Dhirubhai Ambani

Major Group Companies: Reliance Industries Limited, India's largest private sector company.

Birthplace: Chorwad, village in Saurashtra (Gujarat), India

Father's Name: Hirachand Govardhandas Ambani

Mother's Name: Jamunaben Hirachand Ambani

Dhiru Bhai Ambani built India's largest private sector company. Created an equity cult in the Indian capital market. Reliance is the first Indian company to feature in Forbes 500 list

Dhirubhai Ambani was the most enterprising Indian entrepreneur. His life journey is reminiscent of the rags to riches story. He is remembered as the one who rewrote Indian corporate history and built a truly global corporate group.

Dhirubhai Ambani alias Dhirajlal Hirachand Ambani was born on December 28, 1932, at Chorwad, Gujarat, into a Modh family. His father was a school teacher. Dhirubhai Ambani started his entrepreneurial career by selling "bhajias" to pilgrims in Mount Girnar over the weekends.

After doing his matriculation at the age of 16, Dhirubhai moved to Aden, Yemen. He worked there as a gas-station attendant, and as a clerk in an oil company. He returned to India in 1958 with Rs 50,000 and set up a textile trading company.

Assisted by his two sons, Mukesh and Anil, Dhiru Bhai Ambani built India's largest private sector company, Reliance India Limited, from a scratch. Over time his business has diversified into a core specialisation in petrochemicals with additional interests in telecommunications, information technology, energy, power, retail, textiles, infrastructure services, capital markets, and logistics.

Dhirubhai Ambani is credited with shaping India's equity culture, attracting millions of retail investors in a market till then dominated by financial institutions. Dhirubhai revolutionised capital markets. From nothing, he generated billions of rupees in wealth for those who put their trust in his companies. His efforts helped create an 'equity cult' in the Indian capital market. With innovative instruments like the convertible debenture, Reliance quickly became a favorite of the stock market in the 1980s.

In 1992, Reliance became the first Indian company to raise money in global markets, its high credit-taking in international markets limited only by India's sovereign rating. Reliance also became the first Indian company to feature in Forbes 500 list.

Dhirubhai Ambani was named the Indian Entrepreneur of the 20th Century by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI). A poll conducted by The Times of India in 2000 voted him "greatest creator of wealth in the century".

Career:

At the age of 17 went to Aden (now part of Yemen) and worked for A. Besse & Co. Ltd., the sole selling distributor of Shell products.

In the year 1958 returned to Mumbai and started his first company, Reliance Commercial Corporation, a commodity trading and export house.

In the year 1966, as a first step in Reliance's highly successful strategy of backward integration, he started the textile mill in Naroda, Ahmedabad.

In the year 1975, a technical team from the World Bank certified that the Reliance textile plant was "excellent by developed country standards."

In the year 1977, the company went public.

Credited with a number of financial innovations in the Indian capital markets. Today, the Reliance Group has one of the largest family of shareholders in the world. With an investment of over Rs 36,000 crore (US$ 9 billion) in petroleum refining, petrochemicals, power generation, telecommunication services and a port terminal in a three-year time frame, has steered the Reliance Group to its current status as India's leading textiles-petroleum-petrochemicals-power-telecom player.

Achievements: Voted India's 'Top Businessman' in the 'Best of India' poll conducted by Zee News, August 2003.

Petrotech Society conferred posthumously the 'Lifetime Achievement Award' for his outstanding contribution to Downstream Petroleum Industry in India, January 2003.

Rated as one of 'India's Most Admired CEOs' for the fourth consecutive year in the Business Barons - Taylor Nelson Sofres - Mode Survey, July 2002.

Conferred the 'Lifetime Achievement Award' by India HRD Congress, February 2002.

Conferred 'The Economic Times Award for Corporate Excellence for Lifetime Achievement', August 2001.

Felicitated by the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai with a citation at a civic reception, December 2000.

Conferred the 'Man of the Century' award by Chemtech Foundation and Chemical Engineering World in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the growth and development of the chemical industry in India, November 2000.

Conferred the 'Indian Entrepreneur of the 20th Century' award by FICCI (Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industries), for his meticulous scripting of one of the most remarkable stories of business endeavour of the 20th century, March 2000.

Thrice (in the years 2000, 1998 and 1996) nominated as one of the 'Power 50 - the most powerful people in Asia' by Asiaweek magazine.

Voted as the most admired Indian of the millennium in the field of Business & Economics in 'Legends - A Celebration of Excellence' poll audited by Ernst & Young for Zee Network, January 2000.

Voted as 'Creator of Wealth' of the Century in The Times of India poll, January 2000.

Chosen as one of the three 'makers of equity' by India Today in their special millennium issue entitled '100 People Who Shaped India in the 20th Century', January 2000.

Chosen by the Indian Merchants' Chamber as "An Outstanding Visionary of the 20th Century" in recognition of his unique achievements and contribution in the development of industry and capital markets in India, December 1999.

Voted as 'Indian Businessman of the Century' in Business Barons Global Multimedia Poll, December 1999.

Amongst 'The Power 50 - India's 50 most powerful decision-makers in Politics, Business & Finance', Business Barons, August 1999.

Declared 'Most Admired Indian Business Leader' by The Times of India, Indiatimes.com poll, July 1999.

The only Indian industrialist in 'Business Hall of Fame' in Asiaweek, October 1998.

Awarded the Dean's Medal by The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, for setting an outstanding example of leadership, June 1998.

Chosen as 'Star of Asia' by Business Week, USA, June 1998.

Leading business magazine Business Barons placed him in its list of 'India's 25 Most Influential Business and Financial Leaders', June 1998.

Awarded the Companion Membership of the Textile Institute, UK, an award which is limited to 50 living members who have "substantially advanced the general interests of the industries based on fibres", 1994.

Chosen 'Businessman of the Year 1993', Business India, January 1994.

Source: http://www.iloveindia.com, http://www.dhirubhai.net