CONTENTS — DECEMBER 2017 VOLUME 13 NUMBER 13

SPAGE 86
—A look at the many tendrils
of ANTHONI SALIM’s family 11 | FACT & COMMENT // STEVE FORBES
Surefire way to make a nation rich.
conglomerate—part of
Indonesia’s 50 richest list.
COMPANIES, PEOPLE
14 | THIS REVOLUTION IS BEING TELEVISED
Alibaba’s Lazada arm brings the online shopping frenzy full-on to Southeast Asia.
BY CASEY HYNES

17 | GAME BOY
Razer founder Ming Liang-Tan’s fortune soars to $1.6 billion after an IPO.
BY JESSICA TAN

18 | ‘MALAYSIA, MY SECOND HOME’

There’s political fallout as the nation deals with China’s Belt & Road bonanza.
BY SEBASTIAN STRANGIO

22 | GADGETMAN // BEN SIN

The new iPhone X creates an acolyte—for now.
23 | THE PLAZA HOTEL’S SUITE LIFE
A Manhattan icon turns 110 and is up for sale (again).
BY ABRAM BROWN

26 | ALPHA DEAL MAKER

Goodwin Gaw and his family in Hong Kong are building a global real estate force.
BY RON GLUCKMAN

30 | DOWN TO EARTH
Amanda Lacaze turns around Australian miner and chemical processor Lynas.
YURIKO NAKAO/BLOOMBERG

BY TIM TREADGOLD

COVER PHOTOGRAPH
BY VIRGILE SIMON BERTRAND UNLESS OTHERWISE SPECIFIED, ALL TOTALS AND PRICES EXPRESSED IN OUR STORIES ARE IN U.S. DOLLARS.

2 | FORBES ASIA DECEMBER 2017

CONTENTS — DECEMBER 2017 VOLUME 13 NUMBER 13

30 UNDER 30 IN THE U.S.

52 | BILLION-DOLLAR BUMBLE
Three years after leaving Tinder, Whitney Wolfe Herd is beating her old colleagues.
BY CLARE O’CONNOR

56 | THE LIST
Our U.S. roster of 600 young stars in 20 different industries.
EDITED BY CAROLINE HOWARD WITH NATALIE SPORTELLI

TECHNOLOGY
78 | HONEY, I SHRUNK THE FACTORY
How to miniaturize an auto plant by using software and 3-D printing.
BY ALAN OHNSMAN & JOANN MULLER

INDONESIA’S 50 RICHEST
82 | THE LIST
SPAGE 18 The Hartono brothers’ net worth nearly doubles, to almost $32 million.
“A COUNTRY IS EDITED BY KERRY A. DOLAN & LUISA KROLL

CREATED BY THE FORBES LIFE

POPULATION.”
—Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, former 92 | THE SWEET SPOT
U.S. chocolate maker Guittard survives competition from the Davids and the Goliaths.
prime minister of Malaysia BY STACY PERMAN

94 | HIGHEST-PAID SUPERMODELS
Kendall Jenner takes the crown from Gisele.
BY NATALIE ROBEHMED

95 | DRIVE LIKE A BILLIONAIRE

Steve Jobs’ black-and-silver BMW goes up for auction.
BY MICHAEL SOLOMON

96 | THOUGHTS
On ambition.

X PAGE 30

“IT WAS OUR

FIRST CHAMPAGNE
QUARTER.”
—AMANDA LACAZE, CEO and
reviver of Australia’s Lynas Corp.

