 million?

"It was just an idea that was sitting in the back of my mind for the last couple of years. I wasn't quite sure how to do it. I was using my influence in the mining industry to try to promote corporate social responsibility in the developing world in a more cohesive and organized way. Just five months ago, it just all came together in a way that I could do it. I had the influence to bring the mining industry together and I had the relationship with Bill Clinton. So I thought: I can bring together this industry in a global effort, and he can implement it."

16. How is the mining industry coming together on this?

"It's early days. I haven't approached the entire industry. It's very large - and very global - but I certainly have a very good sampling of the key players. I have 20 endorsements that came to the launch (June 21) in New York. Senior mining companies. Investment bankers. Lending banks. Entrepreneurs. Senior mining people like myself. Accounting firms. Law firms. The stock exchange. The Mining Association of Canada. The Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada. Each and every one of them will bring something unique to the table. As soon as we've developed strategies for specific countries, we will call upon those companies and organizations that are relevant to that particular country or region. This will be just an ongoing effort."

17. What do you see as the challenges?

"You're bringing together governments, companies, organizations (non-governmental organizations), private-sector capital - and you have to develop a program that is both scalable and sustainable in the long term in the country or the region. That's complex. It just takes time. It takes experience, which I think the Clinton Foundation will have.

"It's not something that everybody can do. That's why it hasn't been done."

18. It's been suggested that you have a Midas touch. Do you?

"No. I've been very successful and fortunate to be successful. I feel that privilege comes with responsibility. That's what this (donation to the Clinton Foundation) is all about."

19. What are some of your passions?

"Books. History. I love history. I love geopolitics. I collect books. I'm an avid reader and I love to exercise. I do all sorts of things. I ride my bike. I just stay healthy."

20. If you couldn't do what you're doing today what would you do?

"I haven't really thought about that. I've been so busy doing what I'm doing."

Frank Giustra

* Executive Posts: Giustra has served as president, CEO and/or chairman with Yorkton Securities, Lionsgate Entertainment and Endeavour Financial. He founded Lionsgate and Endeavour and helped set up several major mining companies, including Wheaton River Minerals Ltd. and UrAsia Energy, which ranks among the world's largest uranium producers. He recently resigned from his chairman's post with Endeavour, but continues to consult for the company.

* Born/raised/age: Sudbury/Sudbury, Italy, Argentina, Vancouver/50.

* Education: Studied music and finance at Douglas College, New Westminster, B.C.

* Family: Married to human rights activist Alison Lawton.

* Career: Giustra launched his financial career with Merrill Lynch and then spent 17 years with Yorkton Securities. He then founded Lionsgate Entertainment, ran its day-to-day operations for three years and spent another three years as chairman. In 2001, while with Lionsgate, he launched Endeavour Financial, from which he recently resigned as chairman, the lone position he held with the company, when Endeavour merged with Endeavour Mining Capital.

* Charitable Causes: Giustra is a member of the board of trustees of the William J. Clinton Foundation, a member of the board of trustees of the International Crisis Group, which aims to prevent and resolve deadly conflict around the world, and a director of the Radcliffe Foundation, which assists children's medical and community services.

* Hobbies: Reading and exercising.


(Monte Stewart can be reached at monte@businessedge.ca)