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Summary

Canada's Billionaires In 2023 Were Revealed & Some Of The Richest People Don't Have Degrees

You don't need a degree to make money, according to the 2023 Forbes World's Billionaires List. 👀

​Billionaire ​Mark Scheinberg. Right: Canadian billionaire Chip Wilson.

Billionaire Mark Scheinberg. Right: Canadian billionaire Chip Wilson.

Senior Writer

There is a ranking of billionaires around the world that revealed who the richest people in Canada are this year and some of them don't have university degrees.

Forbes released the annual World's Billionaires List for 2023 and there are quite a few Canadian billionaires with staggering net worths.

If you're wondering how many billionaires are in Canada, there are 63 billionaires from this country and their fortunes range from $1 billion to $54.4 billion!

According to the Forbes list for this year, the richest people in Canada are David Thomson and family, Changpeng "CZ" Zhao, Jim Pattison, David Cheriton and Anthony von Mandl.

Those are followed by Joseph Tsai, Alain Bouchard, Arthur Irving, James Irving and Mark Scheinberg.

The other Canadian billionaires that made it onto the ranking include Chip Wilson, Emanuele (Lino) Saputo and family, Carlo Fidani, Daryl Katz, Tobi Lutke, Leonid Boguslavsky, Bob Gaglardi, Lawrence Stroll, Barry Zekelman and Peter Gilgan.

Forbes also has profiles for each billionaire that include details about how they made their money, what education they have and more.

While some didn't share their education, others listed that they have university degrees and a few revealed that they don't have any post-secondary education at all.

So, here are the degrees — if any — that some of the billionaires in Canada's top 20 on the Forbes 2023 World's Billionaires List have.

​David Thomson

David Thomson, along with his family, has a net worth of $54.4 billion which makes him the richest person in Canada on the Forbes 2023 World's Billionaires List.

He controls his grandfather Roy Thomson's media and publishing empire and is the chairman of Thomson Reuters.

Thomson has a master of arts from the University of Cambridge, according to Forbes.

​David Cheriton

David Cheriton has a net worth of $9 billion thanks to an early investment in Google.

He is a professor emeritus at Stanford University and is known as "Professor Billionaire."

Cheriton has quite a few degrees: a bachelor of arts and science from the University of British Columbia, a doctorate from the University of Waterloo and a master of science from the University of Waterloo.

​Anthony von Mandl

Anthony von Mandl, the creator of White Claw Hard Seltzer and Mike's Hard Lemonade, has a net worth of $9 billion.

He has a bachelor of arts and science from the University of British Columbia, according to Forbes.

​Joseph Tsai

With a net worth of $7.6 billion, Joseph Tsai is the sixth richest person in Canada for 2023.

He is the vice chairman and co-founder of Alibaba Group and its second-largest individual shareholder. Tsai also owns the Brooklyn Nets.

The billionaire has a bachelor of arts and science and a doctor of jurisprudence from Yale University.

​Mark Scheinberg

According to Forbes, Mark Scheinberg has a net worth of $5.2 billion thanks to being a co-founder of PokerStars.

He dropped out of Ontario's Fanshawe College without earning a degree.

​Chip Wilson

Chip Wilson, the founder and former CEO of Lululemon, has a net worth of $5 billion which put him on the Forbes 2023 World's Billionaires List.

He has a bachelor of arts and science from the University of Calgary.

​Emanuele (Lino) Saputo

Emanuele (Lino) Saputo is the former chair of the family's dairy company, Saputo, and has a net worth of $4.9 billion.

He has a high school diploma.

​Daryl Katz

Daryl Katz has a net worth of $4.3 billion thanks to business in the pharmacy industry. 

He also owns the Edmonton Oilers.

Katz has a bachelor of arts and science and a doctor of jurisprudence from the University of Alberta.

​Leonid Boguslavsky

Leonid Boguslavsky, the founder of venture capital firm RTP Global, has a net worth of $3.6 billion.

He has a master of science from the Moscow Institute for Transport Engineering, according to Forbes.

Bob Gaglardi

Bob Gaglardi is the founder of Northland Properties, which deals with hotels, restaurants, sports and construction, and he has a net worth of $3.6 billion.

Also, Gaglardi has a bachelor of engineering from LeTourneau College in Texas.

Barry Zekelman

Barry Zekelman has a net worth of $3.5 billion thanks to his family's steel business, which produces steel pipes and tubes.

He dropped out of York University without earning a degree, according to the Forbes 2023 World's Billionaires List.

  • Senior Writer

    Lisa Belmonte (she/her) is a Senior Writer with Narcity Media. After graduating with a Bachelor of Journalism from Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson University), she joined the Narcity team. Lisa covers news and notices from across the country from a Canada-wide perspective. Her early coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic earned Narcity its first-ever national journalism award nomination.

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