Vinod Sekhar

Datuk Vinod Balachandra Sekhar is the President and Group Chief Executive of Petra Group, a Malaysian company that focuses on rubber recycling, biotechnology and financial software.^[1] He is also the chairman of the Sekhar Foundation, based in Kuala Lumpur and the CEO of Green Rubber. He was named by Forbes magazine as Malaysia's 16th richest man for 2008.^[2]

The title of Datuk was given to Sekhar at the early age of 26 by Yang di Pertuan Besar of Negeri Sembilan, Tuanku Ja'afar Ibni Almarhum Tuanku Abdul Rahman on his 71st birthday, who was at that time the 10th Yang di Pertuan Agong of Malaysia. He was the youngest person to be conferred a Datukship.^[3]

Personal and Family Life

Sekhar is the youngest son of Sukumari Nair and B.C. Sekhar, also known as Mr. Natural Rubber, who for a time provided significant inputs in the global natural rubber industry. He has three siblings. He is married to Winy Sekhar with whom he has two daughters, Petra and Tara.^[4]

Aside from managing his businesses, Sekhar takes time to write literary contents. He has written numerous plays and even produced a book of poetry. "In the Mind's Eye", one of the plays that he has written was a success and was well received when it was produced in the United States, United Kingdom and in his homeland, Malaysia. Datuk Vinod paid for it to be produced.

Moreover, he became the host of the first English talk show on television in Malaysia.

He also enjoys playing golf with a 22 handicap.^[5]

Career life

While he attended Haileybury and Imperial Service College,^[6] and writes broadly – for instance^[7] he started a non-partisan multiracial youth organisation, Malaysiana Muda. He remained president of one of the largest multiracial youth organisations in Malaysia at that time for two terms.^[8]

Sekhar was only 21 when he started his business career with just US$50 when he put up his own clothing company called Vincent Siefer Clothing Company that sold college embossed shirts to university students in different American universities. He later then sold his clothing company for US$5 million.

In 1990, Sekhar formed Sekhar Tunku Imran (STI) Group together with his friend, Tunku Tan Sri Imran and penetrated various business ventures. Some of the most notable business deals that STI had was when it had a joint venture with Disney-MGM Studios in Florida, USA to produce the movie entitled Tarzan, The Epic Adventure.^[9]

Over the years, STI teamed up with various business partners both in the local and international scene that in 1997, the Petra Group was born.

The Petra Group is a privately held company that is well known for Green Rubber Global – the company's key business which is a cost-effective process that can efficiently recycle used rubber.

Sekhar is also an active supporter of different socio-civic organisations. He founded the Sekhar Foundation which owns 60% of The Petra Group and acts as the philanthropic arm of the company by supporting various charitable organisations worldwide. The Sekhar Foundation has donated to a range of organisations that are working in the fields of education, poverty alleviation, and healthcare provision. The Foundation is also the main sponsor for South East Asia's largest rain forest research programme in the Danum Valley in Borneo.^[10][11]

Green Rubber Global

Green Rubber Global (GRG) is a part of Sekhar's Petra Group. A recycling plant is being built near Gallup, New Mexico in USA to pave way to Green Rubber production. Aside from that, GRG is planning to expand and build more recycling plants in US, Mexico and Asia to increase production.^[12]

The recycling plant will make use of the process that Sekhar's father has developed called De-Link to create "green rubbers". The De-Link process will devulcanise old and used tyres then revulcanise them and convert them into different new rubber products such as vehicle tyres and footwear soles.^[13]

GRG has famous supporters and shareholders like Hollywood celebrities Mel Gibson and Bruce Willis and Forbes magazine publisher, Steve Forbes.^[14]

Dispute

In June 2005, the Kuala Lumpur High Court declared Sekhar a bankrupt due to failure of settling his debts to Orix Credit Malaysia Sdn Bhd and 11 other companies that totals RM 12.376 million.^[15]

According to the application that the director-general of the Insolvency Department has submitted to KL's High Court, Sekhar committed two offences when he was still in directorship of 25 companies and flew out of the country without gaining permission from the Director-General of Insolvency, under Section 38 of the Bankruptcy Act 1967.^[16]

However, in March 2011, Sekhar's attorney successfully proved to the court that the adjudication and receiving order documents pertaining to the bankruptcy were never served on his client and that the signatures appearing on those documents were forged. Because of that, the application to put Sekhar to jail was dismissed by High Court Senior Assistant Registrar Rozianti Mohamed Hanaphi.^[17]

Hollywood actor Bruce Willis filed a lawsuit against Vinod Sekhar and Malaysian Prince Imran Ibni Tuanku Ja'afar last November 2008 when the actor wanted to get his $2 million investment but only received $1.1 million.^[18]

The actor sued Sekhar and Ja'afar for the remaining $900, 000 of his total investment immediately after learning that the plan to launch green rubber was put on hold because of the weakening global economy.

