A physician who chose to build rather than just practice — Roy's path from wartime displacement to running a real estate investment firm is a story of relentless ambition.
Roy Lingam was born in the northern part of Sri Lanka. When civil war tore through his hometown, his family had no choice but to flee overnight to the capital city of Colombo — with nothing but each other. In a single night, he went from having a home to having only ambition.
His father, partially blinded by the conflict, refused to be defined by it. Despite his injury, he worked relentlessly — holding their family together and pouring everything into giving Roy an education. That sacrifice was not lost on Roy. It became the engine behind everything that followed.
Watching his father persevere with partial sight taught Roy something that no classroom could: that circumstances are a starting point, not a ceiling. He chose early to outwork every obstacle in front of him.
Fueled by that ambition, Roy moved to London for his undergraduate studies — the first major step in a journey that would span continents. From there, a scholarship took him to Latvia, where he completed his degree in human anatomy. His foundation in the sciences was rigorous, precise, and deliberately chosen: if he was going to build something real, he needed to understand systems at their core.
His path to medicine continued through Saint Lucia, where he completed his foundational medical training, before arriving in the United States to complete his clinical rotations and earn his M.D. degree. He had crossed oceans, secured scholarships, and built a medical career through sheer determination — from a war-displaced family in Colombo to a practicing physician in America.
A medical degree would have been enough for most. For Roy, it was a platform. His vision was never limited to a single practice — it was to build something that created lasting impact for others the way education had created impact for him.
Together with his wife and co-founder Dr. Cindy Magas, he launched Smart Beginnings Academy — an early childhood education center now operating across 3 locations in Illinois, serving children from 6 weeks to 12 years, built for families from the ground up, the way Roy's own family once needed support. They also founded Delphi USMLE, a medical institution dedicated to training international physicians to earn their U.S. medical license and build careers in America — a path Roy had walked himself.
It didn't stop there. Alongside these ventures, Roy and Cindy began acquiring residential and commercial real estate throughout the Chicago metropolitan area. Those acquisitions grew into a disciplined portfolio — and from that portfolio, Konfide Capital was born.
"I didn't build Konfide to make money. I built it to make a difference — for communities, for families, and for the next person who starts with nothing but ambition."
Cindy Magas was born in the northern part of Sri Lanka — the same region Roy Lingam called home. Like Roy's family, hers was displaced by the same civil war, forced to leave everything behind and find a new beginning elsewhere.
Cindy and her parents made their way to New York City, arriving as immigrants with nothing but their determination. Her parents took whatever work they could find — her father cooking in a restaurant, her mother assisting in the kitchen — pouring every dollar and every hour into one purpose: giving their only daughter the education they never had.
That sacrifice shaped Cindy the same way Roy's father's resilience shaped him. She understood from an early age that the life she wanted would have to be earned — and she was ready to earn it.
After completing her undergraduate studies in New York City, Cindy followed the call to medicine — traveling to Saint Lucia to pursue her Doctor of Medicine degree. It was there, thousands of miles from where either of them had started, that her path crossed with Roy Lingam's.
Two immigrants from the same torn corner of the world, both chasing the same degree on a small Caribbean island — it was impossible not to recognize something familiar in each other. What began as a shared experience of hardship and ambition grew into something enduring: a partnership built on mutual respect, shared values, and a vision for what life could look like on the other side of all that sacrifice.
Cindy and Roy built their life together — not just as partners, but as founders. Every venture Konfide Capital has launched, they have launched together. Smart Beginnings Academy grew from their shared belief that quality early childhood education should be available to every family, regardless of circumstance. It was the kind of institution neither of them had access to growing up — and exactly the kind they were determined to create.
From displacement and immigration, through medicine and entrepreneurship, Cindy Magas has never stopped moving forward. The life she and Roy have built is not the result of luck — it is the result of two people who refused to let where they started determine where they ended up.
