robert kuok
Robert Kuok is a Malaysian billionaire and business magnate; he is the richest man since 2002 in Malaysia and of Southeast Asia. His current net worth is 15.9 billion dollars (as of July 19th 2013; according to Bloomberg Billionaire Index. He was well recognized when he succeeded to develop a world class hotel such as Shangri-La Hotels, which is a chain of hotel being managed in over sixty resorts and hotels worldwide in cities such as Dubai, Kuala Lumpur, Manila, Singapore, Tokyo, Paris, Hong Kong, and Vancouver .He currently owns multinational companies in numerous fields of business which he singlehandedly diversify, ranging from sugar factory’s to food production, and to farm into plantations and hotels and resorts. Robert is also well known as the “Sugar King of Asia”
Robert is the youngest among his three other brothers, born in 6th October 1923, in the state of Johor. His father had reached onto the land of Malaya from Fujian; being shipped from China at the start of the 1900s hoping for a better life he went to Johor and met his wife, fell in love and had 3 children and Robert was the youngest among the three. As a young boy he was told by his father to have big aspirations in life and as he graduated secondary school with great results, and was accepted into Raffles College in Singapore. While he was there, Robert had become schoolmates with Lee Kuan Yew, who is the founder of modern Singapore. As he was in college, Robert began work as an office boy. Just as he was to graduate from Raffles Institutions in Singapore, the Second World War broke out; Fortunately, he was favored and was given work; ever since then, he had been working in the grains department of Japanese industrial conglomerate Mitsubishi between 1942 till 1945 and later started a business with support from his relatives (Kuok Brothers Sdn Bhd) which was a year after the passing of their father’s. Even though his father passing had sadden him and his family, he pressed on with the family
Robert is the youngest among his three other brothers, born in 6th October 1923, in the state of Johor. His father had reached onto the land of Malaya from Fujian; being shipped from China at the start of the 1900s hoping for a better life he went to Johor and met his wife, fell in love and had 3 children and Robert was the youngest among the three. As a young boy he was told by his father to have big aspirations in life and as he graduated secondary school with great results, and was accepted into Raffles College in Singapore. While he was there, Robert had become schoolmates with Lee Kuan Yew, who is the founder of modern Singapore. As he was in college, Robert began work as an office boy. Just as he was to graduate from Raffles Institutions in Singapore, the Second World War broke out; Fortunately, he was favored and was given work; ever since then, he had been working in the grains department of Japanese industrial conglomerate Mitsubishi between 1942 till 1945 and later started a business with support from his relatives (Kuok Brothers Sdn Bhd) which was a year after the passing of their father’s. Even though his father passing had sadden him and his family, he pressed on with the family
Bibliography: Bloomberg staff 19 July 2013- http://www.bloomberg.com/billionaires/2013-07-19/aaa/aaaxa Chanyaporn Chanjaroen & William Mellor Feb 1, 2013 http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-01-31/billionaire-kuok-says-his-empire-can-last-generations-.html Peter Horsfield- 01 April 2013 -http://www.thextraordinary.org/robert-kuok Russell Flannery March 2013- http://www.forbes.com/profile/robert-kuok/