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Mukesh Ambani

Mukesh Dhirubhai Ambani (born on 19 April 1957) is an Indian business magnate who is the Chairman, Managing Director and largest shareholder of Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), a Fortune Global 500 company and India's second most valuable company by market value. He holds a 44.7% stake in the company. He is the elder son of the late Dhirubhai Ambani and the brother of Anil Ambani. RIL deals mainly in refining, petrochemicals, and in the oil and gas sectors. Reliance Retail Ltd., another subsidiary, is the largest retailer in India.

In 2013, he ranked "37 in the list of "The World's Most Powerful People List - Forbes and in "2010, he was included in Forbes's list of "68 people who matter most". As of 2013, he is India's richest man and second richest man in Asia. Ambani is listed as the 19th richest person in the world with a personal wealth of $19.6 billion. He has retained his position as the India's richest person for the sixth year in a row. Through Reliance, he also owns the Indian Premier League franchise Mumbai Indians. In 2012, Forbes named him as one of the richest sports owners in the world.

He has served on the board of directors of Bank of America Corporation and the international advisory board of the Council on Foreign Relations. He was the Chairman of the Board of Indian Institute of Management Bangalore, one of the leading business schools in India.

Mukesh Ambani was born on April 19, 1957 to Dhirubhai Ambani and Kokilaben Ambani. He has a younger brother, Anil Ambani, and two sisters, Dipti Salgaoncar and Nina Kothari. The Ambani family lived in a modest two bedroom apartment in Bhuleshwar, Mumbai until the 1970s. Dhirubhai later purchased a 14-floor apartment block called 'Sea Wind' in Colaba, where, until recently, Mukesh and Anil lived with their families on different floors.

He attended the Hill Grange High School on a first day at school Peddar Road, Mumbai, along with his brother and where Anand Jain, his close associate, was his classmate. He received BE degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Mumbai. Mukesh later enrolled for an MBA from Stanford University but dropped out to help his father build Reliance, which at the time was still a small but rapidly growing enterprise.

In 1980, the Indian government under Indira Gandhi opened PFY (polyester filament yarn) manufacturing to the private sector. Dhirubhai Ambani applied for a license to set up a PFY manufacturing plant. In spite of stiff competition from Tatas, Birlas and 43 others, Dhirubhai was awarded the licence. To help him build the PFY plant, Dhirubhai pulled his eldest son Mukesh out of Stanford where he was studying for his MBA. Mukesh Ambani, then dropped out to help his father and initiated Reliance`s backward integration from textiles into polyester fibres and further into petrochemicals, beginning in 1981.

Mukesh Ambani joined Reliance Industries in 1981. He initiated Reliance's backward integration journey from textiles into polyester fibres and further into petrochemicals, petroleum refining and going up-stream into oil and gas exploration and production.

Mukesh Ambani set up Reliance Infocomm Limited (now Reliance Communications Limited), which was focused on information and communications technology initiatives.

Ambani directed and led the creation of the world’s largest grassroots petroleum refinery at Jamnagar, India, which had the capacity to produce 660,000 barrels per day (33 million tonnes per year) in 2010, integrated with petrochemicals, power generation, port and related infrastructure.

In December, 2013 Ambani announced, at the Progressive Punjab Summit in Mohali, the possibility of a "collaborative venture" with Bharti Airtel in setting up digital infrastructure for the 4G network in India. 

In February 2014, an FIR has been filed against Mukesh Ambani for alleged irregularities in the pricing of natural gas from K G Basin. Arvind Kejriwal, who had a short stint as Delhi's chief minister and had ordered the FIR against has accused various political parties of being silent on the gas price issue. Kejriwal has asked both Rahul Gandhi and Narendra Modi to clear their stand on the gas pricing issue.  Kejriwal has alleged that the Centre inflated the price of gas to eight dollars a unit though Mukesh Ambani's company spends only one dollar to produce a unit, which meant a loss of Rs. 54,000 crore to the country annually.