4 | FORBES ASIA DECEMBER 2017


Editor Tim W. Ferguson
Editorial Director Karl Shmavonian
Art Director Charles Brucaliere
Senior Editor John Koppisch
Wealth Lists Editors Luisa Kroll, Kerry A. Dolan
Photo Editor Michele Hadlow
Statistics Editor Andrea Murphy
Research Director Sue Radlauer
Online Editor Jasmine Smith
Reporter Grace Chung
Interns Yinan Che, Anis Shakirah Mohd Muslimin
Editorial Bureaus
Beijing Yue Wang
Shanghai Russell Flannery (Senior Ed.); Maggie Chen
India Editor Naazneen Karmali
Contributing Editors
Bangkok Suzanne Nam
Chennai Anuradha Raghunathan
Hong Kong Shu-Ching Jean Chen
Jakarta Justin Doebele
Melbourne Lucinda Schmidt
Perth Tim Treadgold
Singapore Jane A. Peterson
Taipei Joyce Huang
Vietnam Lan Anh Nguyen
Columnists Jean-Pierre Lehmann, Ben Sin
Production Manager Michelle Ciulla
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Steve Forbes
FORBES MAGAZINE
EDITOR Randall Lane
EXECUTIVE EDITOR Michael Noer
ART & DESIGN DIRECTOR Robert Mansfield
FORBES DIGITAL
VP, INVESTING EDITOR Matt Schifrin
VP, DIGITAL CONTENT STRATEGY Coates Bateman
VP, PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT Salah Zalatimo
VP, WOMEN’S DIGITAL NETWORK Christina Vuleta
ASSISTANT MANAGING EDITORS
Frederick E. Allen – Leadership
Loren Feldman – Entrepreneurs
Janet Novack WASHINGTON
Michael K. Ozanian SPORTSMONEY
DEPARTMENT HEADS
Mark Decker, John Dobosz, Clay Thurmond
Jessica Bohrer VP, EDITORIAL COUNSEL
FOUNDED IN 1917
B.C. Forbes, Editor-in-Chief (1917-54)
Malcolm S. Forbes, Editor-in-Chief (1954-90)
James W. Michaels, Editor (1961-99)
William Baldwin, Editor (1999-2010)
6 | FORBES ASIA DECEMBER 2017
FORBES ASIA
SIDELINES
Work, Work, Work
C
orporate-speak billows with
words about vision, sustain-
ability and inclusion. We try
to put a lid on that verbiage in this
magazine, but at a November event
in New York hosted by Columbia
biz school’s Chazen Institute, I got
to hear—entertainingly—from a
practitioner of those concepts.
Manish Sabharwal is chairman
and cofounder of India’s TeamLease
Paymaster: Sabharwal aims to fill India pipeline.
Services, a staffing agency on a grand
scale. In an hour he spelled out not only the case for his company (amid an invest-
ment road show to shore up its $500 million market cap) but for Indian economic
reforms, particularly in labor.
India doesn’t lack for workers but for employable skills. TeamLease itself has to
disappoint 90% of its applicants, choosing maybe 5,000 a month whom it can hope
to connect to employers (“We pray to one [payroll] God”). Most course through
TeamLease to full-time work or other opportunities, but the pipeline is big enough to
challenge Tata for having India’s most private-sector workers. There’s also a vocational
campus in Gujarat for 45,000 learners.
“More than a company, we’re a cause,” Sabharwal says. TeamLease runs on low
margins and makes it up on volume. Geography is part of the test: India needs to
move manpower from population nodes in the north to the bustling job markets of
the south and west. But labor laws also get in the way. Unions, which he says have only
an 8% share, stifle provisional entry points to the workforce. Add up the barriers and
half of India is “self-exploited,” meaning outside the rewards of the formal economy.
The country is a “flailing state, not a failing state,” and Sabharwal has worked with
reformers at the federal and (increasingly important) state levels to reduce “regulatory
cholesterol” and open the job arteries. One key push: to halve payroll taxes, which
he puts at effectively 45%, and broaden the government revenue base. (He backs the
Modi tax and currency moves.) The current Make In India campaign is all well and
good, but in his view the nation has only a decade to put its “demographic dividend”
to work, so to speak. Population levels will converge to a mean.
TeamLease hasn’t yet made one of our Forbes lists (although our Forbes India
licensee has covered it well), but it is staring at big numbers—2 million new hires by
2025?—to go with India’s big challenges. Stay tuned.
Tim Ferguson
Editor, forbes asia
globaleditor@forbes.com
Be at home at One Beverly Hills,
a collection of exquisite new residences
designed by Richard Meier & Partners.
Be inspired by light and space that
embodies the Southern California lifestyle.

Be Here.
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READERS SAY

CEO/ASIA, FORBES MEDIA CONVERSATION

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EXECUTIVE DIRECTORS Eugene Wong, Aarin Chan, snark from pedestrian.tv.com’s
Janelle Kuah
Cam Tyeson: “In news that I’m
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DIRECTOR, CIRCULATION Eunice Soo absolutely sure is going to please
DEPUTY DIRECTOR, EVENTS & COMMUNICATIONS each and every one of you, Gina
Audra Ruyters Rinehart has managed to pick
DEPUTY DIRECTOR, CONFERENCES Jolynn Chua
herself back up off the canvas
DEPUTY DIRECTOR, CIRCULATION Pavan Kumar
SENIOR MANAGER, CONFERENCES Quek Xue Wei
and rise back up to once again
SENIOR MANAGER, MARKETING & RESEARCH Joan Low become Australia’s Richest
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AD SERVICES MANAGER Fiona Carvalho
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Taynmoli Karuppiah, Jennifer Yim “Most detailed policy q’s [Trump] has gotten in a long time.”

CORRECTION: In “Coffee King’s Queen (p. 16) we misspelled Le Hoang Diep

Thao’s second name.
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PRESIDENT, FORBESWOMAN Moira Forbes

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8 | FORBES ASIA DECEMBER 2017

