Hassan Khosrowshahi

Hassan Khosrowshahi was born in Tehran, Iran in 1940. He was educated in Iran and England and graduated in law and economics from the University of Tehran.

Khosrowshahi joined his family’s business, Minoo Industrial Group in 1959. When the Group was expropriated following the Islamic Revolution it employed over 6,000 people and manufactured products under it’s own brand names and under license for L’Oreal, Sandoz, and Rowntree Mackintosh among others. The distribution arm of the Group was the exclusive distributor for Nestlé Products in Iran from 1954 to 1980.

In 1981, Khosrowshahi immigrated to Canada and founded the Persis Group of Companies. The Group founded Future Shop chain of consumer electronic stores which it sold to Best Buy Inc. in 2001.

Wesbild Holdings, a wholly owned subsidiary of Persis is engaged in developing, holding, and managing real estate. It has developed Westwood Plateau and Burke Mountain in the lower mainland of Vancouver comprised of over seven thousand residential units, developed, owned or operated over three million square feet of shopping centres in Canada and the United States and owns and operates Predator Ridge, the premier recreation resort in Okanagan B.C. with two championship golf courses. When fully developed it will comprise some two thousand residential units.

In 2002, the Group purchased Drug Royalty Inc. (DRI Capital) a finance company focusing on the acquisition of royalty streams on pharmaceutical products. Since 2002, DRI has acquired over US$1.8B in royalty streams. As of February 2021, DRI is operating as the manager of DRI Healthcare Trust a TSX listed company.

In 2007, the Group formed Reservoir Media which operates as a music company focused on publishing, recorded music and management. Reservoir represents over 130,000 copyrights and 36,000 master recordings dated back to early 1900s. Reservoir is now listed on The NASDAQ under the symbol, RSVR.

Khosrowshahi has been appointed a member of the Order of Canada and Order of British Columbia and inducted into the Business Columbia Business Hall of Fame.

Khosrowshahi has been married to his wife Nezhat since 1968.