A millionaire who once washed dishes

Suthanthiran is now busy transforming a ghost town he bought for $5.7 mn.

A non-resident Indian (NRI) who has created waves by buying a former mining town in Canada was once so poor that he could not afford college education and washed dishes to survive.

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Back in 1963, when Krishnan Suthanthiran was minding his father's grocery store in Tamil Nadu, he was asked why he didn't go to college even after topping in his high school.

A friend replied: "His father is too poor to send him (to college)."

Suthanthiran - today a millionaire busy transforming a ghost town he bought for $5.7 million - admitted he had found the reply "a bit insulting".

The father of one of his friends gave him Rs 300 and sent him to meet the college principal. Later, Suthanthiran, who left India when he was 15, started scholarships in the name of the man who helped him and helped to build a school in his hometown.

After he got admission in Carleton University in Canada, he washed dishes to make ends meet. He finally got a research assistantship and in the 1970s moved to the US, looking for a job.

Now the founder-CEO of Best Medical, a US-based company supplying high-tech medical equipment, he credits his rise to the many well-meaning people who crossed his path "at the right time, at the right place".

"Also, I made sacrifices. I didn't marry and have children. My work became my life. That's what is unusual but also unbelievable. I maintained a low profile and did not have much of a social life," Suthanthiran.

At 56, he's catching up with a vengeance.

Written about in many newspapers in Canada and featured in the Washington Post, Suthanthiran does not tire of talking about his journey and his acquisition of Kitsault and his plans to make it a tourist hotspot in Canada.

He has also bought a TV company to make sure the tourism plan gets in-your-face publicity. He envisages not just buildings, houses, apartments, swimming pools, coastline and hills but also spas, skiing and water sports facilities.

And he is making sure he brings in the native Indian Nisga'a tribe to join his scheme and make it a reality.

"The natives themselves wanted to buy the property. Every project I take up has to benefit the people and the country. Kitsault is not just a moneymaking venture. If I make some that will be a plus."

Why did he buy Kitsault, a town abandoned by miners' families over 22 years ago?

"It's almost a crime to see the community die out. We're going to enhance the economic activity... That area is getting a lot of attention that did not exist six months ago."

Asked whether he thinks Kitsault was an impulse buy, Suthanthiran said: "I'm an entrepreneur. If I have to be successful, I have to take chances.

"I have travelled paths before when I did not know much about them - there are always surprises. It's like walking through a jungle. But I'm not surprised about the fact that there are surprises.

"I think it's going to cost us a lot more than we thought. You are dealing with a town, not a person."