Lino Saputo

Emanuele "Lino" Saputo, (born June 10, 1937) is an Italian-Canadian billionaire businessman. He is the founder of the Canadian cheese manufacturer Saputo Inc. According to Forbes, he has an estimated net worth of US$4.7 billion as of November 2022.

Early life
Saputo was born in Montelepre, Sicily, Italy, in 1937, to Giuseppe Saputo, a cheesemaker, and his wife Maria. Giuseppe and Frank, his eldest son, immigrated to Montreal, Quebec, Canada in 1950, and two years later, Lino joined his father and brother in Canada, along with his mother Maria, his brother Luigi, as well as his sisters Rosalia, Elina, Maria and Antonina.

Career
Saputo became chairman of the board and president of Saputo Inc. in 1969, and he was named chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) in 1997 when the company went public. In March 2004, his son Lino Saputo Jr. was appointed to the position of president and CEO, while Saputo continued as the company's chairman. In August 2017, Lino Saputo Jr. assumed the role of chairman, and Saputo remains the majority shareholder of Saputo Inc.

In March 2008, Saputo Inc. launched three defamation lawsuits against the owners of three Canadian newspapers over stories that were published in December 2007 alluding to Lino Saputo being linked to organized crime. Saputo sued CTVGlobemedia, the publisher of the Globe and Mail, Quebecor Inc., which owns the Sun Media Group of Papers, and Gesca Ltd, the owner of Montreal's La Presse newspaper. Company CEO Lino Saputo Jr. claimed the articles contained false allegations against Lino Saputo and Saputo Inc. An Italian weekly magazine, L'Espresso, was also being sued for articles that ran in November of the same year. Links between Lino Saputo and American mobster Joe Bonanno have been evidenced between 1964 and 1979.

Saputo was named in the 2017 Paradise Papers because he held shares in an offshore company, an aviation company, in Bermuda which he had sold off in 2010. A spokesperson said that "was justified for business reasons and not for fiscal considerations".

Other interests
Saputo owns a significant stake in a trucking company, TransForce, and has extensive investments in real estate, forest products, hotels and golf courses.

Honours
In 2011, he was made an Officer of the National Order of Quebec. He was appointed a Member of the Order of Canada (CM) in 2012, per the Government House announcement on June 29, 2012, and the Canada Gazette on September 1, 2012.

His son Lino Saputo Jr. was named "Canada's Outstanding CEO of the Year" for 2019 by the Financial Post.