Mukesh Ambani (65) was born as Mukesh Dhirubhai Ambani, in Aden (present-day Yemen) to Dhirubhai Ambani and Kokilaben Ambani. He has a younger brother Anil Ambani and two sisters– Nina Bhadrashyam Kothari and Dipti Dattaraj Salgaocar. He spents a year in Yemen and in 1958, Dhirubhai Ambani moved back to India to start spices and textiles trading business. Acording to Forbes Mukesh Ambani chairs and runs $74 billion (revenue) Reliance Industries, which has interests in petrochemicals, oil and gas, telecom and retail
But, until the 1970s, Mukesh Ambani lived in a two-bedroom apartment in Mumbai’s Bhuleshwar. After a few years, when the financial condition of the family improved, Mukesh Ambani’s father bought a 14-floor apartment block called ‘Sea Wind’ in Colaba.
Mukesh Ambani completed his High School from Hill Grange High School at Peddar Road, Mumbai along with his brother Anil Ambani. He got admitted in St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai to complete Senior Secondary Education. Mukesh Ambani holds a Bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from the Institute of Chemical Technology. He got admitted at Stanford University to pursue an MBA but drops out to help his father build Reliance. Ambani is highly influenced by his two teachers who taught him to think out of the box– William F. Sharpe and Man Mohan Sharma.
In the year 1981, after returning to India, Mukesh Ambani helped his father to build Reliance Industries Limited. The family business by this time expanded to refining, petrochemicals, retail and telecommunications industries. Its subsidiary, Reliance Retail Ltd. is the largest retailer in India. Mukesh Ambani also owns the IPL team Mumbai Indians and is the owner of Indian Super League, a football league in India.
The company was laid on the principle that everyone must contribute to the business and not the selected individuals
In the year 1980, India under Indira Gandhi leadership opened the doors of PFY (polyester filament yarn) manufacturing plant to the private sector. Dhirubhai Ambani applied for the license to set up a PFY plant and faced stiff competition with Tatas, Birlas and more. Despite the competition, Dhirubhai received the ‘License Raj’. In 1980, he called back Mukesh Ambani to help him build his business. Rasikbhai Meswani was the then director of the company and Mukesh Ambani reported to him daily.
The company was laid on the principle that everyone must contribute to the business and not the selected individuals. In 1985, Rasikbhai died and the next year in 1986, Mukesh Ambani’s father suffered a stroke. It was at this time that all the responsibility was shifted to Mukesh Ambani being the eldest son of the family. At the age of 24 years, Ambani was given charge of the construction of Patalganga petrochemical plant.
On July 6, 2002, Mukesh’s father died suffering a second stroke. This elevated tensions between the brothers as Dhirubhai didn’t leave any will for the distribution of the empire. Their mother, Kokilaben Ambani, solved the dispute by splitting the company into two. Mukesh Ambani received Reliance Industries Limited and Indian Petrochemicals Corporation Limited.
Under Mukesh Ambani’s guidance, the company built the world’s largest grassroots petroleum refinery at Jamnagar, India and can produce 660,000 barrels per day in the year 2010.
In 1985 he married Nita Ambani. The couple has two sons– Anant Ambani and Akash Ambani and a daughter- Isha Ambani
In 2016, Jio launched its own 4G smartphone under the brand named ‘LYF’. The smartphone was India’s third-largest selling smartphone that year. In September that year, Jio 4G was launched commercially.
In 1985 he married Nita Ambani. The couple has two sons– Anant Ambani and Akash Ambani and a daughter– Isha Ambani. Dhirubhai Ambani attended a dance performance where Nita participated and later arranged the marriage for the two of them. Despite being one of the richest couples in the world, it was important to Nita and Mukesh that their children grew up humble and recognised the value of money. Because of this, Isha, Akash and Anant took public transport in college, had limited pocket money as kids, weren’t allowed to skip school, and had dedicated homework time with their parents on weekends. Mukesh, meanwhile, has been known to happily skip out on fancy restaurants for street food – his favourite.
After raising their children Isha, Akash and Anant, the Ambanis established the Dhirubhai Ambani International School (DAIS). It is Nita to chairs the DAIS, one of the top IB schools in the world. Admissions time is clearly challenging for her as she decides which of the many applications to accept – so it’s not surprising that she won’t leave the office as she makes these tough decisions. As she told The Times of India, she would like to accept everyone but can’t because she has to maintain a quality education at her school.
Back in April, Reliance Industries donated US$68 million to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s PM Cares Fund for Covid-19 relief, along with US$680,000 to the governments of Maharashtra and Gujarat, according to The Economic Times.
The family resides in a 27-storey private apartment– Antilia, worth $1 billion. The building has 600 staff members for its maintenance and has three helipads, 160-car garage, private movie theatre, swimming pool and a fitness centre. His favourite food is Idli Sambhar, his favorite restaurant is Mysore Cafe, Mumbai (he used to eat at this place during his college time).
Mukesh Ambani has been listed consistently as India’s richest man over a decade by the Forbes Magazine. In addition to this, he is the only businessman of India on Forbe’s list of the world’s most powerful people. In January 2018, he was ranked 18 by the Forbe’s in its list of the wealthiest person in the world. In 2018, he surpassed Jack Ma, becoming Asia’s richest person with a net worth of $44.3 billion. Outside North America and Europe, Mukesh Ambani the wealthiest person in the world. In the year 2015, China’s Hurun Research Institute ranked Mukesh Ambani as fifth among India’s philanthropists. He also became the first non-American to be the Director of Bank of America. In 2012, Forbes listed him among the richest sports owners in the world.