Richard Abboud dropped out of university to pursue entrepreneurship. Today, he’s the Founder & CEO of Forum Asset Management, a $4 billion asset management business—and one of the country’s most vocal advocates for a more ambitious Canada.
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From Teenage Dance Parties to a $4 Billion Empire
- Abboud dropped out of the University of Ottawa after his second year to join a startup with no revenue and no customers — a decision he says made him look like “a shocking loser” at the time (and a hard sell to his Middle Eastern immigrant parents, both federal government employees).
- His first gig wasn’t glamorous: running non-alcoholic “dances” for teenagers in Mississauga and Ottawa, drawing 6,000 kids a week. By 21, he had 100 employees and, in his words, “really didn’t know what I was doing.”
- From there he became a real estate broker in Montreal, moved to Toronto, and eventually launched Forum as an office leasing company before pivoting into principal investing — the seed of what Forum is today.
Why Forum Is Betting Big on Student Housing and Self-Storage
- Forum is now a $4 billion asset management business with another $4 billion in developments at completion value — and it’s the largest student housing operator/developer/owner in Canada, plus a growing self-storage platform nationwide.
- The thesis for both businesses comes down to what Abboud calls an “unfair advantage”: under-supplied markets, favorable demographics, and population trends working in Forum’s favor. One striking stat — Canadians use about 2.5 square feet of self-storage per person versus 8.5 square feet in the U.S., pointing to serious runway.
- Even with softness in parts of the real estate market (and a real slowdown tied to reduced immigration), Abboud argues student housing remains under-supplied relative to markets like the U.S. and U.K. — and Forum is responding by building more affordable products, including bunk-bed configurations, to meet today’s consumer.
How Investors Can Actually Get In
- Forum offers a range of fund structures — from open-ended funds with distributions to closed-ended and development funds without — designed to match different investor needs for income, growth, and risk appetite.
- Notably, Forum’s funds are ungated, which Abboud says is rare in the Canadian private real estate space right now. He credits the fund structure (including early-withdrawal penalties) for attracting larger, more patient allocators.
- Retail investors can currently access a closed-end fund investing in student housing development and operating assets, open until mid-October, targeting an 11–13% return with a 4% distribution.
For more on Forum Asset Management and investing opportunities visit their website!
Shift Canada: Rewiring How We Think About Failure
- After a self-described “midlife pause” spent with his kids, Abboud went looking for a new venture and found his cause in Canada’s innovation gap: the country ranks 21st in the world for entrepreneurship, innovation, and risk-taking — but #1 for fear of failure in entrepreneurial pursuits.
- His response was Shift Canada, a nonprofit focused on cultural change around risk and failure — leaving the “how-to” education to others already doing that work.
- Its flagship Shift Failure program is taught in junior high and high schools across the country, reaching 600,000 students in three years (320,000 last year alone), and Shift Canada also runs the Bold Ambition Index with pollster Nik Nanos, tracking Canadians’ appetite for risk and ambition over time.
This is the final installment of our Can Canada Meet the Moment? series, sponsored by Forum Asset Management. Catch the full conversation with Richard Abboud NOW!
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