Vikram Vij Talks New Dragons’ Den Gig

Vikram Vij | BCBusiness
Vikram Vij will join the show as it enters its ninth season.

Original dragon Kevin O’Leary is out and local restaurateur Vikram Vij is in as CBC reveals new hosts

Local celebrity chef Vikram Vij and Bay Street financier Michael Wekerle will join the cast of CBC’s award-winning show Dragons’ Den this spring. They will replace Internet mogul Bruce Croxon and Kevin O’Leary, who has been with the show since it launched in 2006.
 
Vij, the proprietor of award-winning eateries Vij’s and Rangoli, isn’t new to reality TV competitions: he’s been featured as a judge on CBC’s Recipe to Riches and Food Network’s Top Chef Canada and Chopped Canada. A former Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year, Vij told the CBC that the gig will give him a chance to hone his entrepreneurial chops:
 
“I’ve been on the other side as an entrepreneur, asking people to invest in the right thing,” Vij told the CBC’s Rick Cluff Thursday morning.
 
When asked about filling Kevin O’Leary’s shoes, Vij was circumspect: “I’m a little nervous about that, actually,” said Vij, “I just don’t want to fall into his shoes and do what he was doing. I want to bring the insight of what my background is, which is Indian.”
 
Vij will be joining Michael Wekerle, an investor who has worked on Bay Street since the age of 18, on the show’s ninth season. He went on to invest in various media and technology properties after launching investment firm GMP Securities. It’s uncertain how CBC will play his claim to fame as an investor: his firm was an early investor in Research in Motion, eventually taking it public in 1997.
 
The lineup of investors has changed slightly from year to year since launching in 2006. Vij and Wekerle will join remaining dragons Arlene Dickinson, David Chilton and Jim Treliving.