Tag Archives: Entrepreneur

Mohamad Fakih

Mohamad Fakih is a Lebanese-Canadian businessman and philanthropist. He started Paramount Fine Foods after arriving in Canada as an immigrant. In May 2018, Fakih was awarded an honourary doctorate from Ryerson University.

This is Episode #155 of the Welcome! podcast.

Here are some of the things that Mohamad Fakih and I talked about:

  • Born and raised in Beruit, Lebanon
  • Mohamad was trained as a gemologist
  • Immigrated to Canada in 1999
  • Prior to founding Paramount Fine Foods, Mohamad Fakih worked for Tim Hortons, La Swiss and Swatch
  • The many reasons for Mohamad’s success as a business person
  • The importance of having the name Paramount on the former Hershey Centre in Mississauga
  • His role in helping the Rohingya refugees as part of the UNHCR
  • Mohamad’s suit against Kevin Johnston of Freedom Report
  • The many philanthropic endeavours that Mohamad is involved in and why
  • Whether Mohamad has been asked to be on Dragon’s Den
  • If Mohamad has any political ambitions

Listen below:

SPOTIFY
Girth Radio
MixCloud 
Apple Podcasts
Google Play Music
Stitcher 
TuneIn
Pocket Casts
TalkShoe
You can also subscribe to the podcast via RSS Feed if you so desire.

This episode was taped at Girth Radio studios inside the Pacific Junction Hotel bar in Toronto.

Music featured in this podcast  episode is by my cousin, Afraaz Mulji. 

(RePodcast) Episode #20: Romana Kassam

The following is a podcast rebroadcast. Or a repodcast!

In the 20th episode of Welcome!, I spoke with entrepreneur Romana Kassam about life travelling Europe and Africa, climbing Kilimanjaro, dealing with East Indian parents and their expectations of their daughter, working corporate life and her decision to stop participating in the rat race to start her own business.

Welcome! Episode #15: Steve Hulford

This post was previously published on Girth Radio on October 23, 2015.

Steve Hulford has had a lifelong dream of getting paid for traveling the world. And so far, he’s done a great job of fulfilling this dream. First as a competitive swimmer, then as a filmmaker, and now with Filemobile.

Enjoy my conversation with one of Toronto’s most successful entrepreneurs.

You can follow Steve on Twitter @hulford

You can follow me on Twitter @karimkanji

Enjoy!

Listen below:

Girth Radio
MixCloud 
iTunes
Google Play Music
Stitcher 
TuneIn
You can also subscribe to the podcast via RSS Feed if you’re so inclined.

Welcome! Episode #15: Steve Hulford by Welcome! By Karim Kanji on Mixcloud

Welcome! Episode #10: Farid Kassam

I sat down with Farid Kassam. Who is Farid? Well, let’s just say that he is (partly) responsible for the air we breathe in airplanes and the functionality of the CanadARM. Yup. That arm. The one that helped build the International Space Station and launched (and fixed) the Hubble Space Telescope. Check out our conversation below.

Enjoy!

Listen below:

Girth Radio
MixCloud 
iTunes
Google Play Music
Stitcher 
TuneIn
You can also subscribe to the podcast via RSS Feed if you’re so inclined.

Welcome! Episode #10: Farid Kassam by Welcome! By Karim Kanji on Mixcloud

Growing at GROW

Atlantic Canada Entrepreneurs @ GrowConf
Image by bmann via Flickr

I’m typing this blog post on my Dell Inspiron Mini on a West Jet flight some 40,000+ feet over the Canadian Prairies.

I don’t usually use this space to blog about my professional life. So I hope you don’t mind if I make an exception today.

This week I’m proud to represent thirdocean and XConnect at Canada’s top technology and start-up conference in Vancouver: GROW Conference.  If you’re a regular here you probably already know that I am a co-founder and partner of both thirdocean (which is a social media and community management agency) and XConnect (which we’re building into Canada’s top technology and new media resource).

Both companies are less than one year old. Which makes this trip all the more important from a business perspective.  Not only am I in attending GROW in order to learn from some of the top entrepreneurs and business minds across North America but I’m in Vancouver to network and solidify some professional relationships.  The goal, obviously, is to grow both of our businesses.

So I hope to be able to share some good news with everyone soon after I return from this trip.

For the rest of the week I’ll be blogging over at XConnect.  I’ll be sharing my thoughts on both what I’ve learned and whom I’ve met.  If you’re a fan of our XConnect Show (live every Wednesday at 11am EST) this week we’ll be chatting with Alyssa Richard and Matthew Slutsky.  Both Toronto-based entrepreneurs are disrupting the national real estate industry.  Rachel McConnell (our Community Manager) will be filling in for me as host of the show.  I hope you’re able to watch.

If you want to receive this blog post in your email click on the button on the right hand column that says sign me up under the Email Subscription header.  In the meantime, please feel free to register on our communications system.  You will be able to easily follow my journey here in Vancouver as well as everything else we’re doing at thirdocean and XConnect.