Linamar Company founder and govt chair Frank Hasenfratz has died, the Canadian provider stated late Saturday.

Hasenfratz died peacefully at his residence surrounded by his household, the corporate stated. He was 86.

Linamar stated Hasenfratz misplaced “a brave battle with most cancers.”

“It’s with a heavy coronary heart that we announce the passing of my father, Frank Hasenfratz,” his daughter and Linamar CEO Linda Hasenfratz stated in an announcement. “It was his imaginative and prescient and unrelenting drive that enabled us to construct the corporate that Linamar is right now. 

“He leaves an amazing legacy on the Canadian enterprise panorama, modified the lives of so many, and offered careers, livelihoods and alternatives for 1000’s of individuals. 

“He impressed and taught so many, myself most profoundly, and his spirit will stay on in every of us as we proceed to construct the legacy of Linamar.”

Hasenfratz was born in Hungary in 1935 and moved to Canada in 1957 following the Hungarian Revolution.

He started Linamar as a one-man operation in 1966 within the basement of his household residence north of Guelph, Ont., southwest of Toronto. His toolmaking and machinist expertise, alongside together with his willpower constructed the muse for what has turn into a globally acknowledged multinational company that employs 26,000 individuals right now.

The corporate went public in 1986. In 2001 Linamar acquired Skyjack because it diversified into industrial tools. In 2003, it purchased McLaren Efficiency Applied sciences to bolster its technical product engineering capabilities. In 2007, it acquired the All Wheel Drive enterprise from Ford. The corporate entered the medical subject in 2020 and shipped its first medical machine items, largely for ventilators in response to COVID-19.

Linamar in June retained its place at No. 60 on the Automotive Information Prime 100 World Suppliers Listing with US$3.2 billion in gross sales, down from US$3.85 billion a 12 months in the past.

“As a matter of company governance associated to the manager chair place, the board of administrators has a succession and renewal plan in place which shall be applied within the coming weeks and shall be introduced to shareholders and the general public in the end,” Linamar stated in its assertion issued Saturday.

Throughout his profession, Hasenfratz was honoured because the Canadian Entrepreneur of the Yr, inducted into the Canadian Manufacturing Corridor of Fame and the Canadian Enterprise Corridor of Fame, and was appointed to the Order of Canada.

His philanthropic endeavors included donations to Guelph Normal Hospital, Western College, St. Joseph’s Basis and of the native efficiency arts. 

“Frank will most fondly be remembered within the halls and on the manufacturing store flooring at Linamar Company the place he mentored a technology of producing and enterprise leaders,” the corporate stated. “At Linamar, we are going to proceed to stay by Frank’s phrases to attempt to constantly enhance, act rapidly and decisively, set objectives and monitor progress and all the time ‘Do What We Do Greatest, Higher’.”