Every year the Forbes magazine publishes their renowned list of the world’s richest billionaires and among them we could also find 30 Canadians as well this year. In 2015, the billionaire club has expanded to 1,826 people, up from 1,645 billionaires back in 2014.
Today we’re going to focus only on Canada and we’ll show you who are the ten richest Canadians right now.
10. Mark Scheinberg
Best known for being the co-founder of PokerStars, Mark Scheinberg was born in Israel and at the young age of 13 he moved to Toronto with his family. When he was 28 he entered the gambling industry together with his father who was a computer programmer back then. Their company was settled in Costa Rica back in 2001 and then it moved to the Isle of Man becoming the largest online poker company in just a couple of years.
The online poker boom made the site extremely popular, especially when it started hosting online tournaments. Mark was the biggest shareholder of the Rational Group, the parent company of PokerStars, which was sold last year for $4.9 billion to Amaya, making him quite rich with a current net worth of $4.1 billion.
9. Emanuele Saputo
Lino Saputo is the chairman and founder of Saputo, Inc. a Canadian cheese manufacturer. An Italian born in Sicily, Emanuele moved to Montreal with his father after finishing his studies. His father founded the company back in 1954 and Lino grew it through several acquisitions, expanding the company to over 40 countries. Saputo Inc. went public in 1997 and his son took over as CEO in 2004.
Aside from the family business the Saputo family also have stakes in the TransForce transportation and logistics company, in the Montreal Impact Major League Soccer team and several properties. The net worth of Emanuele is currently estimated at $4.4 billion.
8. Garret Camp
The young entrepreneur Garret Camp made his fortune by creating an innovative service we all love, the Uber on-demand car service that is available via a mobile app. Created back in 2009, Uber has expanded all over the world, growing its valuation tenfold just in the last 18 months, reaching a whopping $41.2 billion.
He also was one of the co-founders of StumbleUpon, a discovery platform that was later sold to eBay in 2007 for $75 million. Currently he is worth $5.3 billion.
7. Arthur Irving
He is the son of K.C. Irving, an industrialist who created the Irving Group of Companies, as they are usually called today. His brother James is also in this top since the conglomerate was divided between them when their other brother, John, died in July 2010. Arthur is in charge of Irving Oil which owns the largest oil refinery in the country and operates over 900 gas stations in the northeastern side of U.S. and throughout Canada.
The family originally emigrated from Scotland during the 19th century and initially started a lumber operation, general store and several farms but during the 1920s they entered into the oil business. Today Arthur has an estimated net worth of $5.6 billion.
6. Loretta Robinson
When her husband, Ted Rogers, died in 2008, Loretta Robinson and her four children inherited the shake he held in Rogers Communications, one of the largest media companies in Canada, which offered cable television, telephone, wireless and internet services. The family also owns the largest publisher in the country – Rogers Publishing.
Today the net worth of Loretta and her family is estimated at $5.5 billion, with her daughter Melinda being a chairman of the board, while one of her sons, Edward Rogers III, is the deputy chairman of the company. The family is also one of the most generous in the country when it comes to donations, helping the Ryerson University of Toronto as well as making the largest donation in Canada’s health care history with $130 million given to create the Ted Rogers Centre for Heart Research.
5. Joseph Tsai
The vice chairman of Alibaba Group, Joseph Tsai, was born in Taipei but he’s now a Canadian citizen. He’s one of the founders of the renowned online marketplace and he’s also one of the most important leaders in the overseas deals of the company. When Alibaba went public last year in September, getting the largest IPO in history, Joseph Tsai’s net worth rose to a stunning $5.7 billion.
4. James Irving
James and his brother Arthur inherited a huge company from their father, but they’re both trying to make it even bigger with every year that goes by. James is the owner of the J.D. Irving conglomerate which has companies in the field of frozen foods, retail, shipbuilding, transportation and it’s also of the largest landowners in Canada with no less than 260,000 acres, putting James Irving at a net worth of $5.7 billion.
3. Jim Pattison
This business magnate is the CEO, Chairman and sole owner of the Jim Pattison Group, the second largest privately held company in Canada which makes him worth $7.4 billion right now. He started his business back in 1961 with a Pontiac Buick dealership in Vancouver and in time his company got bigger and bigger, with over 200 other acquisitions, becoming an impressive conglomerate with more than 35,000 employees. His company still sells cars today but it’s also involved in other industries such as media, food, entertainment, agriculture and beverages.
2. Galen Weston
For more than 40 years Galen Weston was the executive chairman of George Weston, a huge food and retail company founded in 1882 by his grandfather. He took control of the company in 1972 and was responsible for turning it around. His first job was to run several grocery and retail stores in Ireland and after proving his efficiency he took over the supermarket chain Loblaw.
Now the company is run by Galen Jr. who managed to acquire Canadian drugstore chain Shoppers for $12 billion in 2013. This deal boosted Galen’s net worth to $10 billion. He also owns the Selfridges Group which includes Ogilvy’s, Holt Renfrew, Brown Thomas, Selfridges and de Bijenkorf.
1. David Thomson
The richest man in Canada is once again David Thomson, who’s also the 25th richest billionaire in the world this year. The media magnate became the chairman of the Thomson Corporation in 2006 when his father Kenneth Thomson died. This was after the Reuters group was acquired by them and a merged entity entitled Thomas Reuters was created.
With a massive net worth of $25.6 billion, his wealth comes from his 70% stake in Thomas Reuters where he also serves as chairman, plus his stakes in Strategic Hotels & Resorts, in the Montreal Canadiens NHL team and in the Canadian news operations The Globe and Mail. He is an avid art collector owning many bespoke works of art from John Constable and pieces from Pablo Picasso as well.
