Toronto’s 50 Most Influential: #46, Peter Gilgan
Our annual ranking of the people whose smarts, connections and clout are changing the city as we know it
Peter Gilgan
Mattamy Homes
46 Now that the GTA’s residential construction titan has conquered the suburbs, he’s headed downtown. At the end of the month, his company will pack up its corporate office and move from Oakville into new digs at the TD Centre. The change in location is intended partly to put the company in closer proximity to the wealthy backers it needs to fulfill its new corporate mission: to expand its U.S. development within the next five years. Already, Mattamy, which is among the largest private home builders in North America, claims to have taken in $2.1 billion in revenue and closed 4,833 home sales in Canada and the U.S. during its 2015 fiscal year—big numbers for a corporation that’s still owned and controlled by Gilgan, its billionaire founder. He hasn’t been shy about putting that money to use. His Tour de Bleu cycling event raised $2.7 million for Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre this year, and, in past years, he has personally donated tens of millions of dollars to St. Michael’s Hospital and SickKids.
Friends in High Places:
TD’s Tim Hockey, Ryerson president Sheldon Levy, RBC big shot Gay Mitchell and former U.S. ambassador David Wilkins.
