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Watsas rags-to-riches narrative stretches over two generations. His father, born in Mangalore, India,

in 1910, was orphaned young and rose to become a respected principal of the posh Hyderabad Public

School, Indias Upper Canada College. Watsa was born in Hyderabad in 1950 and eventually

attended the elite school, where he was an outsider, one of the few boys who didnt come from a rich

or aristocratic family.

After high school, Watsa gained admission to the prestigious chemical engineering program at the

Indian Institute of Technology. (While studying there, he met his wife, Nalini, with whom he has

three childrentwo daughters and a son.) He didnt want the plodding life of a chemical engineer, so

his father encouraged him to take his chances in Canada, where his brother was already working.

Watsa decided to move to London, Ontario, where he enrolled in the MBA program at Western,

selling air conditioners and furnaces to pay his way through. I went to the Ivey not because it was

good, though it turned out it was, but because it was near where my brother lived, he says.

Following business school, he worked for almost a decade in the investment wing at the now defunct

Confederation Life, a department famous for its rigorous research. There were four people selected

for a second interview, he once said. The reason I got the job was that the three other guys didnt

show up.

Prem Watsa was born in 1950 inHyderabad, India and is the founder, chairman, andchief

executiveofFairfax Financial Holdings, based inToronto,Ontario.[1][2]

[3][4]

He has been called the

"CanadianWarren Buffett" by some during successful periods of investing in the past.[5]

He is

aCFAcharterholder, an alumnus of TheHyderabad Public School, Begumpet,[6]

a graduate of theIndian

Institute of Technologywith a degree in Chemical Engineering and a holder of anMBAfrom theRichard

Ivey School of Businessof theUniversity of Western Ontario. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of

the Hospital for Children, a member of the Advisory Board for the Richard Ivey School of Business, a

member of the Board of Directors of theRoyal Ontario MuseumFoundation and as well as Chairman ofthe Investment Committee of St. Pauls Anglican Church. In June 2009, he was installed as the ninth

Chancellor of theUniversity of Waterloo.[7]

On January 22nd, 2012, it was reported he was to be

appointed toBlackberryhandset maker,Research In MotionLtd.,(RIM), board of directors in the

company's largest ever corporate shakeup. Watsa is on the advisory board of theDakshana Foundation

Fairfax Financial HoldingsLimited[8]

founder, Chairman and CEO

Odyssey Re Holdings Corp.Chairman[citation needed]

Northbridge Financial Corp.Chairman[citation needed]

Hamblin Watsa Investment Counsel Ltd.Vice President[citation needed]

ICICI BankLtd.Director and Member of Risk Committee (retired from board June 27, 2011)

[9]

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