Wednesday, June 14, 2006

Kenneth Thomson, Canada’s richest man and the 9th wealthiest person in the world according to Forbes’s 2005 ranking, died Monday morning at his office in Toronto. The cause of death is reported to be a heart attack.

He was the former Thomson Corp. chairman and the company’s controlling shareholder. He made most of his money by making his father’s trans-Atlantic newspaper (The Globe and Mail) into one of the world’s leading resources for electronic information and data.

Mr. Thomson is survived by his wife, Marilyn; three sons, David, who succeeded him as chairman of Thomson in 2002, Peter and Taylor; and a sister, Audrey Campbell. A memorial service will be held on a date that has yet to be announced.