Fairfax India Holdings Corporation (Fairfax India) announces that Prem Watsa, Chairman of Fairfax India’s board since 2015 will step down as Chairman and Benjamin (Ben) Watsa will be appointed as Chairman of the company’s board effective July 1, 2024. Prem will continue to serve on the board of directors of Fairfax India.

Ben is the Founder and CEO of Marval Capital Ltd. (Marval), which began operations in 2017. Marval is an investment firm that focuses on the Indian market, specializing in small and mid-cap publicly listed companies.

Ben began his career in 2001 and has twenty-three years of experience in the investment industry. Prior to Marval, Ben worked at Lissom Investment Management for 11 years where he was a Partner and Portfolio Manager and managed Lissom’s small and mid-cap North American equity fund. Before Lissom, Ben spent over five years in New York as an investment banker in the Financial Institutions Group as an analyst at Banc of America Securities and as an associate at Cochran Caronia Waller. Ben also serves as a director of Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited (Fairfax).

In addition, Fairfax India also announced that, Gopalakrishnan (Gopal) Soundarajan, currently the Chief Operating Officer and a director of Fairfax India will be appointed Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Fairfax India effective July 1, 2024. The current CEO of Fairfax India, Chandran Ratnaswami will become Executive Vice Chairman of Fairfax India effective July 1, 2024.

Gopal joined Fairfax in 2019 and has played an important role in Fairfax and Fairfax India’s investments in India. Prior to joining Fairfax, Gopal was head of investments at ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company Limited (“ICICI Lombard”) and had an outstanding track record managing ICICI Lombard’s investments.

Chandran joined Fairfax as a Portfolio Advisor and Director of International Investments in 1993 and has been CEO of Fairfax India since its inception in 2015. In his role as Executive Vice Chairman, Chandran will continue to remain fully engaged in the Company’s investments and operations and will continue to serve on the board of directors of Fairfax India.

Sumit Maheshwari, Managing Director and CEO of Fairbridge Capital Private Limited will continue to manage Fairfax India’s investment operations on the ground in India. Both Sumit and Gopal will continue to report to Chandran in his role as Executive Vice Chairman.

Prem Watsa, Chairman of Fairfax India, commented, “Fairfax India has thrived under Chandran’s leadership since its inception 9 years ago. We are so fortunate to have the executive depth within the Fairfax family to continue, as we have in the past, to execute sound succession planning. Chandran, Gopal, Sumit and myself are focused on continuing to grow Fairfax India over the long term.”