Ravi Pillai Another winner of the Padma Shri award for his contributions to India is Ravi Pillai. The son of a farmer, he migrated from Kerala to Saudi Arabia after his construction business was forced to stop operations. The company he founded in 1978, RP Group, has now become a diversified conglomerate with 20 companies, that has executed projects worth over $25bn. Expansion is also on the cards – late last year, Pillai revealed the group’s plans to invest up to $1.46bn in the hospitality business globally to grow its brand Raviz. Related Stories Dubai billionaire offers to hire 3,000 laid-off Indian workers in Saudi Dubai’s Jumeirah signs deal to manage $1bn tower in Business Bay Dubai’s Property Market Sees Strong International Investor Interest You might also like Sunil John Dr. Thumbay Moideen Vidya Chhabria Mohan Valrani K. Rajaram Dr. Adnan Chilwan Sanjiv Kakkar Ram Kumar Thota Raghu Malhotra Sunil Kaushal Atif Rahman Amit Jain Rishi Kapoor Vasu Shroff Anil Pillai Bal Krishen Rohit and Sharad Bachani Raju Ramesh and Sunil Paul Ayesha Depala John Paul Joy Alukkas Geet Bhalla and Digvijay Pratap Snehal and Sunita Hadani Nisha Jagtiani Kunal Kapoor Dino Varkey Ashish Panjabi Adeeb Ahamed Yogesh Mehta Yusuff Ali M.A. Micky Jagtiani Sunny Varkey Sunil Vaswani Shamsheer Vayalil Firoz Merchant Rajen Kilachand Azad Moopen Tony Jashanmal Paras Shahdadpuri Joy Alukkas Dr. Zulekha Daud Dhananjay Datar Rizwan Sajan PNC Menon Sima Ved Shaji Ul Mulk Ramesh Prabhakar L.T. Pagarani Ram Buxani Surender Kandhari Sohan Roy Shyam Bhatia