Meet Fatima Dhanani, president & CEO of Bri-Mor Developments and native of Tanzania
In 1972, Fatima Dhanani, her husband Haider and two-year-old daughter Saifa moved from Tanzania to Vancouver when Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau opened Canada’s borders to Ismaili immigrants who were being persecuted in East Africa. “It was a big move for us, coming to a foreign country, not knowing what we are going to be faced with, with a small child, uprooting ourselves,” she says. “And really, we came with very little, very little.” The family of three had no more than $2,000 when they arrived. Four years later, in 1976, the promise of business opportunity lured the couple to Calgary, where Haider worked as an accountant while Fatima worked as a secretary.
In 1989, Haider Dhanani founded a property management company, Bri-Mor Developments, but tragedy would intervene before he could grow the business
Ismailimail 