Doug Putman is a local entrepreneur growing up in Dundas and now living in Ancaster.
Doug walked through a history from grade 6 to Dundas District High School, Parkside High School and one year at Laurier University in business. He quit university and went to work at 19 in his parents' toy distribution warehouse. His personal motto is, "Resourcefulness is more important than resources", and his talk clearly demonstrated that.
He asked to do sales and his climb to a billionaire began. Buy failing businesses, get the owners to bear the burden of financing the sale, reward them and get suppliers to give an extended invoicing time. Using this model he bought Sunrise Records, HMV, HMV UK and Toys "R" Us Canada, growing overall sales to the five billion dollar mark with around 60 000 employees. Reinvest regularly to keep growing.
Another modus operandi is always meet in person - phone calls and emails are just not personal enough and it's easier to make the sale in person. Once a business is purchased don't micro manage the leaders running the businesses but if required get on top of issues.
He's not finished yet and at 39 years old is interested in small community restaurants and has recently purchased the leases of a number of Bed, Bath and Beyond stores in Canada.