Sunny Varkey

Sunny Varkey is an Indian education entrepreneur and philanthropist based in Dubai, founder and executive chairman of GEMS Education, the world's largest operator of private kindergarten-to-grade-12 schools, with a network of over 80 schools in more than a dozen countries. He is chairman of the Varkey Group, founder and trustee of the Varkey Foundation, a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador since 2012, and in June 2015 became the first education entrepreneur to join The Giving Pledge. Forbes put his net worth at US$3.5 billion. ¹

Varkey was born on 9 April 1957 at Ranni, Kerala. His parents, K. S. Varkey and Mariamma, were Kerala Syrian Christian educators; the family moved to Dubai in 1959, where his father worked for the British Bank of the Middle East and both parents taught English to local Arabs, including members of the royal family. ^{1 2} At four he was sent back to Kerala to a Catholic boarding school in Kollam, returned to Dubai in 1970, and completed his schooling at St. Mary's Catholic High School and through the British Council. ¹ He lives in Dubai, is married, and has two sons, Dino and Jay, who hold leadership roles in GEMS Education. ¹

Varkey's parents founded Our Own English High School in Dubai in 1968. He returned to Dubai in 1977, worked at Standard Chartered bank and in trading, maintenance and hotels, and in 1980 took over the running of his parents' school, then under 400 students, expanding it and adding Indian, Pakistani, British and later International Baccalaureate schools for the children of the emirate's growing expatriate population. ¹ In 2000 he established Global Education Management Systems (GEMS) ahead of worldwide expansion, opening schools in England from 2003. His Varkey Group also held a healthcare business, Welcare, whose controlling interest was sold to Mediclinic International in 2012. ¹ In December 2010 he consolidated his giving in the Varkey Foundation, which launched the Global Education and Skills Forum with UNESCO and, in 2014, the US$1 million Global Teacher Prize. ¹ His honours include the Padma Shri (2009) and an honorary doctorate from Heriot-Watt University (2012). ¹

• ¹
• ³
• ⁴
• ²