Matthew Bronfman (born July 16, 1959) is an American businessman, entrepreneur and philanthropist. A member of the

Bronfman family The Bronfman family is a Canadian family, known for its extensive business holdings. It owes its initial fame to Samuel Bronfman (1889–1971), the most influential Canadian Jew of the mid-20th century, who made a fortune in the alcoholic distill ...

, he is the son of prominent businessman and philanthropist

Edgar Bronfman Sr. Edgar Miles Bronfman (June 20, 1929 – December 21, 2013) was a Canadian-American businessman. He worked for his family's distilled beverage firm, Seagram, eventually becoming president, treasurer and CEO. As president of the World Jewish Congr ...

Biography

Bronfman is one of seven children, one of five from Ann (Loeb) and Edgar Miles Bronfman. His mother was the daughter of John Langeloth Loeb Sr. (a

Wall Street Wall Street is a street in the Financial District, Manhattan, Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It runs eight city blocks between Broadway (Manhattan), Broadway in the west and South Street (Manhattan), South Str ...

investment banker Investment banking is an advisory-based financial service for institutional investors, corporations, governments, and similar clients. Traditionally associated with corporate finance, such a bank might assist in raising financial capital by unde ...

whose company was a predecessor of Shearson Lehman/

American Express American Express Company or Amex is an American bank holding company and multinational financial services corporation that specializes in payment card industry, payment cards. It is headquartered at 200 Vesey Street, also known as American Expr ...

) and Frances Lehman (a member of the

Lehman family The Lehman family (also Lehmann, Liehmann or Liehman) is a prominent family of Jewish German-Americans who founded the financial firm Lehman Brothers. Some were also involved in American politics. Members have married into the prominent Morgen ...

that founded the

Lehman Brothers Lehman Brothers Inc. ( ) was an American global financial services firm founded in 1850. Before filing for bankruptcy in 2008, Lehman was the fourth-largest investment bank in the United States (behind Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and Merril ...

banking firm). They divorced in 1973. Bronfman attended the

Cardigan Mountain School Cardigan Mountain School, also called Cardigan or CMS, for short, is an all-boys independent boarding school for grades six through nine, located on 62 Alumni Drive, Canaan, New Hampshire, United States. It was founded in 1945 on land provided b ...

, the

Taft School The Taft School is a private coeducational school located in Watertown, Connecticut, United States. It enrolls approximately 600 students in grades 9–12. Overview History The school was founded in 1890 as Mr. Taft's School (renamed t ...

, and graduated from

Williams College Williams College is a Private college, private liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Williamstown, Massachusetts, United States. It was established as a men's college in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim ...

in 1981. After working at

Goldman Sachs The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational investment bank and financial services company. Founded in 1869, Goldman Sachs is headquartered in Lower Manhattan in New York City, with regional headquarters in many internationa ...

he attended

Harvard Business School Harvard Business School (HBS) is the graduate school, graduate business school of Harvard University, a Private university, private Ivy League research university. Located in Allston, Massachusetts, HBS owns Harvard Business Publishing, which p ...

, where he graduated in 1985. Bronfman began his career at

and the

Cadillac Fairview Corporation The Cadillac Fairview Corporation Limited, branded as Cadillac Fairview, is a Canadian company that invests in, owns, and manages commercial real estate, mainly in Canada and the United States. As of March 2017, the company had 73 properties, enco ...

. As one of the largest

American Jewish American Jews (; ) or Jewish Americans are American citizens who are Jewish, whether by culture, ethnicity, or religion. According to a 2020 poll conducted by Pew Research, approximately two thirds of American Jews identify as Ashkenazi, 3% ide ...

investors in the

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

i economy, Bronfman is also a shareholder in

IKEA IKEA ( , ) is a Multinational corporation, multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in Sweden that designs and sells , household goods, and various related services. IKEA is owned and operated by a series of not-for-profit an ...

