Omar is a first-generation immigrant from Pakistan having moved to Canada when he was 5 years old. He grew up in North York and later moved to Vaughan and went on to complete his Bachelor of Business Administration from Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo.

Omar spent a lot of his professional career working and living abroad, which taught him so much about different cultures and ways of doing business, however he always calls Canada home. Omar used to live on a plane, flying nearly 2 million miles and visiting over 50 countries across all the major continents, but now enjoys more local travel, ideally by a lake. Omar loves playing and watching all sports, especially cycling, golf, and basketball. Omar and his incredible wife have 3 wonderful children (8, 6, 4), who all love the Toronto Raptors as much he does.

In addition to his family, friends and the Toronto Raptors, Omar is passionate about dedicating his time and resources towards causes that are very near and dear to him, particularly related to Youth, Mental Health and Socio-Economic Disparity. He is actively involved in grass root charitable organizations and strives to be a leader in advancing diversity and inclusion initiatives in the workplace.

Omar has been fortunate to see both ends of the economic spectrum and have the opportunity to meet and learn from so many fascinating people over his life. Maro was created to provide him and his partners a platform where they can align their personal and professional objectives and be a platform to invest behind ideas, companies and most importantly people that are doing remarkable things and making a positive impact along the way.

Anand serves as a Managing Partner of Maro. In addition to helping create the vision of the firm, Anand leads operations, business development and supports the investment partnerships.

Prior to Maro, Anand spent 15 years as an entrepreneur in the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries. Based in San Diego, Anand co-founded the pharma and biotech boutique consultancy MKO Global Partners in 2015 and grew the business by securing and delivering over 100 US and Global consulting projects. To further accelerate the growth of the company, MKO was sold 4 years later to a larger, PE-backed consulting firm called TwoLabs Pharma Services. In the new entity, Anand secured some of the largest projects in the company’s history by combining various service offerings into a comprehensive suite of services for emerging pharma and biotech companies. TwoLabs was acquired soon after by a PE backed consolidator, GHO Capital.

Before creating MKO, Anand co-founded the Payer Engagement Practice at PriceSpective LLC, a pharma focused consulting firm specializing in the market access space. At PriceSpective, Anand led global teams and managed projects within the US, Canada and the EU. He initiated and established new drug go to market strategies and created payer and industry specific tools, including launch scenario models, and analogue and co-pay assessments.

Anand started his career as a management consultant in New York at Campbell Alliance. He advised clients on a broad range of topics including brand management, launch strategy, portfolio planning and lifecycle management.

Anand is a second-generation immigrant and feels very fortunate to have been born and raised Canadian. Both his mother and father built their medical careers in Canada, and this had a major impact on Anand and his sisters. Growing up, his family dinners always revolved around discussions about medicine and the values of discipline, scientific study and hard work, which were all ingrained in him from a young age.

After majoring in quantum physics at University of Toronto, Anand decided to combine his passion for healthcare and business. This led him to pursue an MBA with a biotech focus at the Ivey school of business and a career in pharma consulting. Shortly after graduating, he worked extensively across the US for over a decade and during this time, he travelled across the globe picking up the best of each culture. He taught business courses in Russia where he learned to speak Russian fluently. His trips to Scotland gave him an appreciation of Scotch and inspired him to start his own collection of rare and aged bottles. He has now settled back in his hometown of Mississauga, Ontario with his accomplished wife and two energetic boys, where they enjoy learning new languages (including French and Spanish), composing music and pursuing real estate renovations.

Having lost his father to cancer at a young age, Anand has tried to continue his father’s legacy through passion for Indian classical music and passing down his musical training and culture to his children. He has taught drums and toured across Canada and the US as a DJ and a drummer. In 2010, Anand founded Zista Arts Society, a non-profit organization promoting Canadian South Asian musicians and artists.

Building Maro is another extension of Anand’s philosophy in supporting and investing in Canadian talent. Anand is energized by meeting and partnering with ambitious entrepreneurs to help grow their business in the spirit of cooperation and collaboration.