by Mukesh Ambani (born on April 19, 1957) is an Indian business magnate who is the chairman, managing director, and largest shareholder of Reliance Industries Limited (RIL).
Ambani has consistently ranked among the Top 100 Global Leaders by Fortune magazine for his pioneering work in energy, retail, and financial services. Therefore, Forbes magazine’s most recent annual survey lists him as the world’s 23rd-richest person. In 2010 he was ranked among India’s wealthiest 20 with a net worth of $29 billion.
About Mukesh Ambani
Mukesh Kumar Ambani was born on April 19, 1957, in Mumbai, one of the twin cities of India. He is the eldest of three sons born to Jamnadas and Prabhavati Ambani. His father was the founding chairman of Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), India’s biggest private-sector oil and gas corporation based in Mumbai.
In 1974, Mukesh joined his father’s company as a management trainee in its petrochemical division, where he worked on refining crude oil for commercial use through hydrocracker and dehydrogenation units. He later moved to RIL’s retailing division, where he worked as a joint secretary in Reliance Commercial Enterprise (RCED).
Life of Ambani
His birth
Mukesh Ambani was born to Dhirubhai H. Ambani and his wife Prabhavati in 1957. His mother died when he was eight years old. He grew up with his two brothers and a sister in their ancestral home in Aden, Yemen, where his father ran a business exporting spices and textiles. The family was Hindu by birth but has since converted to Islam.
His higher studies
In 1978, Mukesh Ambani graduated from Stanford University with an MBA degree after studying for three years. In 1976, he joined Mody’s Indian Institute of Management (IIM) in Ahmedabad as a management trainee after graduating from Stanford’s business school one year.
Ambani has a postgraduate degree from Stanford University and an M.B.A. from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad
His personal life
Ambani is married to Nita Ambani and has three children, Akash, Isha, and Anant. The family lives in a private home in Altamount Road, Mumbai.
Prior to the birth of his youngest son, Ambani’s wife gave birth to a stillborn girl who suffered from Down Syndrome. His family has been the subject of several public controversies involving his father Dhirubhai Ambani and brother Anil Ambani. The estimated net worth of Mukesh Ambani is $22 billion as of February 2011.
Career
At the age of 25, Ambani joined RIL as a junior executive. In 1981, he was appointed general manager of the petrochemical section. Seven years later, he was appointed additional general manager and then became the joint managing director in charge of RIL’s petrochemicals division.
In 1987, with the appointment of Dhirubhai Ambani as chairman and managing director of Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), Mukesh Ambani became one of six independent directors on RIL’s board. In 1989, younger brother Anil Ambani joined the company as a promoter before taking over as chairman in 2002; Mukesh remained on the board until 2004.
The 1980s–1990s
In 1988, Mukesh Ambani founded Reliance Capital Ltd (“Reliance Capital”) as an investment company that would later become Reliance Capital Asset Management Ltd. Reliance Capital bought a 27 percent stake in the Indian Bank in 1989, .
In 1989, RIL entered into a joint venture with Mobil Corporation to build and operate the world’s largest gas-based petrochemical complex in Jamnagar, Gujarat. The partnership was called Reliance Petrochemicals Limited (RPL) and was valued at $1.5 billion. RPL also had stakes in a refinery in Kanpur, India, and international refining units for imported raw materials including foreign crude oil and pet coke (a form of coal gasification). In 1988, RIL created Reliance Telecom Limited and Reliance Energy. By 1991, together these two companies had a net worth of $3.6 billion and produced 1,829 million units of power.
The 1990s
In 1996, Mukesh Ambani bought the Sahara Group in a deal valued at $9 billion, bringing the total number of companies under the group to 9. After this acquisition, he became one of Asia’s richest men overall and its richest industrialist.
In 1997 RIL bought control of Sterling Energy, an exploration and production company based in London with an asset base in Europe.
In 1999, Ambani was appointed managing director of RIL by his father Dhirubhai Ambani. who would later become the company’s chairman in 2002.
Ambani took over as managing director at RIL and other companies including Reliance Energy, Reliance Commercial Enterprises (RCED), Reliance Textiles and Investments, and Reliance Capital Investment Limited which were under his control in 2000. In 2000 and 2001, he also became the president of a group of companies that included Reliance Infrastructure Limited, Reliance Petro Resources Limited, Reliance Power Limited, Reliance Energy & Natural Resources Limited, KG Indus & Industries, and Reliances Aviation Services Ltd.
The 2000s–present
In 1999, Mukesh Ambani bought the controlling stake in Sterling Energy.
In 2000, he bought a 51 percent stake in United Spirits Limited for $4 billion. By 2003, the figure grew to $7–12 billion, depending on the source.
Ambani expanded his business empire to include Reliance Communications Ltd (R-Com). And Reliance Entertainment Ltd (REL), which focus on telecoms and movies respectively. Through R-Com’s ownership of India’s top mobile phone network (plus a number of smaller networks), Ambani became the richest man in Asia and 13th in the world. Reliance Entertainment entered into a $1 billion co-production deal with Steven Spielberg’s DreamWorks SKG in 2005.
As of 2007, Mukesh Ambani holds the record. For being “the only Asian among the top twenty richest persons in the world”. He is also the highest-paid CEO in India.
In 2008, Ambani announced plans to invest $18 billion over five years. Because, to realize a vision of a high-speed fiber-optic broadband network reaching homes and businesses. Therefore, The next year, he launched Reliance Industries’ wireless phone service Jio by investing about $20 billion.
Awards and honor
Mukesh Ambani has received several awards, including the Padma Vibhushan (1999), the Padma Bhushan (2000), and S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies highly prestigious Professorship in 2005. Therefore, he get Swedish Royal Academy of Technology Gold Medal in 2006.
He was also award an Honorary Doctorate from MIT in May 2011. Therefore, to recognize his contribution to society. However, he was awarded the Yash Birla Award for Corporate Excellence. Therefore, At a ceremony held at India Habitat Centre, New Delhi on 12 October 2010. Therefore, in 1999 and 2000, he was nominate for Time magazine’s Person of the Year award. And won it in 1999.
