Canada's richest man, Ken Thomson, has died. Thomson died June 12, 2006, at his office in Toronto, of an apparent heart attack.

Ken Thomson was, the hard-driving creator of a business empire that grew from a tiny radio station in northern Ontario to embrace Canada's dominant newspaper group and other interests ranging from North Sea oil to travel agencies, the Hudson's Bay Co. and the Times of London.

Ken Thomson was born in Toronto on Sept. 1, 1923, the third child and only son of Roy Thomson. When Ken was four, his family moved to North Bay where Roy Thomson started the family business with the purchase of a small radio station for $6000. The family returned to Toronto in 1935 as the business expanded. Ken attended school at Upper Canada College and planned to go to the University of Toronto in 1942, but he signed on with the Royal Canadian Air Force for the duration of the Second World War.

After the war, he studied at Cambridge University in Englan, where he earned a degree in economics and law. With his education under his belt, he entered the family business. His first position was with the Timmins Daily Press, writing obituaries.

In 1956, Thomson married Nora Marilyn Lavis. They had two sons, David and Peter, and a daughter, Lynne.

Thomson became chairman of the global information group after the 1976 death of his father and took an already successful company even further. Under Ken Thomson, its corps of non-family managers sold the company's newspapers and other holdings to concentrate on providing specialist information to legal, investment, medical and other professionals, largely in electronic formats. The corporation, with 40,500 employees and 2005 revenue of $8.5 billion US. In addition to the Thomson Corp. interest, Woodbridge's holdings include 40 per cent of Bell Globemedia, owner of the CTV network and the Globe and Mail.

Thomson also succeeded his father as 2nd Baron Thomson of Fleet. However, Thomson never used his noble title in Canada and never took up his seat in the House of Lords. The title, which referred to London's Fleet Street newspaper centre, now passes to Ken's son, David.

Thomson stepped down as chairman of Thomson Corporation in 2002, handing over the reins to his son. Ken remained on the Thomson board and chaired Woodbridge Co., his family investment firm.

According to Forbes Magazine in 2005, the Thomson family is the richest in Canada, and Ken Thomson the 15th richest person in the world, with a personal net worth of US$17.9 billion.

A private man, Thomson was a devoted collector of art, focusing on old-style Canadian works by painters like Paul Kane, Cornelius Krieghoff and the Group of Seven. In his later years Thomson distinguished himself as one of North America's leading art collectors and has been a major benefactor to the Art Gallery of Ontario. In 2002 he paid the highest price ever for a Canadian painting when he purchased Canadian artist Paul Kane's "Scene from the Northwest: Portrait of John Henry Lefroy." That same year,at a Sotheby's auction, Thomson purchased Peter Paul Rubens' painting "The Massacre of the Innocents" for £49.5million (US$77 million), the fourth-highest price ever paid for a painting at auction.

Following his retirement from active business, Thomson donated 2,000 works worth more than US$300 million, to the Art Gallery of Ontario and pledged another $60 million for the museum's expansion.

He is survived by his wife, Marilyn, three children and their families.