 FACT & COMMENT
“With all thy getting, get understanding”
SUREFIRE WAY
TO MAKE A NATION RICH BY STEVE FORBES, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
CHINA’S ALLPOWERFUL leader, Xi Jin-
ping, wants to make his country the world’s
undeniably dominant economic and mili-
tary power within a generation or two. India
is another nation that considers itself on a
potent upward ascent. Russian czar Vladi-
mir Putin dreams of making his kingdom
an unquestioned global actor, rivaling the
U.S. Brazil, with its vast resources and large
population, from time to time believes that
it’s on the cusp of creating an undisputed
developed economy on a par with or even
greater than its large neighbor in the north.
These leaders and countries are not alone in nursing such
notions. Iran’s murderous mullahs intoxicate themselves with
fantasies of ruling a global caliphate.
What these states don’t yet fully grasp—or in the case of
Iran, which is incapable of understanding—is that there are
two surefire ingredients for success: sound money and low
taxes. A concept that is so simple yet so difficult for ambi-
tious leaders to wrap their minds around.
Some examples might help begin their education.
r
The Netherlands. In the early 1500s Holland was a small and
most unwilling part of the Spanish Empire, but in 1568 the
Dutch rebelled. Despite their small numbers, they succeeded in
winning independence and, remarkably, went on to become a
globe-girdling empire, with Amsterdam as the world’s financial
powerhouse. Key to this Dutch treat—in addition to a respect
for individual rights (at least by the standards of the time)—
was a currency as good as gold and a benign tax regime.
r
Britain. In the late 1600s England was very much a second-tier
power. But the ingredients were there for a great economic takeoff:
property rights (“a man’s home is his castle”), individual rights and
(again, by the standards of the time) a government with restricted
powers. What was lacking for success were those two previously
mentioned necessary ingredients. Things started to change when
Isaac Newton, who was in charge of England’s mint, decided to peg
the pound to gold at a ratio that ended up enduring for more than
200 years. This small, somewhat isolated island became home to
the Industrial Revolution and established history’s largest empire.
r
The U.S. At the time America achieved independence it was
a bankrupt collection of 13 former colonies
along the Atlantic coast. With the wise
support of President George Washington,
Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton
established a sound, low-tax fiscal system,
whose centerpiece was a gold-based dollar. A
century later the U.S. was a continent-wide
industrial colossus, with a rapidly increas-
ing population that was enjoying history’s
highest standard of living. The essence of
Hamilton’s creation lasted until the 1970s,
when President Richard Nixon “temporar-
ily” severed the greenback’s link to gold.
So bereft in Hamiltonian ability and understanding of what
constitutes a beneficent monetary system were U.S. and foreign
officials that they were unable to reestablish a gold-based regime
for their currencies. They forgot that gold acted like a ruler: fixing
the value of a currency to the yellow metal was really no differ-
ent than “fixing” the length of a foot at 12 inches or the number
of quarts in a gallon of gasoline at four. Markets work best with
fixed weights and measures, and that includes money having a
fixed value. For a variety of reasons, gold keeps its intrinsic value
better than anything else. It’s not perfect, but it’s vastly superior
to any alternative that’s been tried over the course of 4,000 years.
Fluctuations in the price of gold are really fluctuations in the
value of the currency in which that price is denominated.
Since Nixon “closed the gold window,” the U.S.’ aver-
age economic growth rate has fallen by about one third.
Had the historic pace of expansion been maintained, our
economy today would be some 50% larger.
Stable money and a benign tax system are essential for
maximum progress in enhancing the standard of living.
Countries that want to truly play in the U.S.’ league need to
know and understand this.
Meanwhile, many observers and global leaders hope or fear
that the U.S. is in a long-term decline. Every 40 years or so an
influential gaggle of supposedly learned people indulge in doubts
about the durability of the American experiment. At least we’re
now beginning to lurch in the right direction on taxation.
However, we’ve yet to understand the Hamiltonian truths
about money. That is President Trump’s true opportunity. F
DECEMBER 2017 FORBES ASIA | 11
 FORBES ASIA

LAZADA

Lazada staffers
AFP/GETTY IMAGES

celebrating in
November after record
Singles Day sales.

14 | FORBES ASIA DECEMBER 2017

 THIS
REVOLUTION
IS BEING
TELEVISED
Alibaba’s Lazada arm brings the
online shopping frenzy
full-on to Southeast Asia.
BY CASEY HYNES

C
hinese e-commerce giant Alibaba racked up $25.3 billion in sales
during its November Singles Day promotion, beating last year’s
numbers by 40%. The online shopping frenzy would again put
America’s Black Friday–Cyber Monday activity in the shade. But
this year especially the Hangzhou company has reason to cele-
brate the results of its strong push in Southeast Asia.
Lazada, the e-commerce platform there in which Alibaba holds an 83%
stake, saw record Singles Day sales, according to cofounder and chief mar-
ketplace officer Aimone Ripa di Meana—a $123 million total. And just wait:
The 11/11 promotion kicked off a monthlong “Online Revolution” at Laza-
da, throughout which customers will be offered a variety of deals from high-
profile vendors such as Xiaomi and L’Oréal. The revolution culminates on De-
cember 12, or 12/12, which is Indonesia’s national online shopping “holiday”
(which, of course, Lazada christened itself).
“Obviously these numbers are very exciting, but what really matters is the
engagement and activation of our customers,” Meana says, continuing in full
Web-speak: “The genesis of this is really to create a moment where the whole
ecosystem can rally, where we can let buyers and sellers interact in a new way.”
It helps that the ASEAN countries have a consumer base of more than 630
million, with an unusually high concentration in the young. Both per capita
spending and population numbers are on the rise throughout the region, ac-
cording to the World Economic Forum, making it ripe for e-commerce busi-
nesses. The ASEAN markets in particular are expected to outpace North Asia
in terms of growth, with Bloomberg predicting that the former will see 5%

