Conrad M. Black

Class of 1999

Conrad M. Black was born in Montreal, Quebec in 1944, to a wealthy family originally from Winnipeg. For a time, Black was the third largest newspaper magnate in the world. As Chairman and CEO of Hollinger Inc. and Hollinger International Inc., he controlled more than 400 newspapers with a combined circulation of over 13 million.

Black bought his first newspaper, the Eastern Townships Advertiser, in 1966 when he was still a student. With friends David Radler and Peter G. White, Black formed Sterling Newspapers Limited in 1971, a holding company that went on to acquire a number of small Canadian regional newspapers. In 1978, Black acquired control of Argus Corporation and restructured the company, consolidating its assets into Hollinger Inc. After several years of international expansion, the takeover of Southam newspapers and the purchase of the Financial Post, Black launched Canada’s National Post in 1998.

In addition to his involvement with the Hollinger Inc., Conrad Black has acted as director of the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, Edperbrascan Limited, and Sotheby’s Holdings Inc. He has been a member of the Chairman’s Council of the Americas Society, the Trilateral Commission, the International Institute for Strategic Studies, and the Steering Committee, Bilderberg Meetings. He was also once a Patron of the Malcolm Muggeridge Foundation.