Ravi Pillai

Ravi Pillai is an Indian billionaire businessman, founder and chairman of the RP Group, whose flagship company, Nasser S. Al Hajri Corporation, is one of the Gulf's largest industrial construction contractors, employing over 70,000 people. He began with a small chit fund in Kollam, Kerala, moved to Saudi Arabia in 1978 after a labour strike closed his first contracting business, and expanded across the Gulf into hospitality, healthcare and retail. He received the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman in 2008 and the Padma Shri in 2010. ^{1 2}

Pillai was born on 2 September 1953 at Chavara, a coastal town in Kollam district, Kerala, into the Kadappa Pillai Veettil family, of landlord stock reduced to middle-class circumstances by the time of his father. ^{1 3} He took a degree in commerce from the University of Cochin and, while still a student, launched his first business, a chit fund in Kollam reportedly started on borrowed money. ^{1 2} He is married to Geetha, lives in Dubai, and has two children, Ganesh and Arathi. His daughter's wedding at Kollam in November 2015, which he paid for at a reported cost of ₹55 crore, was conducted in accordance with Nair customs and cultural traditions and was described as the most expensive wedding in Kerala to that date. ¹ Every year on his birthday he performs the udayasthamana pooja at the Tirupati temple in Andhra Pradesh, a dawn-to-dusk rite he says he booked thirty years in advance, saying of his success that it rests on his hard work and the blessings of God. ²

After early contracting work for industrial houses in Kerala ended with a labour strike, Pillai went to Saudi Arabia in 1978 and started a small trading business; in 1980 he moved into construction with Nasser S. Al Hajri Corporation, begun with 150 employees, in which he holds a 50 percent partnership. ^{1 2} The company grew on Saudi industrialisation, above all the Jubail industrial city and SABIC's petrochemical projects, and became the flagship of his RP Group, with operations in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Bahrain and interests in construction, hospitality, steel, cement and oil and gas. ¹ In Kerala he owns the RP Mall in Kollam, holds stakes in hotels including the Leela Kovalam property he bought in 2011 and the Raviz hotels, and is involved in healthcare through the 300-bed Upasana Hospital and Research Centre in Kollam. ^{1 2} Forbes estimated his net worth at US$4.2 billion in 2026. ¹

• ¹
• ⁴
• ³
• ²
• ⁵