Hassan Khosrowshahi
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Who is Dara Khosrowshahi, the Iranian American CEO of Uber?
Hassan Khosrowshahi is an Iranian-Canadian entrepreneur, and is the founder of the Inwest Group of Companies and Future Shop Ltd. He was born in Tehran, Iran in 1940, and was educated in Iran and England, and obtained his degree in law and economics from the University of Tehran.
He joined his family company, the Minoo Industrial Group, in 1961. Minoo Industrial Group was a major manufacturer and distributor of food products, pharmaceutical and cosmetics with sales over US $350 million in 1978. Minoo Industrial Group produced products under its own brand names and under license for major international companies such as Beatrice Foods, Sandoz, United Biscuits, L'Oreal Group, Boots, and G.D. Searle. In addition, the Khosrowshahi family, through various companies which they controlled, had been the exclusive distributors for Nestle S.A. in Iran from 1954 until 1981.
Hassan immigrated to Canada, settled in Vancouver in 1981, and founded the Inwest Group of Companies. Inwest initially pursued two major business areas, retailing and real estate. In 1982, Khosrowshahi founded Canadian electronics retailer, Future Shop. The chain expanded throughout western Canada and Ontario in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The chain later expanded further into Quebec and Atlantic Canada. By 2006, the chain was operating a total of 118 stores in all ten Canadian provinces. After an ill-fated attempt to expand into the United States, which lasted about a decade, all US locations closed in 1999. In November 2001, Inwest sold Future Shop to to the U.S. based retailer, Best Buy Inc.
Through its subsidiary, Wesbild Properties, Inwest is engaged in developing, holding and managing real estate in British Columbia and Pacific Northwest of the U.S.A. Another subsidiary of Inwest, Drug Royalty Inc. participates in the pharmaceutical industry by purchasing rights to pharmaceutical products worldwide in return for royalties.
Khosrowshahi is the Chairman of Inwest Group of Companies. He is a Vice Chairman of the Fraser Institute and a member of its Board of Trustees and Executive Advisory Board. He is a member of the Executive Committee of the Business Council of British Columbia, the Canadian Council of Chief Executives, the Board of Directors of Leading Edge Endowment Fund established by the Government of British Columbia, the board of directors of Canada Post, and the Board of the Smithsonian’s Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery. Khosrowshahi had an estimated net worth of $770 million CDN in 2008.He is married to Nezhat and they have two children.
