Biography Case

Raj Tanna has a small portfolio of retail shopping centers and real-estate Management Company to service independent property owners and is the president of TRAM International. He was born on 9th June 1957 in Uganda and came to Canada with his family in the fall of 1974 when Idi Amin expelled the entire Asian population that was residing in Uganda. As a child he enjoyed working in the community to help in various projects. Upon arrival in Canada he procured a temporary job as a file clerk with the Commerce.

Raj attended his primary school in Uganda and also attended Newton Brare High School. He enrolled in three university courses the moment he arrived in Canada, so that by the spring of 1976 when he officially registered in the Fellows Program he had 3 exemptions towards the 10 course requirement. The remaining were taken in summer, on weekends and during the regular fall and winter term. At one point he attended Ryerson, York and the University of Toronto simultaneously to avoid course and timetable conflicts.

He mentioned that the greatest challenge in completing the FIBC course was getting to class on time and he enjoyed most of his courses except for economics and statistics. If he could do this over again he wishes that he could take up Law as a field of study. He regreats that he did not take enough risk and if he could he would take the risk if given a second chance.

Three months upon arrival he was offered permanent employment with the bank as a processing officer in the treasury department of the main branch in Toronto. During this period he was appointed as the custodian of the branch’s Olympic Coin Program. In the fall of 1976 he entered the bank’s Officer-In -Training program and as a result of it, was appointed relieving Senior Assistant Accountant in the CIBC branch in the Flemingdon Park Shopping Centre. He was so keen on rounding out his FICB education, he registered in the Institute’s Post FICB program