B. Ravi Pillai

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.

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,[7] Kollam, and WelcomHotel Raviz Kadavu,[8] Kozhikode in his home state of Kerala.[9] He is involved in health care through Upasana Hospital and Research Centre, a 300-bed multispecialty hospital in Kollam.,[2][10]

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.[11] In 2010, the Government of India included him in the Republic Day honours list for the civilian honour of Padma Shri.[12]

Arabian Business ranked him as the fourth most powerful Indian in the Middle East in 2015.[4]

Pillai (2nd from right at front raw), other awardee stand with President of India after receiving Pravasi Bharatiya Samman

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 Arathi Ravi Pillai.[13]

He paid for his daughter Arathi's wedding with Adhitya Vishnu in Kollam in November 2015, at a total expense of Rupees 55 crores ($7.5 million). The wedding was organized by the production designer who worked on the film, Bahubali. This is considered to be the most expensive wedding in Kerala till date.[14]