Bob Dhillon is on the verge of creating history by becoming the first
Sikh billionaire in North America. It all started when he went to do
his MBA at the University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, nine
years ago.
'Dhillon was quite famous among his colleagues for his stated goal of
becoming the world's first Sikh billionaire. One of his classmates quoted
him as aggressive, ambitious and entrepreneurial, when he graduated
in 1998.
Recently, when The Globe and Mail newspaper's Gordon Pitts asked him
whether he would be the first Sikh billionaire in North America, Dhillon
responded, 'I hope sooner rather than later.'
Dhillon got into business at the age of 19 when he bought two houses
and sold them at a profit amounting 18,000 dollars. In the next 15 years
he reportedly bought and sold Calgary real estate worth about $150 million.
His publicly-listed Mainstreet owns hundreds of apartment buildings
in Calgary, Alberta; Surrey and Abbotsford, British Columbia, Toronto
and elsewhere. Dhillon who is 42 now owns a 2,700-acre island in Belize
where he is building what he calls an "architecturally-controlled
oasis in the Caribbean," with "resorts, condos, high-end houses,
golf courses, residential lots." In Belize -- of which he is the
consul general in Canada -- his neighbour is movie star Leonardo DiCaprio.
