Billionaire Lawrence Stroll has come to the fore as the man heading one of the UK's most prestigious brands. Here we look at how he made his fortune and what his plans are for Aston Martin and the F1 racing team that bears its name.
Stroll's leadership at Aston Martin
In 2020 Stroll led a £182m investment in Aston Martin for a 20% stake in the company, becoming executive chairman in the process.
He said his top priority for the luxury car firm was to restart production of its first SUV model, the DBX, amid tough trading conditions during the pandemic.
In February, Aston Martin revealed losses of almost £500 million as the pandemic took its toll on the brand.
In March, it was confirmed that more than 200 jobs were at risk at Aston Martin's St Athan site in South Wales as part of plans to restore profitability against a backdrop of falling sales in 2020.
However, sales of Aston Martin's DBX SUV have helped it significantly slash losses amid ballooning revenue.
In July, the sports car maker reported a pre-tax loss of £90.7 million for the first six months of 2021, compared to £227.4 million in the same period in 2020.
It sold more than 1,500 of its new DBX cars, which were released to the market in 2020, representing more than half of the units Aston Martin shifted in the period.
Total car sales for the six-month period were 2,901, up from 895 in the first half of 2020, although that encompassed the first covid national lockdown.
This helped revenue soar to £499 million, up from £146 million last year.
Lawrence Stroll’s net worth
According to Forbes ’ most recent update, Lawrence Stroll’s net worth stands at $3billion.
That figure puts him at 956th on the business magazine’s Billionaires 2021 list.
A Canadian national, the 62 year-old lives in Geneva and is married with two children.
How did he make his money?
Lawrence Stroll has made the majority of his money from the fashion industry.
He brought Pierre Cardin and Ralph Lauren clothing to his native Canada.
Since then he has invested in clothing designer Tommy Hilfiger and Michael Kors, helping turn both into the global brands they are today.
In particular he and business partner, Hong Kong fashion tycoon Silas Chou, spearheaded Michael Kors’ highly successful initial public offering in 2011.
Over the following three years he sold off his shares in the American fashion brand, which is where a bulk of his fortune comes from.
How he spends his fortune
Despite making most of his money from the fashion industry, Stroll is a petrolhead.
He colleges vintage Ferraris, spending a US-record on a rare 1967 Ferrari 275 GTB at auction in 2013. At the time Stroll owned more than 20 Ferraris.
He also owns the Mont Tremblant race track in Canada and a luxury super yacht name Faith.
Buying Racing Point
Being a petrolhead, and with son Lance as a racing driver, it was perhaps inevitable that Stroll would get involved in Formula 1.
When Lance joined Williams in 2017 he supported the team, but when Force India was put into administration the following year, Stroll led a consortium to buy it.
They purchased the team for £90million - plus assumption of £15m of debt to loans providers and suppliers - rebranded it Racing Point, and signed son Lance for the following season.
Since then he has invested heavily, and in 2020 the team secured its first win since 2003 - when it was called Jordan - at the Sakhir Grand Prix.
Stroll's leading investment in Aston Martin last year has led to the Racing Point F1 team being rebranded to Aston Martin for 2021.
It was announced in March that the racing team have bought a stretch of land opposite the Silverstone Grand Prix circuit to build a new factory, close to the teams existing factory. It came after Stroll's racing driver son Lance came 10th and team mate Sebastian Vettel finished 15th at the Dubai Grand Prix.
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