In the 1990s, Riaz Mamdani became famous in Calgary as a financier of various startups, and in the early 2000s, he fully immersed himself in real estate. Riaz, an entrepreneur, founder of Strategic Group, and philanthropist, used his energetic personality combined with his business and financial knowledge to become an expert in his field and one of Calgary’s wealthiest individuals. Learn more about his life and career on calgaryski.net.
Immigration and Education
Riaz was born in Uganda (East Africa) in the late 1960s. In July 1973, at the age of 4, he emigrated to Calgary with his parents and younger brother. His parents owned several stores and real estate in Calgary and East Africa.
In 1992, Mamdani earned a Bachelor’s degree in Pharmacy from the University of Manitoba and four years later graduated from the Faculty of Law at the University of Calgary.
Early Career
From 1992 to 1996, Riaz worked as a pharmacist at the Foothills Medical Centre in Calgary. From 1996 to 1998, he worked as a lawyer and solicitor at the Calgary law firm Beaumont Church, specializing in corporate law, commercial law, and securities law.
In the late 1990s, Riaz’s professional interests gradually shifted from legal practice to funding startups. Companies in their early stages required office spaces, so Mamdani ventured into real estate, deciding to rent out office spaces.
Founding Strategic Group
Riaz accumulated significant wealth through investments in technology companies and dot-coms (companies operating solely online). By the end of March 2001, stock prices had dropped by 98% in one year. About a month later, Mamdani liquidated several of his investments.
In 2001, with his savings, he founded Strategic Group to continue investing in commercial real estate in the city and surrounding areas. It all started with two properties, and by 2008, Strategic Group owned over 60 offices and retail properties in industries such as construction, oil, hospitality, pet care, corporate finance, agriculture, and technology.
Riaz became well-known in the real estate business for his unconventional thinking. Since the founding of Strategic Group, Mamdani used his legal skills and experience to expand the company’s business portfolios and holdings. He applied his extensive knowledge of finance to promote two separate companies from their inception to becoming international multi-million-dollar corporations.
Strategic Group is an investment and development company that owns, manages, develops, and repurposes office, retail, and residential properties across Canada.
Philanthropy
Over the years, Mamdani has made charitable contributions to various organizations, including Make-a-Wish and the Project Warmth Society of Alberta. He has also supported the Alberta Women Entrepreneurs (AWE) community, worked with the Calgary Food Bank to gather food and monetary donations for the needy, and made a donation to the Calgary Opera company to help it transition to a new location in Calgary, now called the Mamdani Opera Centre.
In 2012, he led Strategic Lets Eat!, an annual food collection campaign. In 2015, during a four-day food drive at Strategic Group’s headquarters and offices, Riaz managed to gather over 4,000 pounds of food and made a financial donation to further demonstrate his support.
In 2015, Riaz organized a shelter for Syrian refugees arriving in Canada, opening several of his company’s properties for the cause. In addition to apartments, Strategic Group worked with municipalities and local authorities to ensure that refugees could afford to rent housing. This desire to help was influenced by Mamdani’s family history, as they had once required refuge in Calgary.
Strategic Group is also a long-time supporter of Project Warmth, an initiative that collects warm clothing for homeless people in the city. The company’s buildings serve as collection points. In May 2022, Mamdani donated $500,000 to help deliver medical and search-and-rescue drones to the front lines in Ukraine.
Assassination Attempt
In December 2016, while Riaz was sitting in the driver’s seat of his Rolls-Royce Phantom, he became the target of a shooting right in front of his home in the Mount Royal neighborhood. The entrepreneur was hit six times. Shortly after the shooting, explosions were heard on 6 Ave S.W. Mamdani sustained severe injuries, but his condition stabilized in the afternoon. The front of the car was heavily damaged, and at least three bullet holes were found in the driver’s side window. Another person was in the car, but they were unharmed.
The police classified the targeted attack as an attempted murder. Despite Mamdani’s friends offering a $250,000 reward for any information about the crime, no one was arrested.
After the shooting, Calgary’s then-mayor Naheed Nenshi stated that Riaz was a person who came to Canada as a refugee with nothing, but managed to build one of the most successful businesses in Calgary and became an incredibly important patron for the city.
Charges of Violence
In November 2021, Riaz’s former partner, 54-year-old Kate Abbott, accused Mamdani of assault. She told emergency services that she had sustained bruises, a broken tooth, and torn ligaments. The woman also posted about the incident on Instagram, urging other victims of domestic violence to stand together.
In January of the following year, the case went to court, and Riaz’s lawyer told journalists that the charges were baseless and part of a campaign aimed at gaining financial profit from the breakdown of a four-year personal relationship. Specifically, Kate sought over a million dollars a year and a six-figure sum in child support for her child from a previous relationship.
In June 2022, the prosecution dropped the domestic violence charges against Mamdani. In a prepared statement, Mamdani said he felt relieved that his legal issues had ended. He also stated that the consequences of baseless accusations could be as damaging as a conviction, partially becoming a sentence to one’s reputation.
It’s worth noting that Mamdani was the subject of several other lawsuits, including a $10 million lawsuit filed in 2014. The lawsuit claimed that Mamdani and other businessmen collected $6.4 million to buy a piece of land, but the deal ended without providing proper explanations to investors.
In addition, Riaz is one of several defendants in a class-action lawsuit involving companies connected to Platinum Group. 2,200 investors lost about $200 million, buying commercial real estate companies between 2002 and 2012.