Punjab-origin man makes it big in Canada’s financial sector
Wednesday, 02/09/2015
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TORONTO: Toronto-based Bhim D Asdhir, whose family hails from Ludhiana, is among those first generation Indo-Canadians who have scripted super success stories in the country’s financial sector.
Asdhir, who was in Class 11 when his family migrated to Toronto from India in 1981, is the founder of Excel Funds which was Canada’s best performing mutual fund last year.
“We are also doing well in India as we are the biggest Indiadedicated Canadian mutual fund investing in the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE),” Asdhir said.
“After the turbulence, India has taken off again. I met Prime Minister Narendra Modi when he was here in Toronto and I am very positive on India.”
“Remember, China was a twotrillion-dollar economy a decade ago and today it is $10 trillion. I am very sure that in the next 10 years, India too will be a $10-trillion economy,’” says Bhim from his swanky office in the Toronto suburb of Mississauga.
This bold corporate man was one of the first NRIs to take plunge in India in the late 1990s as he foresaw its potential.
“I went to India in 1996 and I saw what was coming. When I came back to Toronto, I said to myself that now is the time to invest in India. But since there was no vehicle to invest there, I started Excel Funds,’’ says Bhim.
“Today, we are one of the best performing of all mutual funds in Canada. We are also the biggest mutual fund from Canada dedicated to India where we operate through Birla Sun Life. But we are also geared towards other emerging markets such as China, Russia, Eastern Europe and Latin America. We also have a BRICS fund.’’
“I used to be the only Indian guy in our class in Toronto when our family came here. I chose to pursue two degrees in actuarial science and computer science at the University of Waterloo from where I graduated in 1987. Actually, I was the first Indo-Canadian to get a degree in actuarial science,” he says.
These degrees got young Bhim a prestigious corporate job in one of the best financial addresses in the world, Bay Street Toronto.
“For about 10 years, I worked on Bay Street where we were consultants to lots of big insurance companies and were helping establish small insurance companies.”
But that trip to India in 1996, he says, changed the course of his destiny.
“Early this year, I took a delegation of 20 people to India... the energy is palpable everywhere and the country is becoming a dream destination for investors,’’ says Bhim who was honoured with Male Entrepreneur of the Year in 2007 by the IndoCanada Chamber of Commerce.
His mission, he says, is to sell India as a dream destination for investors.
