Hungarian Refugee Becomes Car Parts Billionaire in Canada

Frank Hasenfratz got his first taste of entrepreneurship as a teenager in postwar Budapest, fixing motorbikes with spare parts he fabricated in a country wracked by shortages. He made a few extra bucks renting out the bikes until the customers returned to pick them up.

Everything changed when the Soviet Union invaded Hungary in 1956 to crush an anti-Communist uprising. He took up arms against the Red Army, then fled his homeland to avoid arrest, arriving in Canada in May 1957. He started his first company in the basement of his Ontario bungalow seven years after leaving his native land. Today, Linamar Corp. is Canada’s second-largest auto-parts maker, and its 18-month stock surge on renewed car demand has made the 79 year old a billionaire.