U of R business mentor named Entrepreneur of the Year

Posted: December 1, 2016 9:30 a.m.

Murad Al-Katib is Chair of the Kenneth Levene Graduate School of Business Advisory Board to the Dean and often speaks to business students. Photo: U of R Photography

A familiar face in the faculty of business administration has received a national award for his entrepreneurship.

Murad Al-Katib, President and CEO of AGT Food and Ingredients Inc., runs one of the largest lentil, beans, peas, and chickpeas (pulse) splitting companies in the world, overseeing the company’s operations of 40 facilities throughout the world and its international connections with more than 120 countries.

Al-Katib was recently awarded Canada's EY Entrepreneur Of The Year (2016 National Award) in Toronto where more than 5,000 guests attended the gala event.

Al-Katib has long supported the University of Regina – he is the Chair of the Kenneth Levene Graduate School of Business Advisory Board to the Dean, was the keynote speaker at the Levene Leadership Dinner in 2015, and presented at the Insight: UR Business Distinguished Speaker Series in 2013.

“We have been very fortunate to have Murad as an advocate for our school. With the scale of the global operations he leads, he has been very generous with his time as an advisor and Chair of the Levene Advisory Board,” said Dr. Andrew Gaudes, Dean of the Hill and Levene Schools of Business. “This prestigious, national recognition of Murad’s entrepreneurial spirit and leadership is well-deserved.”

Al-Katib’s perseverance and passion for his business started production in 2003 when he learned of how many pulses were grown in Saskatchewan. Slowly, he expanded his business to the best pulse growing regions in the US, Turkey, Australia, China and South Africa.

Based in Regina, AGT Food and Ingredients Inc. has been growing at a rate of approximately $300 million each year for the past five years. The company employs 2,000 full-time staff and has expanded into other food products, including pet food.