Guy Laliberté
- Soyuz TMA -14 TMA-16/Sojus (2009)
Guy Laliberté, OC, CQ ( born September 2, 1959 in Quebec City, Canada ) is a Canadian artist, billionaire and owner of the world-renowned Cirque du Soleil.
Life
Even as a youth played Laliberté accordion and harmonica in the folk band La gueule du loup. At 18, he traveled throughout Europe and earned his living as a street performer, including as a juggler and fire-eater.
Back in Canada, he joined in 1979 the stilt group Les Echassiers De Baie -Saint -Paul to. From July 1982 he organized performances by the artist group La Fete Foraine in the province of Quebec.
In 1983, Laliberté from the provincial government $ 1.5 million to organize for the 450th anniversary of Quebec a street event in several cities. To this end, he and Daniel Gauthier Cirque du Soleil, which continued to exist after the Jubilee year and toured Canada. Starting in 1987, followed by appearances in Las Vegas, Santa Monica and San Diego. The Cirque du Soleil expanded subsequently into several groups that went on both tours, as also occurred in purpose-built theaters.
The Cirque du Soleil, which dispenses with classic circus elements such as ring and animals, was a great commercial success and became a group with several thousand employees on several continents. In 2000, Laliberté paid off his partner Gauthier and since then holds 95 % stake in the Group.
Guy Laliberté is one of the richest Canadian entrepreneur and is number 261 of the list of the wealthiest people in the world by Forbes magazine.
Poker
The World Poker Tour Championship 2007, he finished fourth and won a cash prize of $ 700,000. Secondly, it plays online at Full Tilt Poker under the name lady marmalade, lost there until June 2008 but about 7 million U.S. dollars.
Laliberté took part in the fourth season of High Stakes Poker TV format some poker in which at times over five million U.S. dollars were on the table. In July 2012, he organized as part of the World Series of Poker the hitherto most expensive poker tournament The Big One for One Drop. The buy-in was $ 1,000,000 per player. From each buy-in $ 111,111 of the One Drop Foundation benefited.
Space Tourist
On 4 June 2009, the company Space Adventures announced that Guy Laliberté will fly aboard the Russian spacecraft Soyuz TMA -16 space tourist to the International Space Station ISS. Laliberté calls this flight a Poetic Social Mission - a poetic social mission. The launch took place on 30 September 2009, the return on October 11, 2009 Soyuz TMA- 14th He used the flight into space also for advertising for the " One Drop " water project. So he took during space flight symbolically a drop of water. With global television appearances on October 10, it support various international artists and celebrities; see Social Affairs. The trip cost about 23.7 million euros and was held on the occasion of his fiftieth birthday.
Social
Laliberté is the founder of the Foundation One Drop Foundation, which has set itself the goal to provide everyone with access to clean drinking water. Laliberte's financial contribution is doing $ 100 million, another carrier is the charity Oxfam.
Honors
- Honorary doctorate from the University of Laval (Quebec ) (2008 )
- Entrepreneur of the Year (2007)
- Order of Canada (2004)
- Ordre national du Québec ( 1997)
Laliberté was counted by Time magazine one of the 100 most influential people in 2004.