Israel,

Israel Discount Bank Israel Discount Bank, Ltd. () is an Israeli banking institution that offers a range of financial services, including retail banking, commercial banking, private banking, and financial services. The bank, headquartered in Tel Aviv, operates 112 ...

and the Shufersal supermarket chain. He is also the chairman and CEO of BHB holdings, a family holding company. Previously, He was a managing director at ACI Holdings, a private equity firm based in New York. He is a former director of

Jenny Craig Jenny Craig, Inc., often known simply as Jenny Craig, is an American weight loss, weight management, and nutrition company. At its peak, the company had more than 700 weight management centers in Australia, the United States, Canada, and New Ze ...

, BizBash Media Inc., Palace Candles, Inc., EARNEST Partners, LLC, Tweeter Home Entertainment Group Inc., and James River Group, Inc.

Philanthropy

Bronfman is the chairman of the international steering committee of Limmud FSU, a program focused on strengthening the Jewish identities of Russian-speaking Jews, and the chairman of the

American Jewish Committee The American Jewish Committee (AJC) is a civil rights group and Jewish advocacy group established on November 11, 1906. It is one of the oldest Jewish advocacy organizations and, according to ''The New York Times'', is "widely regarded as the wi ...

’s ACCESS, which trains Jewish professionals to shape public opinion and policy around the world. He is also the managing principal of the Treetops Foundation, a charity focused on Jewish philanthropy and is on the boards of

92nd Street Y 92nd Street Y, New York (92NY) is a cultural and community center located in the Carnegie Hill neighborhood of the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City, at the corner of East 92nd Street and Lexington Avenue. Founded in 1874 as the You ...

and the

Canadian Centre for Architecture The Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA; ) is a Architecture museum, museum of architecture and research centre in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is located at 1920, rue Baile (1920, Baile Street), between rue Fort (Fort Street) and rue Saint-Ma ...

Personal life

Bronfman has been married four times. He married first wife Fiona (

née The birth name is the name of the person given upon their birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name or to the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a births registe ...

Woods) in 1982, and they separated in 1993 and finalized their divorce in June 1997. They had three children, Eli Miles, Jeremy Samuel, and Gabriela Talia. In December 1997, he married Lisa Belzberg, daughter of

Samuel Belzberg Samuel Belzberg, (June 26, 1928 – March 30, 2018) was a Canadian businessman and philanthropist. Biography Samuel Belzberg was born to a Jewish family in Calgary, Alberta Strauss Zelnick Harry Strauss Zelnick (born June 26, 1957) is an American businessman and lawyer. He is the founder, CEO, and managing partner of private equity firm ZMC, the chairman and CEO of video game company Take-Two Interactive, and the former chairman ...

, while she was eight and a half months pregnant with their second child. They met through

Les Wexner LES or Les may refer to: People * Les (given name) * Les (surname) * L.E.S. (producer), hip hop producer Space flight * Launch Entry Suit, worn by Space Shuttle crews * Launch escape system, for spacecraft emergencies * Lincoln Experimen ...

religious studies Religious studies, also known as religiology or the study of religion, is the study of religion from a historical or scientific perspective. There is no consensus on what qualifies as ''religion'' and definition of religion, its definition is h ...

course at Wexner's Heritage Foundation. They divorced in 2002 and had three children, Sasha Eliana, Tess Emanuella, and Ezekiel "Zeke" Belzberg. In January 2005, he wed Stacey Kaye on the island of

Anguilla Anguilla is a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory in the Caribbean. It is one of the most northerly of the Leeward Islands in the Lesser Antilles, lying east of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands and directly north of Sa ...

, and they divorced in 2016 with one child, Coby Benjamin. In April 2017, he married Israeli Melanie Lavie, with whom he had two children, James Raphael and Stella Ann. He currently resides in Manhattan. His sons Jeremy and Eli founded Lincoln Avenue Capital, a real estate investor and developer in

affordable housing Affordable housing is housing which is deemed affordable to those with a household income at or below the median, as rated by the national government or a local government by a recognized housing affordability index. Most of the literature on ...

. His son, Zeke, is the cofounder and CEO of XED Beverages.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bronfman, Matthew 1959 births Living people American people of Russian-Jewish descent Bronfman family Family of Carl M. Loeb Lehman family Lewisohn family Williams College alumni Harvard Business School alumni Businesspeople from New York City Philanthropists from New York (state) 21st-century American philanthropists Goldman Sachs people