Nationality Canada Spouse Nalini Loganadhan | Name Prem Watsa Occupation Businessman Siblings David Watsa | |
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Born August 5, 1950 (age 74) ( 1950-08-05 ) Net worth US$1.0 billion (April 2015) Children Stephanie Watsa, Christine Watsa, Ben Watsa Parents Irene Watsa, Manohar Clarence Watsa | ||
Organizations founded Fairfax Financial Similar John S Chen, Mike Lazaridis, Nirmal Jain |
Meet blackberry buyer india born prem watsa
Prem Watsa (born 1950) is a Canadian businessman who is the founder, chairman, and chief executive of Fairfax Financial Holdings, based in Toronto. He has been called the "Canadian Warren Buffett."
Contents
- Meet blackberry buyer india born prem watsa
- India Has An Unabashedly Business Friendly Government Under PM Modi Leadership Prem Watsa
- Early life and education
- Career
- Volunteering
- References

India Has An Unabashedly Business - Friendly Government Under PM Modi Leadership | Prem Watsa
Early life and education

Watsa was born in Hyderabad, India. He attended Hyderabad Public School and the Indian Institute of Technology Madras where he graduated with a degree in chemical engineering. Watsa 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 8 rupees and sold furnaces and air conditioners to financially support his university education. He is a distinguished alumnus of IIT Madras.
Career

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. In 1985, Watsa took over Markel Financial, a small Canadian trucking insurance company that was verging on bankruptcy, and renamed it Fairfax Financial Holdings. Watsa helped grow the company, where it reached annual revenues of $8 billion a year in 2012. Despite his success, Watsa largely stayed out of the public eye, only beginning to hold investor conference calls in 2001.

On January 22, 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 September 23, 2013, BlackBerry announced that it had signed a letter of intent to be acquired by Fairfax Financial Holdings in a $4.7 billion deal.
In April of 2017, Watsa brought attention to concerns of a real estate bubble in Toronto. Watsa 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.
Volunteering
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 as well as 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.
He was named a Member of the Order of Canada in 2015.