Michael DeGroote

Michael G. DeGroote, OC (born 1933) is a Canadian businessman and philanthropist from Hamilton, Ontario who currently resides in Bermuda. Aside from his business career, he is best known as a major private donor to local educational institutions such as McMaster University, McMaster University Medical School and Hillfield Strathallan College.

DeGroote was born in Belgium to Flemish parents and immigrated to Canada with his parents when he was 14 years old. He left school in Grade 9 to help his family by working in the tobacco fields near Tillsonburg, Ontario.

In 1959 he purchased Laidlaw Transport Ltd., a small trucking company based in Hagersville, Ontario. Under his direction, Laidlaw expanded past trucking by entering the solid waste and school bus industries. By the mid 1970s Laidlaw was a large and successful business, and DeGroote had personally become wealthy enough that he was able to purchase the Hamilton Tiger-Cats of the Canadian Football League. He was the last owner of the Tiger Cats to make profit off of the team.

In March 1988, DeGroote sold his Laidlaw shares to Canadian Pacific; in return, he received a combination of cash and CP shares worth $499 million.

In 1990, he retired to Bermuda. However, controversy followed him after his departure: in December 1990, he resigned as a Laidlaw director, and in August 1992, Laidlaw paid $7.65 million to settle a class action lawsuit which had alleged that Laidlaw's corporate officers had "misrepresented the financial condition of Laidlaw." DeGroote also paid $23 million to the Ontario Securities Commission to settle a claim regarding insider trading of Laidlaw stock.

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