Inderjit ‘Indy’ Singh
Founder & Executive Chairman
Fiducian Group Limited | Sydney, NSW (AUSTRALIA)
Ancestry
Rawalpindi (undivided British India)
Birthplace
Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh (India)
Residence
Sydney, NSW (AUSTRALIA)
CONFIGURING a FUTURE with FIGURES
He had the best advice from his parents and the best lessons from real life. These strong foundations drive his current success.
My father, Sardar Jogindar Singh, lived in Rawalpindi. He and some friends boarded a flight out of there just a few hours before partition destroyed their world. My mother, Prakash Thapar, was a lady of great courage. She counselled him saying, “Not everything is lost. We are among few persons who have post-graduate qualifications and a significant advantage over others. Those words were just the encouragement my father needed. He sold some of my Maa’s jewellery to set up an ice factory, which was the forerunner to his other transport and steel rolling businesses.
Dad obtained a Masters in Chemistry and could play classical Indian music on the sitar. His idea of life was to work hard to achieve all that he wanted, but remain humble. Maa was quite a remarkable lady. During pre-partition days, she was a university teacher and though she was just 5ft in height, she was a keen sportswoman. She had been a Rowing champion and excelled at Tennis. She became a good golfer and introduced me to Golf when I was five years old. She is now 99. She would always advise me to aim for the stars, so that even if I fell on a haystack, I would still be higher than others.
My paternal grandfather, Bhai Meher Singh, passed away when I was probably four years old. I remember him as a very affectionate and pious Sikh. He raised money to start, I believe, over 10-15 Khalsa schools. My maternal grandfather, Dr Gobind Singh Thapar, completed his PhD from London in 1925 and became President of the Zoology Section of the Indian Science Congress in 1937. He became a world authority in the field of Helminthology.
The preparations towards the best
I went to boarding school as a six year old, first to Welham Preparatory and then The Doon School in Dehradun. The Doon School years were some of the best of my life. It instilled in me the importance of values like service to others and integrity, as well as responsibility and being accountable for one’s actions. It was a wonderful all round development in academics, sport, extra-curricular activities and character building. Helping the Cheshire homes and providing clean up services in the villages around Dehradun was another student activity. At sport, I played Cricket for the school team and captained the school Hockey team. In academics, I won general knowledge cups and signed the honours book a number of times. I was appointed a school prefect winning the Games Blazer and School Colours.
Although I was the recipient of a National Science Talent Scholarship that would have taken me to St Stephen’s College, Delhi, I joined IIT Kanpur to study Metallurgical Engineering on Maa’s insistence. I then studied business for my Masters degree and upon successfully completing it, I went on to join Dad’s business, mainly the steel re-rolling mill and rebuilding his transport business by putting thirteen trucks and tankers on the road. At that time, India was drifting towards socialism and licence raj bureaucratic practices. It frustrated and prevented me from proving myself to the rest of the world. I was prepared to walk away, but meanwhile got married to Shrilekha Dar (Shree) in 1975. Her father, SSL Dar, was an ICS officer and served as the Chairman of the Revenue Board before he retired and sadly passed away.
After five years in Bombay and Calcutta, working to develop an import and export business, I went to Lagos, Nigeria. Lagos was quite dangerous at that time with poor security of life. However, it gave me an insight on how multinationals worked and an opportunity to meet ministers and Governors in Nigeria and the Cameroons.
Home far away from home
In 1982, I came to Sydney, Australia, for a holiday. I loved the friendliness and helpful mentality of the people along with the scenic beauty and the clean environment. I wanted my children to grow up here and migrated without a job. My first employment was at IMG Consultants, a firm doing economic and industry sub-sector consulting for World Bank projects in South East Asia. I travelled intensively, but missed family life. I began applying for jobs in the financial sector, which offered the highest remuneration at that time. Australia has a different way of assessing qualifications and experience. Prospective employers thought I was over-qualified or without local experience. Then everything changed suddenly. A recruitment consultant who was intrigued with my experience found me a mid to low level position in a financial planning company called RetireInvest.
Over the next nine years, I gained three post graduate diplomas in investment, superannuation and financial planning while building a funds management and client administration business and became General Manager Investment and Research. When ING Bank bought RetireInvest, I felt I needed to do something for myself. Like my Dad, I had business in my DNA and not employment. Once again I was on the road without a job.
My wife was my biggest strength. While I had thoughts of going back to India in what could have been construed as a failure, she stood firm and said, “We must all stay here and brave it out.” There were certainly financial stresses for survival, but also strong desire to find a way forward. That’s when I met David Smith of AM Corporation who was prepared to partner me 50:50. Burdened by school fees, a mortgage and car lease payments, I had no capital to invest, but I unexpectedly received a cheque of $17,400 from my previous employer. It was an outstanding quarterly bonus for superior investment performance. That was my equity and in June 1996, Fiducian was born. Fiducian is derived from the Latin fiducia, which means trust, reliance and courage.
It was hard work from early morning to late night, including weekends, along with belt tightening at home. In three years, competition became severe and banks entered the sector. A financial magazine had my photo on its front cover and suggested that I was a Mad Genius. Mad, because I was competing against big banks and a Genius, if I could pull it off.
By 2000, Fiducian listed on the Australian Stock Exchange. It has been 22 years and Fiducian is now one of Australia’s larger non-bank financial institutions. Recently, I was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award at a ceremony attended by around 400 investment industry personalities, I was surprised to hear that the industry considered me as “a thought leader, mentor and innovator.”
The pride of my life
My son, Jai, was born in 1979. He is a chartered accountant and chartered financial analyst (CFA). Jai has joined at the Fiducian and heads our acquisitions and mergers and distribution team. Amrita, my daughter, was born in 1984. A biomedical engineer from Sydney University with three patents and the distinction of being awarded the Junior Engineer of the year by the Institution of Engineers Australia, she completed a Masters of Business Administration from Harvard Business School in the USA. Recently, the Australian Financial Review newspaper selected her as one of the top executives under the age of 35 in Australia. She is married to Michael Blickstead, a Canadian she met at Harvard. They have a two year old son.
With my wife and children, we did a fair bit of snow skiing, though now, my sporting activities are restricted to Golf and Tennis on the weekend.
I believe one must give back to the community. I established Vision Beyond Aus to finance free eye surgeries for the poor in India, Nepal, Cambodia and Myanmar. Over 37,000 eye surgeries have been completed to give people a new life and hope. I believe that the Australian Government has recently recognised the service I have been providing to the poor in developing countries.
Philosophy
Like Dad said, “No matter how successful you are, be humble.”
I love…
Golf; it helps me rewind.
I’d suggest the youth…
To not set themselves easy targets
Success Mantra
I train my team to become industry experts and spokespersons
The world doesn’t know that…
I would love to serve humanity
AKA
Founder & Executive Chairman, Fiducian Group Limited | Fiducian Group Founder Australia
Gallery
ISBN : 9788193397695