DECEMBER 2017 FORBES ASIA | 15

FORBES ASIA

LAZADA

On 11/11, Lazada customers pur-

Billionaire Battleground chased 6.5 million items, with mobile
Indonesia’s big and booming online market is becoming a battleground for three of phones, diapers and women’s cloth-
the world’s biggest e-commerce firms, all headed by billionaires: Alibaba, Amazon ing from the Taobao Collection among
and JD.com. Here is a snapshot of their recent moves. the top sellers. The order numbers were
nearly triple those of Singles Day the
ALIBABA year before, and the revolution was just
Founder billionaire: Jack Ma being stoked.
Net worth: $40 billion Meana’s outfit grew out of Germa-
ny’s Rocket Internet, an incubator for
1. APRIL 2016: Buys Southeast Asian online retailer Lazada such firms in emerging markets.
for $2 billion, with Indonesia as key market. “I think the work we’ve done with
2. SEPTEMBER 2016: Jack Ma appointed “e-commerce advi- Alibaba over the last two years has
sor” to Indonesian government. been exceptional,” Meana says. Laza-
3. JUNE 2017: Announces opening of Alibaba Cloud center in Indonesia, in early da has drawn on Alibaba’s expertise in
2018. curating product collections based on
4. AUGUST 2017: Leads investment of $1 billion in Tokopedia, Indonesia’s leading different nations’ demographics, pro-
online marketplace. motions and entertainment events.
The company is exploring a number of
AMAZON.COM strategies in this area, including pair-
Founder billionaire: Jeff Bezos ing Lazada’s data team with Samsung
Net worth: $95 billion to study customer behavior and bet-
ter market its smartphones. Lazada also
1. JUNE 2016: Reported to want to invest $600 million in tailored the Taobao Collection prod-
Indonesia. ucts available in five of the countries
2. JULY 2017: Sets up Singapore operations, eyeing where it operates (Vietnam lacks access
Indonesia. to the Alibaba unit’s line) to local shop-
3. NOVEMBER 2017: Said to be planning to open Indonesian operations in 2018. ping preferences.
Meanwhile, Meana says, Alibaba as-
JD.COM sisted in improving Lazada’s supply-
Founder billionaire: Richard Liu chain logistics and expanding its ven-
Net worth: $10 billion dor network. These sellers can work
with Lazada to develop cross-border
1. MARCH 2016: Official launch of Indonesia site JD.id. strategies, rather than being limited
2. MARCH 2017: Announces it is building at least five ware- to domestic online or brick-and-mor-
houses across the country. tar sales.
3. AUGUST 2017: In bidding for stake in Tokopedia but loses Lazada and Alibaba are in a region-
to Alibaba. al e-commerce battle that increasingly
4. AUGUST 2017: Invests in ride services firm Go-Jek. is centering on far-flung Indonesia (see

IMAGINE CHINA/NEWSCOM; MARK WILSON/GETTY IMAGES; BILLY H.C. KWOK/BLOOMBERG

growth through 2022, with its northern
neighbors seeing only 3%.
Lazada took a page from its largest
shareholder’s book by staging entertain-
ment events and even a live TV broad-
cast to whip up enthusiasm ahead of the
initial day. Alibaba hosted its own star-
studded promotions, with appearanc-
es from luminaries such as Nicole Kid-
man and Pharrell Williams. Lazada’s
pre-event spectacle in Thailand includ-
ed musicians, models and TV person-
alities, bidding consumers to take ad-
vantage of flash sales and preorders and
—Aastha Saboo, Forbes Indonesia
to start shopping as soon as the clock
struck midnight.
“We were really trying to make shop-
ping not just convenient, which was
[the emphasis of marketing trends in]
e-commerce during the last ten years in
Europe, but more important, fun and
exciting,” Meana says. “I think that’s the
great lesson of Alibaba. When you look
at China and how they’ve made e-com-
merce . . . fun and exciting, they’re tar-
geting Millennials, targeting those on
the app—a whole new generation of
people.”
box), and they’re reaching far and wide.
As Lazada CEO Maximillian Bittner
said in a press release heralding the On-
line Revolution, “We aim to provide
Southeast Asia’s rapidly growing middle
class the access to a wide range of prod-
ucts with deals and discounts that were
previously available only abroad or in the
capital cities.”
Nobody expects peasants with pitch-
forks, and the barricades are virtual. But
from the countryside to the high-rises,
Asian consumers are rising en masse to
demand deals on quality fare—and,
if they can get it, free shipping in the
bargain. F

16 | FORBES ASIA DECEMBER 2017

 FORBES ASIA

GOING PUBLIC

Game Boy
Razer founder Min-Liang Tan’s fortune soars to $1.6 billion after an IPO.
BY JESSICA TAN

