B. Ravi Pillai | |
|---|---|
| Born | 2 September 1953 |
| Education | Cochin University |
| Occupation(s) | Founder, Chairman, RP Group |
| Spouse | Geetha Pillai |
| Children | 2 |
B. Ravi Pillai (born 2 September 1953) is a Dubai-based Indian billionaire businessman. He is the founder and chairman of the RP Group. As of September 2021, his net worth is estimated at US$2.5 billion.[1]
Ravi Pillai was born on 2 September 1953 at Chavara,[2] a coastal town in Kollam, in the state of Kerala in a family of farmers.[3] He has a degree in Commerce from Cochin University.[4]
During his time at university, he launched his first business, a chit fund in Kollam on reportedly borrowed money.[5] Later, he started an engineering contract business and worked for some of the major industrial houses in Kerala such as Fertilisers and Chemicals Travancore Limited, Hindustan Newsprint Limited, and Cochin Refineries.[5] However, a labour strike forced him to close down his business, after which he went to Saudi Arabia in 1978 where he started a small trading business.[6] Two years later, he moved into construction, and established Nasser S. Al Hajri Corporation (NSH) with 150 employees,[6] which has over the years grown to become the flagship company of his business group,[2][6] RP Group, which is known to employ over 70,000 employees across its businesses.[4] The shopping mall in South Kerala, RP Mall at Kollam city is owned by Pillai.[7]
Pillai has expanded his business to other countries including United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Bahrain, and has interests in construction, hospitality, steel, cement, and oil and gas industries.[2] RP Group is known to hold stakes in hotels such as Leela Kovalam, Hotel Raviz,[8] Kollam, and WelcomHotel Raviz Kadavu,[9] Kozhikode in his home state of Kerala.[10] He is involved in health care through Upasana Hospital and Research Centre, a 300-bed multispecialty hospital in Kollam.,[2][11]
Pillai received an honorary doctorate from Excelsior College, New York,[4] and was awarded the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman by the Government of India in 2008.[12] In 2010, the Government of India included him in the Republic Day honours list for the civilian honour of Padma Shri.[13]
Arabian Business ranked him as the fourth most powerful Indian in the Middle East in 2015.[4]
Ravi Pillai is married to Geetha, and they live in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.[1] They have two children, a son Ganesh Ravi Pillai, and a daughter Dr. Arathi Ravi Pillai.[14]
He paid for his daughter Arathi's wedding with Dr. Adithya Vishnu at Kollam in November 2015, at a total expense of ₹55 crores ($7.5 million). The wedding was organized by the production designer who worked on the film, Baahubali: The Beginning., and is considered the most expensive wedding in Kerala to date.[citation needed] His son Ganesh Pillai married Anjana Suresh, an engineer, in September 2021. [15]
