Persis Holdings Ltd., founded in 1981 by Hassan Khosrowshahi, is the holding company for the Khosrowshahi family. Formerly known as Inwest Investments, Inwest was recently reorganized and renamed as Persis Holdings Ltd.
Headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada Persis has made substantial investments in several sectors including land development, high rise development, shopping centres, retail real estate, pharmaceutical royalties, entertainment royalties and retail.
Learn more about our team
Chairman
Hassan Khosrowshahi was born in Tehran, Iran in 1940. He 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 in 1981 and founded the Inwest Group of Companies. Khosrowshahi is the Chairman of Persis Group of Companies. Khosrowshahi is married and he and his wife Nezhat have two children.
President and CEO, DRI Capital
Behzad Khosrowshahi became President and CEO of DRI in 2002. He is responsible for DRI’s direction and strategy, and has broad oversight over asset identification and due diligence efforts. Behzad is a member of DRI’s investment committee (the “Investment Committee”).
Prior to DRI, Behzad spent one year at Inwest, a private investment company based in Vancouver, British Columbia that was established in 1981. In 1995, he joined Future Shop Ltd. (“Future Shop”), at that time Canada’s largest consumer electronics retailer and became head of its merchandising, marketing, e-commerce, and supply chain functions in 1999. From 1998 to 2001, when it was sold to Best Buy Co., Inc., Future Shop grew from $1.3 billion in revenue and 2,500 employees to over $2 billion in revenue and over 10,000 employees.
Prior to 1994, Behzad worked at Deloitte and Touche LLP. Behzad received a B.A. in History from Reed College and is a Chartered Accountant.
President and CEO, Wesbild
Kevin is the President and CEO of Wesbild Holdings Ltd. Prior to Wesbild, Kevin was the President of Future Shop when it was purchased from Persis Holdings (Wesbild’s parent company) by Best Buy Co. Inc. in 2001. He remained in his post as President after the closing and was responsible for the integration with Best Buy. He led the team responsible for building out the Best Buy banner across Canada using the standalone infrastructure of Future Shop while simultaneously growing the Future Shop banner. This strategy became known as the “dual brand strategy” and was the subject of many doubters of the plan.
After achieving the success of Future Shop and Best Buy and exceeding all expectations as separate banners, with distinct looks and shopping experiences, the dual brand strategy has now become the model for which Best Buy has chosen to expand internationally. The model is now being deployed in other countries, such as China and Europe.
Kevin went on to become the COO of Best Buy International with responsibility of expanding Best Buy in Canada, Mexico, England, Turkey & China before leaving to join Wesbild.
Kevin was also the chairman of Retail Council of Canada and served on the board for 8 years. He was on the Lower Mainland’s 2008 United Way Campaign Cabinet for the Retail and Services Group. He currently serves on the Board of UDI, Pacific Region as well he is the Co-Chair for the 2010 United Way Campaign Cabinet.
Deputy Chairman
Randy is Deputy Chairman of Persis Holdings and from 1998 to 2008 was the President of Wesbild Holdings. A lawyer by training, Randy practiced for many years as senior tax partner with Borden Ladner Gervais in Vancouver, Canada. He holds a law degree as well as a Bachelor of Commerce. Randy currently serves on the Board of UBC Properties, the organization that develops and manages the land owned by the University of British Columbia, the Coquitlam Builders’ Trust, Collingwood School, Big Sky Golf Course, and the Urban Development Institute, a real estate development industry board. He is a past Governor of the Canadian Tax Foundation and taught for several years as an adjunct professor at UBC Law School.