S
ingaporean Min-Liang Tan’s
wealth soared overnight to
$1.6 billion with the listing
of his gaming devices firm,
Razer, on the Hong Kong
Stock Exchange in mid-November, a
week after he turned 40.
Backed by heavyweights such as Sin-
gapore state investor Temasek Holdings,
IDG-Accel and, more recently, Hong
Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing, Razer’s
shares rallied on its opening day, clos-
ing 18% above its initial public offering
price of HK$3.88 a share.
Not bad for someone who quit
his day job as a lawyer in 2005 to set
up Razer with his San Diego-based
online-gaming pal Robert Krakoff.
To date, Razer has sold millions of
gaming laptops, mice, fitness bands
and tablets.
Tan has been the first of a new wave
of tech entrepreneurs from the island-
state to make it to the Forbes Asia Sin-
A very bubbly IPO: Min-Liang Tan celebrating the listing of Razer on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
gapore 50 richest list. Tan, who owns
about 33% of the Singapore- and San ly anticipated, especially in light of re- than doubled to $59.3 million, com-
Francisco-headquartered company, cent acquisitions. In January, Razer pared with a net loss of $20.4 million
debuted on the list in 2016. In August acquired Nextbit, an Android mo- in the previous year. Meanwhile, reve-
of this year, Forbes Asia tallied his net bile phone company founded by ex- nues increased 22.5% to $392 million
worth at $700 million, pre-IPO. Googlers, and last October it bought over the same period.
Known for his signature getup of THX, the audio company founded by Another tech entrepreneur from
black T-shirt and jeans, Tan is a pro George Lucas. In July 2015 Razer also Singapore who could make it into the
when it comes to connecting with acquired Ouya, an Android mobile- ranks of the country’s richest in the
Razer fans over social media. He re- gaming platform. future is Tianjin-born citizen of Singa-
cently posted on Facebook (570,000 While THX is a standalone com- pore, Forrest Li. The fast-emerging ty-
followers) and Instagram (88,500 fol- pany, Tan has stepped up as CEO: coon, who also recently turned 40, is the
lowers) photos of Mark Zuckerberg “Which explains why I have not slept founder of newly listed Sea Ltd. (former-
and Hong Kong heartthrob Nicholas in a while,” he said, with a laugh, dur- ly Garena). Li founded the e-commerce
Tse using Razer laptops. In early No- ing an earlier interview in June at his and online-gaming company in 2009
DAVID PAUL MORRIS/BLOOMBERG

vember he unveiled the Razer Phone,
an Android smartphone targeted at
gamers, which retails at $699 apiece
but is currently available in Europe
and North America only.
The Razer Phone had been wide-
Singapore headquarters. “We’ve got a
lot of expectations to grow into the en-
tertainment space: movies, music and
things like that. That’s something that
we are really excited about,” he said.
In 2016 Razer’s net losses more
with palm oil billionaire Kuok Khoon
Hong as an angel investor. On the basis
of an 11.59% stake in Sea, which list-
ed on the New York Stock Exchange on
October 20, Li has a net worth of about
$550 million. F

DECEMBER 2017 FORBES ASIA | 17

FORBES ASIA

GREATER CHINA

‘Malaysia,
My Second Home’
 T he sales office for Forest City, one of Malaysia’s largest residential prop-
erty developments, looks less like an office than an airport hangar or a museum atrium: a
futuristic dome flooded with noise and light. At the entrances white-gloved guards offer a
crisp salute. Nearby a band breezes through a set of pop standards. Prospective buyers—
many of them from mainland China—lounge on couches sipping complimentary soft
drinks while diddling on their cellphones.
Sprawling in the middle of the hall is the main attraction: a giant scale model depict-
ing the initial phase of the $100 billion project. Large groups of Chinese and Malaysian
visitors snap photos of this vast field of roads, lakes, beaches, hotels, shopping malls and
illuminated towers, some with miniature “SOLD OUT” labels attached.
The eye-catching model represents just one small part of the Forest City development,
which is currently sprouting from the coast of Johor State at the southernmost point of
peninsular Malaysia. “The whole scale model of this is Island One. We have four islands in
total,” says Yu Ting, an English-speaking sales representative from Guangdong, the home
province of the project’s Chinese developer, Country Garden Holdings. When completed
in 2035, Forest City’s four islands will house an estimated 700,000 people in the Johor
Strait, across from Singapore.
Describing the project as a “future city” and “a magnet for global elites,” Country
Garden, which has partnered with a firm controlled by the Sultan of Johor to form the
Malaysia-domiciled Country Garden Pacificview, is directing its main sales pitch at over-
seas buyers, particularly those from mainland China. Marketing materials focus on the
project’s proximity to Singapore and the fact that its units cost around a quarter of what
they do on the other side of the Johor Strait. Yu Ting tells me that in the year after sales
began in March 2016, Country Garden sold some 16,000 units.
However, Forest City’s selling points—its massive scale and its targeting of affluent
foreigners—has made it a lightning rod for political controversies about the growing
extent of Chinese influence in Malaysia. In particular, critics have charged that Forest
City will eventually become an enclave for rich mainland Chinese, cut off from the
rest of the country.
Carrying the furthest is the singular voice of Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, Malaysia’s no-
nagenarian former prime minister, who ruled the country in energetic and authoritarian
style from 1981 to 2003. In a stream of public comments and posts on his popular blog, he
has repeatedly assailed Country Garden Pacificview and Johor’s powerful Sultan Ibrahim
There’s political Ismail, accusing them of selling off the country’s “most valuable land” to foreigners.
fallout as the In an interview with this reporter, Mahathir says he sees a historical warning in the
Chinese-majority city-state of Singapore, which was expelled from newly independent
nation wrestles Malaysia in 1965. “A country is created by the population,” he says, “and if the population
with Beijing’s is overwhelmingly of one particular race or another, then we will see that the country is
Belt & Road no longer a part of the original owners of the land.”
SEBASTIAN STRANGIO

To attract foreign buyers, Forest City will eventually feature its own customs and im-
bonanza.
“A magnet for global elites”: Forest City’s scale model of Island One, the first of four islands
BY SEBASTIAN STRANGIO sprouting from the Johor Strait that will cost $100 billion and house 700,000 people by 2035.

