Prem founded Fairfax Financial in 1985 and has served as its chairman and CEO since its inception. Prem immigrated from India to Canada in the 1970s and first began his career at Confederation Life Insurance in Toronto before starting his own Hamblin Watsa Investment Counsel in 1984. A year later, Prem started Fairfax and grew it to amass revenues of over $7 billion. Prem completed his bachelor’s degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras and later received his MBA from the Richard Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario.

Founded in 2016, the Fairfax India Charitable Foundation aims to support underserved communities in India. Prem Watsa met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to discuss ways in which the foundation could help. Currently, it has an ongoing initiative to support dialysis and make it easy for patients to afford access and care.