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People

Prem Watsa

Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Fairfax Financial Holdings

Biography

Prem Watsa trained as a chemical engineer at IIT Madras, then took an MBA at the Ivey Business School in Canada and qualified as a CFA. He co-founded Hamblin Watsa Investment Counsel in 1984, took control of Markel Financial in 1985 and renamed it Fairfax Financial Holdings, which he has run as Chairman and CEO since. He is often called the 'Canadian Warren Buffett' for running a value-oriented insurance and investment holding company, and his annual Chairman's letters date back to 1985.

Letters and reports

Fairfax Financial Holdings’s largest US holdings

From the Q2 2026 13F, worth $2.6bn in total. See every holding and change

  1. Orla MiningOLA21.6%
  2. Eldorado GoldEGO16.2%
  3. Under ArmourUA16.2%
  4. Kraft HeinzKHC12.8%
  5. CVS HealthCVS10.6%
  6. Cleveland-CliffsCLF5.3%
  7. Molson Coors Brewing CompanyTAP2.9%
  8. ATSATS2.7%
  9. Wendy’sWEN2.5%
  10. Taiwan Semiconductor ManufacturingTSM1.7%

Sources: fraserinstitute.org, en.wikipedia.org, fairfax.ca, fairfax.ca. Checked October 2026.