DECEMBER 2017 FORBES ASIA | 19

FORBES ASIA
GREATER CHINA
“A country is created by the population”: former PM Mahathir.
migration checkpoint, facilitating quick travel to Singapore. It will
also offer buyers various tax breaks and a path to residency under
the government’s Malaysia My Second Home program, which is less
stringent than gaining residency in Singapore. The company offers
to front the nearly $6,000 application fee and guarantees a 99% suc-
cess rate for applicants.
In an emailed message, Yu Runze, the firm’s president and chief
strategy officer, says that the project was initially targeted at the Chi-
nese market. He adds that it has since broadened out to other mar-
kets. “The Forest City township was planned and designed for the
international market,” he says. “In fact, the buyers for the first phase
of our residential units come from 23 countries.” According to Forest
City sales staff, around 60% of sales have been to Chinese buyers.
The controversy over Forest City hints at wider political ques-
tions about China’s quickly widening economic footprint in Malay-
sia. Under the leadership of Prime Minister Najib Razak, who took
office in 2009, the relationship between Kuala Lumpur and Beijing
has grown close—some say too close.
Once a bit player in Malaysia, China has been the country’s larg-
est trading partner for eight consecutive years, with bilateral trade
volume topping $57 billion in 2016. It is now the country’s main
construction contractor, the largest source of foreign investment in
manufacturing and, despite a downturn following the disappear-
ance of the MH370 flight in 2014, the third-largest source of foreign
tourists to Malaysia. In his farewell speech last month, Huang Hui-
kang, China’s outgoing ambassador, said that the Sino-Malaysian
relationship “should move up over the next 40 years to reach mutual
dependency, like lips and teeth.”
This strategically-located country of 32 million has also emerged
as a key stop on Beijing’s 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, the
20 | FORBES ASIA DECEMBER 2017
maritime leg of its much-vaunted One Belt, One Road (OBOR)
infrastructure scheme. The OBOR initiative, unveiled by Chinese
President Xi Jinping in 2013, envisages linking China with Africa
and Eurasia through a complex network of ports, roads, railways
and industrial parks.
Under the umbrella of OBOR, Najib’s government has signed
agreements for a slew of Chinese infrastructure megaprojects.
At the top of the list is the $13.1 billion East Coast Rail Link
(ECRL), which will run from Port Klang, Malaysia’s main port
near the capital Kuala Lumpur, to Tumpat on the border with
Thailand, bisecting the peninsula’s hilly interior. In October
2016 the Malaysian government inked a deal with three Chinese
state-owned companies to build and manage a deep-sea port and
Maritime Industrial Park on three more reclaimed islands off the
city of Melaka on the west coast, part of the $10.4 billion Melaka
Gateway mega-development. In turn, this will be complemented
by a Chinese-backed industrial park and port refurbishment in
Kuantan, in the east coast state of Pahang.
Malaysia’s OBOR bonanza also includes the new Malaysian
campus of Xiamen University on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur,
and Bandar Malaysia, a real estate project that will host terminals for
a planned high-speed rail connecting Kuala Lumpur to Singapore.
(Chinese companies may be in the catbird seat for that deal too.)
While Forest City sits somewhat apart from this string of state-led
OBOR projects, it is clearly buying into the “New Silk Road” hype.
Its sales office tellingly features a floor-to-ceiling map of Eurasia and
Africa pinpointing Forest City’s “strategic location” amidst Beijing’s
snaking OBOR trade routes.
For China the economic and strategic benefit of these projects
is not hard to glean, says Ngeow Chow Bing of the University of Ma-
laya’s Institute of China Studies. By constructing deep-sea ports on
both sides of the Malaysian peninsula and a railway—the ECRL—
that runs between them, Beijing is effectively creating a means of
alleviating its heavy reliance on imports through the narrow Strait
of Malacca. “For the China side I think the intention is very clear:
trying to create a land-bridge so they can bypass the Malacca Straits
and Singapore,” Ngeow says.
But as in neighboring countries like Thailand and Indonesia,
many are skeptical about whether these projects will benefit any
country hosting development. Take the ECRL project. Opponents
of Najib claim that it will be constructed by a Chinese state-owned
firm at allegedly inflated prices, using mostly Chinese labor and
building materials, and funded by soft loans from Chinese state
banks. Tony Pua, a parliamentarian from the opposition Democrat-
ic Action Party, says this raises the question of whether the ECRL
can accurately be described as an “investment” at all. “We do want
Chinese investments,” he says, “but the type of Chinese investments
that are coming to Malaysia today are either dodgy or in reality are
Malaysian-paid-for investments that are not really FDI.” The glut
of Beijing-backed port projects has also raised concerns that China
may be eyeing them for naval purposes. Ministers in Najib’s govern-
SANJIT DAS/BLOOMBERG.
ment have dismissed claims that the price of the ECRL is inflated.
With national elections looming, the opposition Pakatan Hara-
pan coalition has accused Najib of cozying up to China in a bid to
distract attention from the international scandal surrounding the
troubled state development fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad OBOR projects were actually conceived years ago but that only
