Life stories of Indian and South East Asian business leaders

There is a chapter on U Nay Oke's life in my South East Asian Added Value book.  However, I also interviewed U Nay Oke a few years ago for my Myanmar Oral History podcast ( https://myanmaroralhistoryprojectlifestories.buzzsprout.com) and, although it is a far longer interview than what is covered on the chapter on his life in the book, I thought you would find it interesting in providing an i...

Okhna (Lord) Phu Kok An has had a remarkable life.  He successfully navigated the horrors of the Khmer Rouge regime and the life threatening risks of being killed by pirates when he was involved in the early days of smuggling goods from Thailand to Vietnam during the US trade embargo. He then moved into the cigarette business and for many decades has been the exclusive agent for BAT in Cambodia an...

Henry Sy, the founder of SM Investments/SM Group (https://www.sminvestments.com/) started with a small shoe shop in Manila and built the business into the largest shopping mall business in the Philippines and China along with many department stores, supermarkets and grocery stores. The business also includes Banco de Oro and numerous real estate projects. At the time I interviewed him in 1998 his...

Yusuf Khwaja Hamied (born 25 July 1936) is Non Executive Chairman of Cipla (https://www.cipla.com/), a major generic pharmaceuticals company founded by his father Khwaja Abdul Hamied in 1935.  I interviewed him around 2005 in his office in Mumbai.  His story appears in my first Indian life story book, "Added Value - the life stories of Indian business leaders" which was published in 2010...

Captain Krishnan Nair led an extraordinary life as you will hear from the excerpts I will read from the chapter on his life in Added Value - the life stories of Indian business leaders (published 2010 by Roli Books - https://rolibooks.com/). He founded The Leela Hotel Group (https://www.theleela.com/). Please note that these interviews took place some time ago - over 25 years ago in the case of th...

I interviewed Eka Tjipta Widjaja around 1995 when he was in his mid 70s and had already started handing over day to day running of Sinar Mas (https://www.sinarmas.com/en/) to his sons.  His was a remarkable life and I must admit I was amazed at the ingenuity and business acumen he demonstrated from an early age and how he worked his way through his early failures.  This podcast covers his chapter...

Grandhi Mallikarjuna Rao (often known as "GMR") is the founder and Chairman of GMR Group, a major Indian conglomerate with businesses in a range of sectors such as airports (e.g. Delhi, Hyderabad, Goa and Medan), Energy (a mix of coal, gas and renewables), Transportation (e.g highways), Urban Infrastructure and Aero Services - see https://www.gmrgroup.in/.  My interview with GMR is conta...

I have written three life story books - two on India and one on South East Asia.  The first being Added Value - the life stories of leading South East Asian business people published in 1999 by Murmeli , the second being Added Value - the life stories of Indian business leaders published in 2010 by Roli Books (https://rolibooks.com/) and the third being Profiles in Enterprise - inspiring stories o...