Prem Watsa | |
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9th Chancellor of the University of Waterloo | |
In office 2009–2014 | |
Preceded by | Mike Lazaridis |
Succeeded by | Tom Jenkins |
President/Vice Chancellor | David Johnston |
Chairman of Fairfax Financial Holdings | |
Personal details | |
Born | Hyderabad,Hyderabad State (present-day Telangana),India | 5 August 1950
Nationality | Canadian [1] |
Alma mater | |
Occupation | Businessman |
Prem Watsa CM (born 5 August 1950) is an Indian-Canadian billionaire businessman who is the founder, chairman, and chief executive of Fairfax Financial Holdings, based in Toronto. [2] [3] [4] [5] He has been called the "Canadian Warren Buffett." [6] [7] He was awarded the fourth highest civilian award of India, Padma Shri, in January 2020. [8] [9] [10]
Watsa was born in Hyderabad, India. He attended Hyderabad Public School and the Indian Institute of Technology Madras [11] [12] where he graduated with a degree in chemical engineering. He later moved to London, Ontario, and went to the Richard Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario, where he earned an MBA. Watsa left India with US$8, sold furnaces and air conditioners to financially support his university education. [13] He is a distinguished alumnus of IIT Madras. [12]
After graduating, Watsa worked for the insurance company Confederation Life. In 1984, he started an investment firm with his former boss Tony Hamblin, called Hamblin Watsa Investment Counsel. [12] In 1985, Watsa took over Markel Financial, a small Canadian trucking insurance company that was verging on bankruptcy, [13] and renamed it Fairfax Financial Holdings. [12] He helped grow the company, where it reached annual revenues of $8 billion a year in 2012. [12] Despite his success, he largely stayed out of the public eye, only beginning to hold investor conference calls in 2001. [12] [13]
On 22 January 2012, it was reported he was to be appointed to the board of directors of Research In Motion (RIM) in the company's largest ever corporate shakeup. Watsa resigned in August 2013, but kept his investment in the company. On 23 September 2013, BlackBerry announced that it had signed a letter of intent to be acquired by Fairfax Financial Holdings in a $4.7 billion deal. [14] Fairfax Financial Holdings is "the largest insurer of the for-profit bail industry in the U.S." [15]
In April 2017, Watsa brought attention to concerns of a real estate bubble in Toronto. He asserts that most Canadian banks cannot survive a 50% drop in the value of real estate. "It's going to come down, and a lot of people are going to get hurt" said Watsa during Fairfax's annual general meeting. [16]
He is a member of the Board of Trustees of The Hospital for Sick Children, a member of the Advisory Board for the Richard Ivey School of Business, a member of the Board of Directors of the Royal Ontario Museum Foundation, and Chairman of the Investment Committee of St. Paul's Anglican Church.
In June 2009, he was appointed as the ninth chancellor of the University of Waterloo. [17]
He was named a Member of the Order of Canada in 2015. [18] Watsa was inducted into the Canadian Business Hall of Fame in 2024. [19]
In September 2017, he was elected as the first chancellor of Huron University College. [20]
The University of Waterloo is a public research university with a main campus in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is on 404 hectares of land adjacent to uptown Waterloo and Waterloo Park. The university also operates three satellite campuses and four affiliated university colleges. The university offers academic programs administered by six faculties and thirteen faculty-based schools. Waterloo operates the largest post-secondary co-operative education program in the world, with over 20,000 undergraduate students enrolled in the university's co-op program. Waterloo is a member of the U15, a group of research-intensive universities in Canada.
The University of Western Ontario is a public research university in London, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is located on 455 hectares of land, surrounded by residential neighbourhoods and the Thames River bisecting the campus's eastern portion. The university operates twelve academic faculties and schools.
Mihal "Mike" Lazaridis is a Canadian businessman, investor in quantum computing technologies, and co-founder of BlackBerry, which created and manufactured the BlackBerry wireless handheld device. In November 2009, Canadian Business ranked Lazaridis as the 11th wealthiest Canadian, with an estimated net worth of CA$2.9 billion.