(1MDB). Again Dr. Mahathir has been in the forefront. In 2016 Chinese state-owned enterprises had the means and willingness to
the now 92-year-old quit the ruling United Malays National Or- make them happen. “A lot of this is our own initiative. They come
ganization (UMNO)—the keystone of Malaysia’s ruling coalition at the right time with the right conditions and the right kind of
since independence in 1957—and formed a new Malay nationalist attitude,” he says. Indeed, the recent influx of Chinese FDI has un-
party, which will lead the PH coalition into battle against Najib at derpinned a spell of healthy economic growth: Malaysia’s annual
the election, due to be held before August 2018. GDP growth rate has averaged 5.7% since 2010, with the World
With Najib under fire for the alleged mishandling of 1MDB, Bank predicting a similar rise in 2017.
which has chalked up multibillion-dollar losses and is subject Still, overdependence on Chinese economic patronage could
to investigations around the world, Mahathir has accused his make Malaysia vulnerable to a sudden economic downturn or
former protégé of turning to the quick fix of cheap Chinese policy shift in China. This became clear in March, when Beijing
credit to the detriment of Malaysia’s long-term interests. “The unleashed aggressive measures to clamp down on capital outflows.
present government is fond of borrowing money without In Malaysia this arguably contributed to the collapse of the Bandar
thinking about repayment,” says Mahathir, who denies claims Malaysia buyout. It also threatened to deprive Forest City of ac-
that his own long tenure was marked by cronyism and corrup- cess to its primary target market, leading some to predict that the
tion. “The East Coast Railway is not necessary. . . . The returns project will become a giant white elephant.
will not be enough to repay the loan.” (Najib has consistently Yu Runze of Country Garden Pacificview claims that the im-
denied taking money from 1MDB or any other public funds). pact on Forest City so far has been minimal, with just 60 buyers in
Adding weight to the claims of opportunism is the fact that Chi- China—less than 0.5% of the total—asking to cancel their book-
nese firms have stepped in to buy up pieces of the troubled 1MDB ings as a result of new capital regulations. “There was some initial
fund. In 2015 China General Nuclear Power acquired Edra Global impact, but we have been able to balance this, and the project is
Energy, a power company belonging to 1MDB. Later that year, going smoothly because of this focus on the global market,” he
Iskandar Waterfront Holdings and the China Railway Engineering says. “We are in year one of a 20-year project and remain commit-
Corp. agreed to purchase a 60% stake in the Bandar Malaysia proj- ted to the success of this venture.”
ect, another component of 1MDB. (The $1.7 billion deal fell through Judging by the crowds at the sales office on a recent Satur-
in May, but seven Chinese state-owned entities are reported to be day, interest remains healthy. Large groups of foreign visitors
among the nine firms now bidding for the project.) Last year the trouped through the showroom, buying up souvenirs like dried
Financial Times also reported that China was helping Malaysia repay durian and posing for photos on the manmade beach facing
a $6.5 billion debt to a state-owned petroleum firm in Abu Dhabi. Singapore. At the far end of the beach, where the landscaping
The controversies over Chinese investment in Malaysia mirror petered out amid a few scraggly palm trees and a corrugated
the dilemma facing most of its Southeast Asian neighbors: how to iron fence, dredgers were at work creating what will eventually
reap benefits from China’s meteoric rise without being sucked into become the project’s second island.
Beijing’s economic orbit. For his own part,
Najib has defended his government’s dealing
with China. In March he said that the ECRL
would be a “game changer” that will contrib- HUANG HUIKANG, CHINA’S OUTGOING
ute 1.5% growth annually to the three states
on Malaysia’s east coast. On another occa- AMBASSADOR, SAID THAT THE
sion he asked, “What’s wrong with us foster- SINO-MALAYSIAN RELATIONSHIP
ing closer ties with China, which is expected
to be the biggest economy in 2030?” “SHOULD MOVE UP OVER THE NEXT
Some observers agree. Abdul Majid
bin Ahmad Khan, a former ambassador to
40 YEARS TO REACH MUTUAL
Beijing who now chairs the Malaysia-China DEPENDENCY, LIKE LIPS AND TEETH.”
Friendship Association, says that since rela-
tions were established with China in 1974
under Najib’s father, Abdul Razak Hussein, Malaysia has tried to While Forest City may have ridden out the storm this time,
maintain good relations with all countries. In the 1970s, he says, concerns about the wisdom of Chinese mega-investments are un-
Japanese firms came and invested in Malaysia. Then came the likely to go away. Abdul Majid, the former ambassador, says small
so-called Four Tigers: Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and countries like Malaysia will each need to learn how to ensure that
Taiwan. “Now it’s China’s time,” he says. the flood of OBOR capital serves them as well as it does Beijing.
Others argue that even if OBOR projects exceed Malaysia’s “It’s up to us now,” he says. “The Chinese can deliver a beautiful
needs in the short-term, they could lay the basis for sustained port, they can deliver a beautiful train—but if the recipient coun-
future growth. Dr. Ngeow of the University of Malaya says that tries don’t take care about the contents, if they’re not prepared for
the ECRL, the Kuantan port project and many other Malaysian it, they might have an empty port or an empty train.” F

