The audience at the 50-minute tribute teemed with senior partners and captains of industry -- Ted Rogers of Rogers Communications (TSX:RCI), Gordon Nixon of the Royal Bank (TSX:RBC), Peter Munk of Barrick Gold (TSX:ABX) and Trizec (TSX:TZC), Michael Sabia of BCE (TSX:BCE) and Robert Prichard of Torstar (TSX:TS.B) among others.

"Whether you met him in the boardroom, the grocery store, or walking his dog in the park, he was warm, genuine and curious about you," Geoff Beattie, president of the Thomson family's private Woodbridge Co., told the celebration of "a full life focused on family, work and his art."

Friends and associates, in recorded reminiscences screened on stage, recalled Thomson's "absolutely insatiable" appetite for art and the pleasure he took in his massive collection, while his integrity "shone like a beacon in the all-too-often murky world of business affairs."