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Michel Fribourg

Belgian-born Jewish-American billionaire businessman, the chairman and CEO of Continental Grain (1913 – 10 April 2001)

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMar 10, 2026
Entity authorityQ30242296 ↗
Source-derived summary

Michel Pierre Fribourg (August 11, 1913 – April 10, 2001) was an American billionaire businessman, the chairman and CEO of Continental Grain, a global agribusiness and food company founded by Simon Fribourg in Arlon, Belgium in 1813. In his New York Times obituary, he was called "certainly the premier figure in world trade in food of the 20th century".

Early life

Son of Jules Fribourg and Lucienne Brunschwig, Michel P. Fribourg was born in Antwerp and educated in France.

Career

He worked all of his life for Continental Grain a company owned by his family, rising to chairman and CEO.

In 1944, following the death of his father, he became the fifth generation of Fribourgs to lead Continental Grain.

In 1998, Forbes estimated his net worth at $2.4 billion, based on his ownership of Continental Grain and 75% of ContiFinancial.

Personal life

He was married to Mary Ann.

They had five children, sons Robert Fribourg, Paul J. Fribourg, Charles Fribourg, Nadine Newman and Caroline Rosen.

He died in New York on April 10, 2001.

Editorial summary

“Michel Fribourg” enters the record as belgian-born Jewish-American billionaire businessman, the chairman and CEO of Continental Grain (1913 – 10 April 2001). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Michel, Fribourg and Belgian-born can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1913, 2001, 1813, 1944—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1913. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Michel, Fribourg and Belgian-born.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Michel Fribourg” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Michel, Fribourg and Belgian-born provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 10, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q30242296. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1913, 2001, 1813 and 1944.

Critical limits

Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Michel Fribourg” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.