The World's Billionaires- #14 Mukesh Ambani

Reliance's Mukesh Ambani has overtaken NRI steel tycoon Lakshmi
to become the richest Indian in the world
Due to boom in the domestic Indian stock market

Newe Delhi, Sep. 26, 2007
Col Surinder Singh/Gary Singh

Due to unprecedented boom in the domestic Indian stock market, Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani has overtaken NRI steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal to become the richest Indian in the world. Mukesh Ambani is estimated to hold shares worth just over 50 billion dollars through his holdings companies such as Reliance Industrial Infrastructure, RIL, Reliance Petroleum and IPCL as compared to Mittal owns shares worth about 48.4 billion dollars in ArcelorMittal

NRI steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal went up due to his great entrepreneurship in the global market with no help from any Indian entrepreneurs or NRI investors. On the other hand Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani has a wide range of products from petroleum products, petrochemicals, to garments (under the brand name of Vimal), Reliance Retailing has also lately entered into the fresh foods market as Reliance Fresh. RIL emerged as the second largest private sector company from India to feature in the 2007 Fortune Global 500 list (at rank 269) of the world's largest corporations

Mukesh Ambani was chosen as ET Business Leader of the Year 2006; Ranked 42nd among the World's Most Respected Business Leaders and second among the four Indian CEOs featured in a survey conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers and published in Financial Times, London, November 2004.

He was born on April 19, 1957 in Mumbai. His father Dhirubhai Ambani was then a small businessman who later on rose to become one of the legends of Indian industry. Mukesh Ambani did his Bachelors in Chemical Engineering from University of Bombay and Masters in Business Administration from Stanford University, USA.

World's largest grassroots petroleum refinery at Jamnagar is the brainchild of Mukesh Ambani. He was also the incharge of Dhirubhai's dream project Reliance Infocomm. But after the split in the Reliance Empire, Reliance Infocomm went to his brother Anil Ambani. Mukesh Ambani is now planning to enter retail sector in a big way.

He said, my father remains an eloquent example of what empowerment means. India was empowered when the son of a school teacher became a Dhirubhai Ambani. Empowered India means enabling every Indian to discover the Dhirubhai within.

• He initiated Reliance's backward integration from textiles into polyester fibers and further into petrochemicals.
• He directed the creation of 51 new, world-class manufacturing facilities involving diverse technologies that have raised Reliance's manufacturing capacities from less than a million tones to nine million tones per year.
• He is credited with having brought about financial innovations in the Indian capital markets.
• He pioneered India's first forays into overseas capital markets with international public offerings of global depository receipts, convertibles and bonds.
• He directed Reliance in its efforts to raise, since 1991 around US$ 2 billion from overseas financial markets; with a 100 year yankee bond issue in January 1997 being the high point.
• He directed and led the creation of the world's largest grass root petroleum refinery in Jamnagar, India, with a capacity of 5,40,000 barrels a day integrated with petrochemicals, power generation, port and related infrastructure, at an investment of Rs 25,000 crore nearly US$ 6 billion.
• He has steered the Reliance Group to its current status as India's leading textiles -petroleumpetrochemicals- power-telecom player. Mr. Ambani serves as Chairman of Indian Petrochemicals Corp. Ltd.
• He has been Chairman of Reliance Industries Limited since July 31, 2002. He serves as Chairman of Reliance Retail Ltd. He serves as Chairman of the Board and a Member of Advisory Board of Council on Foreign Relations Inc.
• Mr. Ambani served as Chairman of the Board and Director of Flag Telecom Group Ltd. from February 10, 2004 to July 2005.
• He served as Chairman of Reliance Communications Limited. He served as a Vice Chairman of Reliance Petroleum Ltd. Mr. Ambani served as Vice Chairman and Managing Director of Reliance Industries Limited until 30th July, 2002.
• He serves as an Executive Director of Reliance Industries Limited. He is a member of the Prime Minister's Advisory Council on Trade and Industry, Government of India, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), India, Board of Governors of National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER), Advisory Council of Indian Banks' Association and is the Chairman, Board of Trustees of the Indian Institute of Software Engineering, Mumbai.

Bestowed the US-India Business Council (USIBC) 'Global Vision' 2007 Award for Leadership in 2007
Invited to be a member of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD). He is the only Indian CEO to be a Council Member of WBCSD.

Shri Ambani set up the largest and most complex information and communications technology initiative in the world in the form of Reliance Infocomm Limited (now Reliance Communications Limited). Covering more than 1,100 towns and cities across India, Reliance Infocomm offers the full range of voice, data, video and value added services, on the strength of 80,000 kilometres of optic fibre-based terabit infrastructure, at the lowest entry cost and service cost anywhere in the world.

In January 17, 2007, The Rediff took interviewof Mukesh Ambani, chairman, Reliance Industries Ltd and he said:

I did chemical engineering because it was supposed to be the future. Think of the line from the movie The Graduate, which was very popular in our times -- "There's a great future in plastics." (Laughs) I guess, it left a mark on my mind.

Prof MM Sharma's first lecture was on how you make money in the chemical business. Bill Sharpe started by asking 'how do you make a difference to the world.' It was my good fortune that I had a good set of professors and, of course, a great peer group.

While I was at Stanford, Reliance got a licence to make polyester. At that time (early '80s), the World Bank's Young Professional's Programme (YPP) was extremely prestigious. I was very keen to do it too. I had the choice of completing the Stanford graduate programme over the next six months, do the YPP for a year and then return to India. I planned to do this and return to work on the polyester plant.

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Those who knew him well credited him with leading Reliance's turbo-charged growth over the last two decades.

But very little is publicly known of his beliefs, vision and motivation.

Chairman and Managing Director of Reliance Industries Limited, India's largest private sector company.

• He holds a Bachelor's Degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Mumbai and MBA from Stanford University, USA.
• He is the son of Shri Dhirubhai H. Ambani, Founder Chairman of the Company.
• His father Dhirubhai Ambani was then a small businessman who later on rose to become one of the legends of Indian industry.
• He initiated Reliance's backward integration from textiles into polyester fibers and further into petrochemicals

• Sons of legendary industrialist Dhirbuhai Ambani who started his career as a petrol station attendant in Yemen and later founded Reliance Industries, Mukesh and Anil split the business empire between them in June 2005.
• While Mukesh controls shares worth 55.81 billion dollars, Anil owns shares worth 35.6 billion dollars in their respective groups, whose combined worth stands at just over 170 billion dollars.