“Preservation first, a sustainable yield and, lastly, capital appreciation,” is the investment philosophy of Kevin O’Leary, the self-proclaimed ‘eco-preneur’ who shares his no-holds-barred opinions with business hopefuls on CBC Dragon’s Den and ABC Shark Tank. He has put in some appearances on Discovery Channel too, appears regularly with Amanda Lang on CBC in The Lang / O’Leary Exchange, and travels the world looking for investments that make money and are environmentally friendly. This is the perfect match for his credentials: success in the Honours program in Environmental Studies at Waterloo, and a prestigious MBA from the University of Western Ontario’s Richard Ivey School of Business, where he now serves on the executive board.

Impeccably dressed, fiercely intelligent and a straight talker with rapier-like wit and a sharp sense of humour: Kevin O’Leary. Through his own mutual fund company, O’Leary Funds, he has also raised hundreds of millions of dollars from investors who share his “get paid while you wait” yield-oriented, value investing philosophy. Born in Montreal in 1954, Kevin O’Leary is phobic about the preservation of capital. “I have pretty much kept every dollar I have ever made. I live on the interest.”

Sharing his knowledge and philosophy with groups of Toronto investors regularly, he was most recently in North York in December and again in February, invited to meet many of the Toronto clients of successful investment advisor Roy Zakka Senior Vice President & Associate Director of Macquarie Private Wealth. Seminars are one way for Kevin to spread the O’Leary Funds message – a simple, unvarying philosophy of sustainable deals.

“I’m boring,” said Kevin in our recent meeting. “I buy securities that have huge cash flows and pay dividends. That’s what I invest in for myself, and therefore for my investors. If I don’t understand it, I don’t invest in it.”

Related posts:

1. TV Persona vs the real thing
2. Pension reform