As CEO of the Ampri Group of Companies, Amit Sandhu has overseen the development of hundreds of homes. His role also involves overseeing real estate holdings such as investments in apartments and shopping centres. He is also now overseeing his company’s renovation of Westbrook shopping centre.
Sandhu admits that he has been fortunate to be able to join a family business that morphed from one that his father, Parm Sandhu, launched in 1991. Ampri officially launched in 1999, and the younger Sandhu spent spare time working on job sites and cleaning up lumber while still in high school.
“Basically, growing up in a family business, it’s your life,” he said.
To get an outside perspective and explore a bit, Sandhu did the first two years of what he thought would be a commerce degree at Toronto’s Ryerson University.
Restless to apply what he was learning, he returned to B.C. in 2005 so he could finish what turned out to be an honours degree in business administration at Simon Fraser University’s Beedie School of Business.
As soon as he graduated, he dedicated himself to being Ampri Construction’s general manager and then its vice-president.
Current projects include selling the 18-unit Vogue and 34-unit Riga residential developments in Richmond. One on the drawing board is, at 96 units, set to be the company’s largest to date.
Sandhu also has a lengthy list of ways he gives back to the community.
For example, along with friends Rattan Bagga and Punit Dhillon, he created the non-profit foundation Youth Entrepreneur Leadership Launchpad, or YELL, which provides accredited entrepreneurship courses for public high school students in grades 11 and 12.
He has been a member of organizations such as the Richmond Chamber of Commerce, The Indus Entrepreneurs and Tourism Richmond.
Perhaps one of the most significant items on his resumé, however, is being the youngest businessman ever appointed by Richmond city council to the city’s economic advisory committee. Outside work, he and wife Reena Sandu spend time with eight-month-old daughter Suhana.