Later on, Willis' attorney said that the lawsuit was a result of series of miscommunication and that his client and Sekhar's team has already resolved the matter.^[19]

Willis released a statement and said, "“Having resolved the matter, I will continue to maintain a shareholding position in the company and I wish the company, the directors and my fellow shareholders the very best for the future."^[20]

In 2010, he was involved in a dispute over a donation to the University of St Andrews in Scotland. He never kept his promise of a donation and the school was forced to seek funding elsewhere.

Achievements, Awards and Honours

Datuk Vinod was also one of the first Malaysians to venture into the former Soviet Union after its breakup and was a part of the privatization of its second largest petrochemical plant. He was also the first Southeast Asian to own both Formula 2000 and Formula 3 Championship motorsports teams, and he founded Malaysia’s first sports car company.^[25]

Datuk Vinod has presented a variety of papers at and participated in many international conferences including the International Human Rights Conference in Brussels, the first Malaysian International Youth Conference for Unity in Kuala Lumpur, the Asia Europe Young Leaders Conference in Ireland, the New Asian Leaders Retreat in Seoul, Korea [MMW3] programmer for the World Economic Forum, the WEF’s Davos Annual meeting, he was the Chair of the first New Asian Leaders–Emerging Arab Leaders Summit in Langkawi, which was attended by King Abdullah II of Jordan, and he was a speaker at the 2005 Forbes Global CEO Conference in Sydney. ^[26]

Datuk Vinod is the Chairman of the Sekhar Foundation (which he founded and which currently plays a role in the lives of over 12,000 children globally), the Chairman of the Pelita Harapan (Lantern of Hope) for terminally ill children, the Co-Chairman of the Innocent Child Appeal Fund Board for abused children, and the Chairman of the Sitavani Foundation. He was also the founding President of Malaysian Muda, the first nonpartisan multiracial national youth organization created to develop unity among Malaysian youth, where he warned of polarization among young Malaysians two decades before the government finally acknowledged it was out of control. ^[27]

In 1991, for his contribution to the globalization of education and the education of children, Datuk Vinod was made the first and youngest Asian fellow of Kappa Delta Pi, a US-based international Honors Society for Education. This organization awarded its “ The Point of Excellent ” award to his company, the first Asian company to be so honored. Datuk Vinod was 26 years old and one of the youngest to be so honored. The World Economic Forum named him as one of its 40 “New Asian Leaders” (NAL). Grant Thornton named him the Malaysian Corporate Leader of the Year in August 2008. ^[28]

He has written several plays and a book of poetry. One of his plays, “In the Mind’s Eye,” was produced with success in the US, UK and Malaysia. Datuk Vinod also hosted Malaysia’s first English language talk show on television. He has also jointly won several New York Festival Awards for his cutting-edge advertising campaigns. In addition to playing golf, tennis and squash, he has a black belt in Judo and is an avid fan of Walt Disney and Mickey Mouse. He has over 290 Disney ties. ^[29]

Datuk Vinod Sekhar was awarded the Bharat Samaan Award by the NRI Institute in India. ^[30]

References

External links

• Bill Clinton Speech in Malaysia Irks Investors, – The New York Times on 6 December 2008
• Mel Gibson, the English Earl and the Malaysian entrpreneur – The Daily Telegraph UK, 29 August 2007
• Forbes.com – Vinod Shekhar
• Petra plays its part in conservation, The Star, 29 August 2007.
• Vinod named Corporate Leader of the Year- The star, 16 July 2008
• Asian tycoon donates 8m to help fund world-leading medical centre The Scotsman, 22 February 2008
• Sekhar – Addressing economic needs vital to fight graft – The Edge Daily, 20 June 2008
• St Andrews University 45m Science school will set international benchmark Fife Today, 8 June 2008
• Making an impact and making money Business24/7 Dubai, 8 September 2008
• Standing Tall The Star, 18 October 2008
• Vinod first Asian to get Global Green Award The Star, 30 October 2008