LIFETIME OF ACHIEVEMENT
Visionary
Encounter Fireside Talk Series - Sudhir Sethi in conversation with Prem Watsa
Flying the nest Watsa was born into a Christian family near the Indian city of Hyderabad as the third of four children .
Speaking in a previous interview with the Horatio Alger Association of Canada , whose award he won in 2012 , he said : “ I was brought up on the Christian values of family , honesty and integrity , and doing the right thing .”
Where the family were based at any one time was largely dictated by Watsa ’ s father , who worked as an English and mathematics teacher and later became a school principal .
Meanwhile , much to his parents ’ delight , a young Watsa was fast developing a love for education and exhibiting the intelligence to match it . He strived to achieve , and the hard work paid off as he graduated from the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology
( IIT ) Madras in 1971 with a degree in chemical engineering .
Watsa was keen to continue his journey in education and sought a move to Canada to study at the University of Western Ontario . Despite having just eight dollars to his name , he took the plunge and never looked back .
Clearly , gaining an MBA with no financial capital was always going to be a long shot , even if was able to live with his brother in London , Ontario . To fund his studies , Watsa demonstrated entrepreneurial willingness and aptitude by selling furnaces and air conditioning units on a door-to-door basis .
After earning his master ’ s , the then-24-yearold managed to find work as an analyst at the insurance company , Confederation Life , where he spent a decade before opting to set up his own investment firm .
20 September 2023