Oliver El-Khatib

About

Oliver El-Khatib (born October 1, 1982) is a Nordic-Lebanese Canadian producer, manager and entrepreneur. He is the founder of the October’s Very Own (OVO) and manager of Drake.

Oliver El-Khatib is of Canadian, Lebanese, and Scandinavian heritage, whose grandparents hail from Canada, Lebanon, Finland, and Iceland. El-Khatib grew up between Toronto and London. He attended high school with OVO co-founder and Drake’s long-time friend and producer Noah James Shebib, better known as 40, whom he met in grade nine homeroom.
As a teen, El-Khatib found creative inspiration in skateboarding culture, visiting local record stores, including Toronto’s Play De Record, studying album notes and tuning into Toronto’s 88.1FM on Saturday mornings to hear new music. In his later teen years, he left school to pursue an internship at Toronto’s now-defunct clothing store, Lounge, where he met Drake.

In 2007, El-Khatib worked as a buyer for Unitedfront, the parent company for Ransom, Goodfoot, and Nomad, three Toronto menswear boutiques. In 2008, Oliver assumed blogging duties for October’s Very Own. As the only blogger for the new brand, El-Khatib’s job was to promote outlets…