Moez Kassam, co-founder and Chief Investment Officer of Anson Funds, has been awarded an Honorary Doctor of Laws from Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU), commemorating his entrepreneurial record and the growing national influence of his philanthropic work. Through this conferral, TMU celebrates Kassam’s career success alongside his endorsement of a broader philosophy asserting that the mindset used to build great companies can also be pivotally redirected as well to drive meaningful social change.
Kassam’s path as an entrepreneur was built on the principle that performance and discipline speak louder than pitch decks or promises. Upon the launch of Anson Funds, he rooted the firm’s fundamental pillars to be deep research, contrarian analysis, and a decisive willingness to act when others hesitated. That discipline was tested early. During the 2008 financial crisis, as markets collapsed and fear overtook rationality, Anson delivered a positive return. The moment helped define the firm’s identity: opportunistic but grounded, aggressive but analytical.
Today, with offices in Toronto and Dallas, Anson Funds is widely recognized for its event-driven and activist investing, drawing interest from family offices, entrepreneurs, and institutions that value long-term alignment over short-term trends. Kassam’s leadership has shaped that culture. Those who have worked with him often describe his approach as pairing intense curiosity with an ability to simplify complex decisions. The honorary doctorate acknowledges that this is not just business acumen, but a mindset with broader social relevance.
That same mindset now powers Kassam’s philanthropic work through the Moez & Marissa Kassam Equity Fund, a foundation he co-founded with his wife, Marissa. The couple’s approach is distinctive; they treat philanthropy as a form of investment, where capital is deployed with purpose, outcomes are measured, and impact compounds over time.
Their recent commitments illustrate this philosophy clearly. A $5 million gift to TMU’s School of Medicine provides full scholarships for medical students from underrepresented communities who might have otherwise been limited have the financial means to enter the profession due to a financial barrier. The donation is aimed at transforming the pipeline of future Canadian physicians and increasing representation in a sector that remains structurally inequitable.
Similarly, the couple’s $15 million commitment to The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) is designed to accelerate pediatric research, expand access to world-class care, and support innovations that will define the next generation of treatments. It is philanthropy deployed like growth capital: targeted, ambitious, outcome-focused.
TMU’s honorary doctorate is a formal acknowledgment of his dual approach linking an entrepreneurial career rooted in rigor and resilience, and a philanthropic model built on the belief that society deserves the same level of strategy and sophistication as any competitive market.
For Kassam, the goal is simple: to generate “outsized returns for society.”
Along with his philanthropic contributions, Kassam is a generous donor of his time, serving on the boards of the Toronto Public Library Foundation and the Canadian Olympic Foundation. He is also an active member of the Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO), a global network of business leaders.
With this recognition, TMU places Kassam among a growing class of leaders redefining what modern philanthropy can look like and what modern entrepreneurship should strive to achieve.
