Belinda Stronach

Belinda Stronach is a business and public leader focused on developing economic opportunity and quality of life both at home and abroad, and on finding innovative solutions to the challenges of poverty.

Belinda is the President and Chief Executive Officer of The Stronach Group, a privately-held consortium that owns, operates and manages a number of leading businesses in a wide range of industries. The Stronach Group also owns a number of premier development properties and real estate assets in North America and Europe. 

Belinda is the former Executive Vice-Chairman of Magna International Inc., one of the largest global suppliers of automotive systems and components in the world with more than 92,000 employees in 25 countries. While at Magna, she also served on the Board of Directors and as the Company’s President and CEO. Under her corporate leadership, the Company had record sales and profits in each year and its stock price nearly doubled in value.

Long recognized as an emerging leader with vision, the National Post had already identified Belinda in 2001 as the most powerful businesswoman in Canada. In the same year, the World Economic Forum named her a “Global Leader of Tomorrow.” In 2002, she was ranked #2 by Fortune Magazine in its annual list of the world’s most powerful women in business, and named one of Canada’s “Top 40 under 40.” In 2004, TIME Magazine ranked Belinda as one of the world’s 100 most influential people and in 2005 the World Economic Forum named her a member of its network of global young leaders. In 2005, she won the “In Celebration of Women: Achievements and Initiatives” award, and in 2010 she received the EVE award from Equal Voice in recognition of her philanthropic and political contributions to the promotion of women in public life. 

In recognition of her contributions to business and public life, Belinda received Honorary Doctor of Laws degrees from the Michael G. DeGroote School of Business at McMaster University in 2003; Brock University in 2009; and the University of Windsor in 2011.

She was first elected to the Canadian House of Commons in 2004 as a Conservative MP, representing the community where she had lived most of her life. In 2005, she joined the Liberal Party of Canada, acting on behalf of what she believed to be the best interests of her constituents, her community and her country. Re-elected  in 2006 as a Liberal MP, she served as Member of Parliament for Newmarket-Aurora (Ontario) until October 2008.

While in elected office, she joined the Cabinet at the invitation of the Prime Minister and assumed responsibility for three separate and senior portfolios. Her accomplishments and years in public office were chronicled in the book Belinda: The Political and Private Life of Belinda Stronach, by journalist Don Martin.

Belinda is a strong advocate of women’s issues. She is an Honorary Director of the Judy LaMarsh Fund of the Liberal Party of Canada, established to encourage more women to enter public life.

Belinda and Canadian television personality Rick Mercer co-founded Spread the Net, a national grassroots fundraising campaign launched in 2006 to raise awareness and funds to combat death from malaria. She is also a board member of Malaria No More and Chair of Malaria No More Canada.She is a Director of Millennium Promise Canada. 

Following her personal experience with breast cancer in 2007, she established the Belinda Stronach Chair in Breast Cancer Reconstructive Surgery at the Toronto General and Western Hospital Foundation. She is a strong supporter of the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation and has served as Honorary Chair of the Foundation’s CIBC Run for the Cure in York Region for the past two years.

In 2008, she established The Belinda Stronach Foundation to provide educational opportunities for young women and aboriginal youth, and to improve the lives of young people in developing nations; introducing the One Laptop Per Child Program to Canada in 2010, and launching the G(irls)20 Summit, a global forum modeled after the G20 that brought together one girl from each of the G20 countries and one girl from Africa.

She is an Honorary Member of the Board of Directors of Southlake Regional Health Centre in Newmarket, Ontario, as well as the past Honorary Chair of Southlake's Nurture the Future Fundraising Campaign. In 2008, Belinda received the Paul Harris Fellow Award, one of the highest honors that Rotary can bestow on an individual. She is also the Co-founder and Honorary Chair of Belinda’s Place, York Region’s first homeless women’s shelter, expected to open in 2012.

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