Krishna ‘Kris’ Persaud is a Guyanese/American entrepreneur and is the largest individual owner of B class apartment complexes in Broward County, Florida but his passion for the game of cricket has led him to acquire ownership of the Jamaica Tallawahs in 2017.
Persaud came from humble beginnings in Windsor Forest, West Coast Demerara and achieved towering success at an incredible pace. This achievement is mostly attributed to his unique ability to identify and capitalize on market inefficiencies across industries. Taking us back to his early days, Persaud said that growing up was a challenge and his parents always encouraged him to think outside of the proverbial box.
He is the youngest of seven children parented by Dhanwantie and Shivpaul Persaud. He attended the Indian Education Trust College (now the Richard Ismael Secondary School) and later moved to the United States to pursue a degree in Engineering.
“From a young age, my dad said that Guyana is a very difficult place to make a life and I should think about going to North America and further my studies and try to help the family…I was 19 when I left for the US and I didn’t know anyone there. I didn’t even have any friends just a slight acquaintance,” he recounted.
Persaud said he worked his way up and eventually earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering and a Master’s Degree in Civil Engineering from City College of the City University of New York. Persaud spent ten years working with several consulting firms and municipalities providing design and construction management services for a wide variety of building systems and public works projects.
After 10 years in the Engineering field, Persaud picked up his family and moved to Florida and began trading stocks in 1995. His would soon find enormous success in this field which made life easier.
However, he then took a break, ventured into the Real Estate world, and began dabbling in apartment complexes. Over the last few years, he bought and sold over 5,000 apartments in Florida, making spectacular profits. During this time, he also created two companies, Home Owners Choice and Oxbridge Reinsurance Company, and took them public, listing at the NASDAQ and NY Stock Exchange. For this and other achievements, he received awards from the Tampa Bay INDOUS Chamber of Commerce as one of the most successful businessmen of the year. He holds licenses as a Professional Engineer in the States of Florida, New York and California
Following his passion for cricket, Persaud eventually acquired full control of all international cricket events at the only ICC approved cricket stadium in America.
He said that he has always been a fan of thinking outside of the box and while others saw the Stadium as a white elephant he saw an opportunity.
He approached the authorities and signed an agreement to control all international events in exchange for annual guarantees to the County. Since acquiring the stadium, there have been two international cricket tournaments there as he hopes to have a lot more in the coming years.
When asked about the decision to acquire the Jamaican Caribbean Premier League Team, Persaud said that it has always been a dream to own a cricket team. He related that while growing up, cricket played an integral role in his life and the love for the game never died.
“I chose Jamaica because Jamaica has the largest economy in the Caribbean and the market was large and a larger market is a hedge for the growth and you have more underlying forces to push it in the direction of growth,” he said.
“Jamaica has an excellent pool of talent to draw from and I think my management team know how to integrate the pool of talent from Jamaica with the special players in an excellent combination to make a winning team.
I think you’ll be seeing that this year and going forward. As a team, I think Jamaica is a force to be reckoned with. We won two tournaments so far and that is great and we may have one on our hand here this year,” Persaud added.
His advice to young people out there is to never forget their roots and do not follow the crowd. He said that Guyana will forever be home for him no matter where he lives.
“My philosophy is live and let live. Three words. I believe that I should not be curtailed in any unreasonable way to do what I want to do providing that its legal and I am not interested in stepping in anybody’s way in their pursuit of happiness in whatever way they choose,” he concludes. (Times Sunday Magazine)
