Toronto Life celebrates the most influential Torontonians of 2015 at an exclusive cocktail reception

Toronto Life celebrates the most influential Torontonians of 2015 at an exclusive cocktail reception

By Toronto Life | November 16, 2015

By Toronto Life | 11/16/2015

Toronto Life hosted a red carpet event at the Four Seasons Hotel Toronto on November 12, 2015, to celebrate its annual list of the 50 Most Influential Torontonians, as revealed in the December issue. Publisher Ken Hunt and editor Sarah Fulford welcomed an exclusive crowd of 500 notables to the posh soirée.

“Our Most Influential issue is a toast to those who have made significant contributions to the city of Toronto,” says Fulford. “Our 2015 list was carefully crafted to recognize and reflect Toronto’s most dynamic leaders and thinkers in politics, business, media, arts and culture—basically, everyone who matters now.”

The impressive and diverse crowd included Margaret Atwood, John Tory, Gerald Butts (political advisor to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau), Eric Hoskins (the provincial health minister), Gary Slaight (of the Slaight Family Foundation), Katie Telford (Justin Trudeau’s campaign chief), Norm Kelly (the city councillor), Jagmeet Singh (the deputy Ontario NDP leader), Patrick Brown (the Ontario PC leader), Jennifer Keesmaat (Toronto’s chief planner), Cameron Bailey and Piers Handling (of TIFF), Charles Khabouth (of Ink Entertainment), Ian Black (of Uber Toronto), Jeffrey Remedios (of Universal Music Canada), Jeff Stober (of the Drake Hotel), John Ruffolo (of OMERS Ventures), Kirstine Stewart (of Twitter North America), Anthony Rose (of Rose and Sons), Kristin Cochrane (of Penguin Random House Canada), Marie Henein (of Henein Hutchinson LLP), Mathieu Chantelois (of Pride Toronto), Matt Galloway (the CBC host), Nick Kouvalis (the political strategist), Ratna Omidvar (of Ryerson’s Global Diversity Exchange), Robert Deluce (of Porter Airlines), Sam Mizrahi (of Mizrahi Developments), Tim Hockey (of TD Canada Trust), and Zunera Ishaq (the political activist), among others.

Highlights of the evening included a performance by Universal Music artist Lucas DiPasquale and DJs Rainer + Grimm; catering by Café Boulud, including a tree loaded with chocolate truffles for guests to pluck; an assortment of wine from Enigma Wine California; and a cider Bellini from Pommies. Masciangelo Design showed off some of its bespoke products; Steinway & Sons’ grand player piano, the Spirio, was on display for guests to enjoy; and charity partner UNICEF Canada, the humanitarian organization committed to saving children’s lives around the globe, highlighted the plight of refugee children with a virtual reality presentation.

Here, some pictures from the event.