Ivey Business School is the main business school of the University of Western Ontario, located in London, Ontario, Canada. It offers full-time undergraduate and graduate programs and maintains two teaching facilities in Toronto and Hong Kong for its EMBA and Executive Education programs.
Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited is a Canadian financial holding company based in Toronto, Ontario, engaged in property, casualty, insurance and reinsurance, investment management, and insurance claims management. The company operates primarily through several subsidiaries, including Allied World, Odyssey Re, Northbridge Financial, Crum & Forster, Verassure Insurance, Onlia Agency Inc., and Zenith Insurance Company. The company was also the largest shareholder of Torstar with 40% of the Class B shares, as of May 2020.
Eurobank is a financial organisation that operates in Greece, Cyprus, Luxembourg, Bulgaria and the UK. As of December 2018, the Eurobank Group counts, €58 billion in assets, 653 customer service locations in Greece and abroad, and 13,162 employees.
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Manulife Financial Corporation is a Canadian multinational insurance company and financial services provider headquartered in Toronto, Ontario. The company operates in Canada and Asia as "Manulife" and in the United States primarily through its John Hancock Financial division. As of December 2021, the company employed approximately 38,000 people and had 119,000 agents under contract, and has CA$1.4 trillion in assets under management and administration. Manulife at one point serviced over 26 million customers worldwide.
Jack Cowin is a Canadian-Australian businessman and entrepreneur with a long-term involvement in franchised fast food chains in Australia and Canada. Cowin brought KFC to Australia, founded and owns Hungry Jack's, which is the Burger King franchise in Australia, and has at various stages controlled the Domino's Pizza franchise in Australia prior to its 2005 listing on the ASX.
Ashok Jhunjhunwala is an Indian academic and innovator. He received his B.Tech. from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur and PhD from the University of Maine. He has been a faculty member at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras since 1981. He is the President of IIT Madras Research Park and Chairman of International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad. During his career, he has contributed extensively to technology innovation and adoption in the Indian context.
Fairfax Media was a media company in Australia and New Zealand, with investments in newspaper, magazines, radio and digital properties. The company was founded by John Fairfax as John Fairfax and Sons, who purchased The Sydney Morning Herald in 1841. The Fairfax family retained control of the business until late in the 20th century.
Senapathy "Kris" Gopalakrishnan is an Indian businessman and the Chairman of Axilor Ventures, an accelerator that helps business start-ups. Kris served as the vice chairman of Infosys from 2011 to 2014 and the chief executive officer and managing director of Infosys from 2007 to 2011. Kris is one of the co-founders of Infosys.
George A. Cope is a Canadian businessman, and the former CEO of Bell Canada.
Zenith Insurance Company is an American insurance company headquartered in California specializing in workers' compensation insurance. It has been an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of Canadian Fairfax Financial since 2010. Zenith operates nationally in the workers' compensation insurance business and conducts business through independent agencies and brokers.
IIFL Finance Limited d/b/a IIFL and India Infoline Finance Limited, is an Indian diversified financial services company headquartered in Mumbai. The organisation was founded by Nirmal Jain. IIFL and its group companies are backed by Canadian investor Prem Watsa, private equity firm General Atlantic and CDC Group, the UK Government's private equity arm. IIFL is ranked among the top seven financial conglomerates in India and as the top independent financial services firm in India in terms of market capitalisation. Nirmal Jain is the chairman of the group, while R Venkataraman is the group managing director and co-promoter.
Thorsten Heins is a German-Canadian businessman and the former chief executive officer (CEO) of BlackBerry. He stepped down as CEO of BlackBerry and was replaced by John Chen on November 4, 2013. Heins later served as the CEO of Powermat Technologies.
David Ian McKay is a Canadian banking executive. He is the president and CEO of the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), one of Canada's largest banks and one of the largest banks in the world by market capitalization. He is both a member board director at the Business Council of Canada, and serves on the Catalyst Canada Advisory Board. McKay also serves as the chair of the Business/Higher Education Roundtable.
Saurabh Mittal is a Singapore-based Indian businessman, entrepreneur, investor, and philanthropist. He is the founder and chairman of Mission Holdings, a private investment holding company.
R. Jeffrey Orr is a Canadian businessman and is the president and chief executive of Power Corporation of Canada.