What you need to know about billionaire Michael DeGroote
In 2003, DeGroote made a historic $105-million donation to McMaster's School of Medicine
A year-long investigation by the CBC's the fifth estate and The Globe and Mail details a Caribbean dream venture by billionaire Canadian businessman Michael G. DeGroote with ties to the mafia. But who is Michael DeGroote?
He's described as a self-made man, an immigrant, originally born in Belgium in 1933, who came to Canada when he was 14-years-old. Shortly after arriving, DeGroote, who is now 81-years-old, was pulled out of school during Grade 9 to work on the family's tobacco fields in Tillsonburg, Ont. It was there, according to a McMaster University biography on DeGroote, where his trucking industry began.
At 18 he purchased a surplus army truck after the Second World War, and began to haul manure from dairy farms to his family's tobacco fields. The fleet expanded soon expanded to four trucks, but he started to make real money when he picked up a contract hauling uranium ore out of Elliot Lake.
A self-financed biography on DeGroote said this is how he made — and lost — his first million before he was 29. The company went belly up when the contract was lost, and DeGroote declared bankruptcy in 1962.
His next business was Laidlaw, which started as a trucking business, but evolved into a fleet of garbage trucks in 1975 and later, school buses and public transport by the early 80s.
DeGroote sold the business in 1988 to Canadian Pacific for just shy of half a billion dollars and, after running the company for two more years, planned to retire in Bermuda.
But his career exit was not spotless — DeGroote was part of the then largest out of court settlement for insider trading allegations. He and others paid $23-million to settle the suit without an admission of guilt after he sold Laidlaw.
His retirement in Bermuda began in 1990, but it was short-lived. DeGroote quickly returned to work and ran several businesses including AutoNation, Century Business Services and more.
His philanthropic efforts began in the 90s, after he had been named an officer of the Order of Canada. In 1992, he donated an undisclosed amount to McMaster University's business school (which is said to have been $3 million according to his self-financed documentary), which holds his name.
In 2003, he made a historic $105-million donation to McMaster's School of Medicine — the largest single cash donation to a university in Canada. In 2009, he again donated in Hamilton, giving $10.5 million to Hillfield Strathallan College, a private school.
In 2014, he surprised McMaster again, donating $50-million which he announced at a medical school convocation.
DeGroote, who had moved to the Hamilton area in 1959, now lives in Bermuda, and also owns an estate in Florida.