Pierre Péladeau
Canadian businessman (1925–1997)
Pierre Péladeau (12 April 1925 – 24 December 1997) was a Canadian businessman. He was the founder of Quebecor Inc., a Canadian media and telecommunications conglomerate in Quebec, Canada.2
From Wikipedia’s article on Pierre Péladeau (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.
Born Apr 11, 1925, died Dec 24, 1997.1
About
He was the father of billionaire Pierre Karl Péladeau, former Parti Québécois leader.
From Wikipedia’s article on Pierre Péladeau, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.2
Companies
Early life and education
- Date not recordedMcGill Faculty of Law3
- Date not recordedUniversité de Montréal3
- Date not recordedCollège Jean-de-Brébeuf3
Early life
Pierre Péladeau was born in Montreal, Canada, on 12 April 1925, as the youngest of seven children of Henri Péladeau, who had a successful timber business. While Henri Péladeau was on a sales trip to Europe in 1929, the stock market crashed and on his return to Montreal he found that his two partners had taken control of the business. This event undoubtedly affected Pierre Peladeau's attitude to business and his business partners.
Péladeau had four children – Érik, Isabelle, Pierre Karl, and Anne-Marie – with his first wife, Raymonde Chopin, who died in 1976. Pierre Karl Péladeau would serve as CEO of Quebecor before serving one year as leader of the Parti Québécois from May 2015 to May 2016. Érik Péladeau served as a former Vice-Chairman of Quebecor Inc. Péladeau had two children – Simon-Pierre and Esther – with his second wife, Line Parisien, whom he divorced and regretted it. He had a relationship with Manon Blanchette that produced one son and he ended his relationship with his long-term partner, Anne Béland.
Péladeau's time spent with Quebecor meant that he was often an absent father to his children.
In 1987, Péladeau told The Globe and Mail: "I've had all the women I wanted, when I wanted them." He also openly boasted that he only spoke English when he could make a profit by doing so.
In 1989, Péladeau said that women had no place on corporate boards because "they seduce too much". In 1990, Péladeau was quoted in l'Actualite magazine saying that Jews "take up too much space'" in Quebec, and was forced to issue a statement of apology claiming that he meant it in the context of Jewish fashion designers getting the lion's share of coverage from Montreal newspapers.
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Education and career
He attended College Jean-de-Brebeuf (a private school also attended by Pierre Elliott Trudeau). He then went on to complete a degree in philosophy at the Université de Montréal, and a law degree at McGill University.
While studying for the bar exam in 1950, Péladeau purchased with a $1,500 loan from his mother, Elmire, a struggling community paper, Le Journal de Rosemont, including their printing works, which became Nouvelles et Potins.
In 1964, the employees of La Presse, the major Montréal French-language newspaper, went on strike, giving Péladeau the room to create his own newspaper, Le Journal de Montréal.
Péladeau's printing business also had ties to Montreal's English-language tabloid press. During the early years of Joe Azaria's Midnight, Péladeau printed the publication. Midnight, founded in Montreal in 1954, later developed into a major North American supermarket tabloid. Péladeau did not acquire Midnight; Azaria later sold it separately, while Quebecor acquired another Azaria publication, the Sunday Express.
Quebecor Inc.
Péladeau created Quebecor Inc. in 1965, with Le Journal de Montréal as its flagship publication.
In 1977, Péladeau expanded Quebecor into the United States by starting a daily sports-heavy tabloid called The Philadelphia Journal, which was unsuccessful and ended its publication run in 1981. Péladeau later spoke of his failed venture and the loss of his 14 million USD investment as "the most expensive MBA in the United States". Péladeau also went on to acquire printing businesses in France and the United Kingdom, printing Paris Match, among many other well-known publications both in Europe and the USA.
In 1983, Quebecor bought the Winnipeg Sun.
Despite Péladeau's strong support for Quebec sovereignty, he chaired a committee in charge of organization Montreal's Canada Day celebrations in 1987.
Péladeau started The Daily News of Montreal in 1988 in a partnership with British newspaper magnate Robert Maxwell, but the paper closed two years later.
From Wikipedia’s article on Pierre Péladeau (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.
Career
Occupation: businessperson.7
Personal life
Awards
Links
Sources
The numbers on this page point here. Each one links to the record it came from.
- 1WikidataPierre Péladeau on Wikidata
- 2WikipediaPierre Péladeau on Wikipedia
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- 12Wikidataaward, as reported
- 13Wikidataaward, as reported
- 14WikidataQuébecor, Founder
- 15Wikimedia CommonsPierre Péladeau photo by Serge Harvey-Gauthier, CC BY-SA 3.0