Charles Bronfman

Charles Bronfman is long removed from the 2000 deal in which he and nephew Edgar Jr. sold their family's Seagram spirits to Vivendi for $34 billion.His father Samuel Bronfman, a Russian immigrant to Canada, started a small distillery in 1924 and eventually bought out competitor Seagram.Since the sale, Charles, who once co-chaired Seagram, has turned toward philanthropy, authoring two books on the matter and signing The Giving Pledge.Bronfman has given away or pledged at least $350 million, mostly toward promotion of Canadian culture and the Jewish community's connection to Israel.Bronfman's son, Stephen, now runs Claridge, the Montreal-based private investment firm that Charles founded in 1987.