David Henderson wants to bring water to a thirsty planet, but first he started smaller.
“I always wanted to be an entrepreneur. I’ve always been involved in enterprises, right from the lemonade stand,” he said.
XPV Capital Corporation, Mr. Henderson’s company, specializes in providing investment funding for international water infrastructure projects. He said that, apart from it being a good business decision, it is easy to be passionate about investing in companies that build good, clean water technologies around the world.
“It’s a positive thing, a good thing. You’re solving real challenges, global issues, and it was a growing area, so we could get in there and build a leadership position,” he said.
Upon leaving Ryerson University, where he studied entrepreneurship and enterprise development in the early ’90s, Mr. Henderson met businessman G. Kingsley Warde, now the chairman of VRG Capital, whom Mr. Henderson considers his mentor, and went to work for him.
“It was a chance to see a lot of different businesses, investment, finance, and that’s what got me into this industry and made me passionate about working with emerging, exciting companies,” he said.
With the idea of striking out on his own, Mr. Henderson started XPV Capital in 2001, initially to explore different opportunities like angel investing and consulting.
“The vision for XPV was that we wanted to build a differentiated investment firm and, in order to do that, we looked at different sectors where we could build a specialized firm that focused on it. We looked at energy and other areas, but we ended up selecting water in 2005,” Mr. Henderson said.
He says it was the best decision the company ever made.
“Five years ago, people weren’t really thinking about it and, from an investment perspective, it is now going from the fringe to the mainstream,” he said. “Many groups that invest in water invest in other sectors, whereas all we do is water. It is our competitive advantage.”
In the past year, the company has launched an institution investment fund worth over $100-million.
Mr. Henderson’s wife, Heidi Sutej, is a former business executive currently taking care of their young daughters, Sophia, 18 months, and Isabella, 5, at their home in Oakville, Ont.
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