B. Ravi Pillai is a Dubai-based Indian billionaire businessman. He is the founder and chairman of the RP Group. As of May 2023, his net worth is estimated at US$3.1 billion.[1] He was born on 2 September 1953 at Chavara, a coastal town in Kollam, in the state of Kerala in Kadappa Pillai Veettil family of farmers. He has a degree in Commerce from the University of Cochin. During his time at university, he launched his first business, a chit fund in Kollam on reportedly borrowed money. Later, he started an engineering contract business and worked for some of the major industrial houses in Kerala such as Fertilizers and Chemicals Travancore Limited, Hindustan Newsprint Limited, and Cochin Refineries. However, a labour strike forced him to close down his business, after which he went to Saudi Arabia in 1978 where he started a small trading business. Two years later, he moved into construction, and established Nasser S. Al Hajri Corporation (NSH) with 150 employees, which has over the years grown to become the flagship company of his business group, RP Group, which is known to employ over 70,000 employees across its businesses. The shopping mall in South Kerala, RP Mall at Kollam city is owned by Pillai. Pillai has expanded his business to other countries including the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Bahrain, and has interests in construction, hospitality, steel, cement, and oil and gas industries. RP Group is known to hold stakes in hotels such as Leela Kovalam, Hotel Raviz, Kollam. Pillai received an honorary doctorate from Excelsior College, New York, and was awarded the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman by the Government of India in 2008. In 2010, the Government of India included him in the Republic Day honours list for the civilian honour of Padma Shri.
