Thomson is a co-chairman of Woodbridge, a closely held Canadian investment firm. He owns 14% of the Ontario-based company, whose assets include a two-thirds stake in Thomson Reuters, a provider of news and financial data. The company had revenue of $6.6 billion in 2022. Relatives own the rest of Woodbridge.
The majority of Thomson's fortune is derived from Woodbridge, an investment firm that manages the family fortune originated by Canadian media magnate Roy Thomson. After his death in 1976, Thomson's estate was divided between his three children. His son, Kenneth, inherited 42% and his two daughters, Audrey and Irma, received 33% and 23%, respectively, according to a person familiar with the family's assets who asked not to be identified because Woodbridge is closely held.
Each heir evenly split their share in Woodbridge among their children, the source said. Peter and his two siblings, David and Taylor, each received 14% of Woodbridge. Each of Audrey's three children, Linda Campbell, Susan Grange and Gaye Farncombe, received 11%. A cousin, Sherry Brydson, the only child of Irma, owns about 23%.
Peter is calculated in this analysis to own 14% of Woodbridge's stake in Thomson Reuters and it's Cash & Other Assets.
Woodbridge owns about 69% of Thomson Reuters, according to the 2023 proxy filing.
Cash & Other Assets is based on Woodbridge asset values as disclosed in a 2007 investor presentation 2007 and adjusted to reflect dividends, insider transactions, taxes and market performance. The family has collected more than $3 billion in dividend income and share sales since then, based on an analysis of company filings and Bloomberg data.
Thomson, through spokesman for Thomson Reuters David Girardin, didn't respond to requests for comment.
Canada's richest family was set on its path to wealth in 1931, when Roy Thomson acquired a radio station in North Bay, Ontario. Two years later he bought the Timmins Press, a newspaper in Ontario. Within five years, Thomson was Canada's leading newspaper owner. After expanding in the UK, he sold shares in a public offering in 1965, with his son Kenneth taking over the business in 1976.
The younger son of Kenneth, Peter was raised in Toronto with his brother David and sister Taylor. He and his siblings each inherited about 14 percent of the Thomson family fortune after Kenneth's death in 2006. Four cousins split the rest of the assets.
As a teen, Peter took unpaid internships with the Brampton Times and the Globe and Mail to learn photography. He then attended the University of Western Ontario, in London, Ontario, and joined the family business, becoming a director of Thomson Reuters, then Thomson Corp., in 1995. Peter founded the venture capital arm of Thomson Reuters -- Thomvest -- in San Francisco around 2003. He also serves as chairman of Woodbridge.
Thomson competes as a rally car driver on the Thomson Motorsport team, winning the national championship for Canada in 2005, according to the team's website.