Trying to find information on Ali Nazerali? Could it be that you typed Ali Nazerali when you really intended to type Aly Nazerali? It would be an easy mistake as Ali is a common spelling of Aly. Whomever you were trying to locate, this information is about Altaf (Aly) Nazerali not Ali Nazerali.
Nazerali was thrust on the world stage at a very young age driven by his own early advancement and the political climate in his home country. Relying on his faith and hard work, he was able to achieve the early success that continues today.
A modest man, Nazerali is content to stay out of the limelight even though his career has shone brightly. It began when he graduated at age 20 from Columbia University with a MBA and continued on where he created, built and nurtured several successful multi million dollar companies, including taking many public.
The early risk taking that was a necessity in Nazerali’s young life translated well to the world of international business. The third generation of his family to be born in Kenya and raised in the Congo, he grew up about the time European powers had begun returning many African Colonies to self rule. The policies of the new regime made this period a very dangerous time for non-black Africans. For example, one such policy by Idi Amins’ new government gave citizens of Indian and Asian decent only 30 days to leave the country forcing them to leave all assets in country save for a couple of hundred dollars which they were allowed to take. As a result, Nazerali’s family was one of thousands who migrated to Canada in the early 1970s.
Nazerali’s family had always put great emphasis on education as a way to succeed and also as an asset that could never be expropriated – something no one could take away from you. This emphasis on education made Nazerali a star student at his Congo high school and pressed him to look beyond the limited higher education facilities in the retion and set his sights on Columbia University where he was accepted at age 15. There was a little bump in the road when, two weeks prior to when he was to report to college, he received a telegram from Columbia University stating they had just learned Nazerali’s age which was a problem. New York law at the time prohibited anyone under age 17 from living on campus and it said that he should not come. His father quickly wrote back taking full responsibility for his son and letting the University know that it need not worry. The next thing Nazerali knew he was in New York suitcase in hand, $200 in his pocket and no place to live. He eventually found a place to live and by the age of 20 had earned his Bachelor of Arts degree and a MBA, a rare event at the time.
Immediately upon graduation, his family was forced to relocate to North America due to political events in Africa where they had lived for three generations. While helping his family in Canada, Nazerali began searching for a job. The president of GTE saw something in him and took a calculated career risk by hiring Nazerali because he believed this bright young man had what it took even though he lacked any experience. Nazerali was hired as a financial analyst and was quickly promoted to in-country manager for Algeria where he managed a $235 million project to build the largest electronics plant in the world under one roof. This was the springboard for a long and successful international business career.
He later went on to achieve many successes including participating in several large-scale communications network and engineering projects throughout North Africa and the Middle East from the mid 1970s to the early 1980s. He moved his home base to Switzerland and Luxembourg in the mid 1980s where he specialized in commodity-based financing projects using barter and country trade. By 1988, Nazerali had returned to Canada and served as principal for a commodity futures trading company that operated a top performing Canadian mutual fund between 1989 and 1991.
Then in 1995, Nazerali jumped into the Brazilian market when he founded Canbras Communications Corp., an early entrant into the Brazilian subscription television industry following deregulation. Later BCI, an affiliate of Bell Canada, acquired a controlling interest in the company.
Since 1991, Nazerali has also served as a principal of Valor Invest Ltd., a merchant banking firm, where he financed numerous companies focused primarily on natural resources, software, telecommunications, and emerging technologies located in Japan, North America, and Europe.
Nazerali maintains a permanent residence in Vancouver, Canada where he lives with is wife and youngest son. He also has two grown children — His oldest son earned an Executive MBA from Duke University and his daughter earned a Masters in Public Health from Harvard University.