DECEMBER 2017 FORBES ASIA | 21

TECHNOLOGY BEN SIN // GADGETMAN

A NEW CONVERT
ANYONE WHO KNOWS ME or has touch that looks and feels elegant. The iPhone
read my articles and tweets knows that X also has a higher-than-usual touch input
I’m not exactly an Apple fan. I’ve been refresh rate of 120Hz, and it makes scrolling
vocal about my preference for Android’s on the X a tiny, tiny bit more “natural” than
endless customization over iOS’ control- on most Android devices. Apple gets the little
ling, restricting ways; I was very, very things right.
critical of the iPhone 8; I poked fun at Overall the handset feels very polished, like
the iPhone 7’s bezels every time I re- all the iPhones before it. The lack of a home
viewed a sleek Android device. button, contrary to the mainstream media
So not only am I not an Apple fan; ac- brouhaha, is something I got used to within
tual Apple fans would probably consider two minutes. Maybe it’s because I’m used to
me a hater. But I believe I’m a fair dude. Android phones, which abandoned physical
I’m critical of iOS being limiting because it is. Take a look at the home home buttons long ago.
screen of a few Android phones—each one will look unique. I’m talking Under the hood is Apple’s A11 chipset, and
about different app icon styles, layouts, widgets, etc. With the help of performance is excellent as expected. Because
third-party launchers and icon packs I can spin my Galaxy Note 8 home- Apple designs its hardware, software and chip-
screen into thousands of styles. set in unison, there’s a level of performance ef-
Now look at a dozen iPhones—they all look mostly the same, other ficiency that Android phones just can’t match.
than the wallpaper. Why can’t I arrange apps on the home Now, the photos: Apple ap-
screen the way I want, Apple? This isn’t a completely su- proaches photography the same
perficial, aesthetic-driven complaint. Living in a crowded, way it approaches its OLED display
on-the-go city like Hong Kong, I frequently have to use my calibration—it’s all about balance.
phone one-handed while standing in trains or walking up While I was testing the iPhone X, I
and down stairs, and on Android I place my key apps at the snapped hundreds of photos, and it
bottom of the screen, where they’re easily accessible. I also was hard to find a single bad shot.
like minimalism, so I keep the rest of the homescreen app With that said, the X’s “great” shots
free. On iPhones, I can’t do that. don’t wow me the way the great
But having said all that, after testing the iPhone X for a shots taken by Galaxy Note 8 and
week and half, I’ve decided to make it my daily driver. This Huawei Mate 10 Pro sometimes do.
means the X is currently home to my main sim card, and is That’s because those cameras pro-
the phone I take out and about every day. So just what about duce punchy, saturated images that
the iPhone X impressed me enough to abandon Android?: can look amazing but sometimes
That notch above the screen, home to the “TrueDepth Camera System,” make a scene look unrealistic. The X has no
which includes, among other things, an infrared camera and a “dot such problems—every shot is going to be clear,
projector.” Those two combine to shoot 30,000 invisible dots into my and the colors will be accurate and down-to-
face, creating a 3-D map of my mug that Apple uses for identification earth. But sometimes real life is boring and I
purposes. I thought using facial recognition (Apple calls it Face ID) to don’t want my shot to look “realistic.”
unlock the phone was going to be a pain, but after using the iPhone X for Shooting videos on the iPhone X is mostly a
well over a week I’m completely sold. It works almost all the time, in any great experience. It is one of the most impres-
lighting condition—even dark rooms or out in the sun. sive mobile video shooters out there, but the
THOMAS KUHLENBECK FOR FORBES (TOP)

Let’s talk about the iPhone X’s hardware: It’s a very nicely construct- camera app lacks some crucial features like a
ed handset with glass front and back, held together by a stainless steel “pause” button when recording.
frame that feels sturdier than the aluminum frames of other phones. The The iPhone X is such a polished product,
5.8-inch OLED panel is beautiful and well-balanced, and its corners are with so many little things done right, that I’ve
rounded at the same angle as the phone’s corners. It’s a delightful design been won over—for now. F
BEN SIN IS A HONG KONG-BASED CONTRIBUTOR TO FORBES.COM WHO WRITES ABOUT CONSUMER TECH.

22 | FORBES ASIA DECEMBER 2017

 FORBES ASIA
LUXURY LINEAGE
The Plaza Hotel’s Suite Life
NEW YORK’S ICONIC Plaza Hotel is actually the second Plaza
Hotel to occupy the prime Central Park South location. The
first, built in the 1880s, was torn down in 1905 to create some-
thing even bigger. The new hotel took 27
months to complete, and its construction
went 50% over budget, costing some $12.5
million (roughly $400 million today). Its
investors were some of America’s rich-
est men, including Texaco founder John
“Bet a Million” Gates and real estate mogul
1925
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: TECH GADGETS/ALAMY; DETROIT PUBLISHING COMPANY/GETTY IMAGES; RAMZI HAIDAR/AFP/GETTY IMAGES; DEAGOSTINI/GETTY IMAGES; BETTMANN/GETTY IMAGES;
F. Scott Fitzgerald sets part
of The Great Gatsby at the
Plaza. Thirty years later, Kay
Thompson publishes a book for
“precocious grown-ups” about
a little girl who becomes the
hotel’s most famous resident:
Eloise. Today the Plaza has
suites inspired by both works.
KATHY WILLENS/AP; JAMES GARRETT/NY DAILY NEWS ARCHIVE/GETTY IMAGES; HULTON-DEUTSCH COLLECTION/CORBIS/GETTY IMAGES
1943
After the Plaza’s original ownership group
finds itself cash-strapped and indebted, they
sell the establishment for $7.4 million (some
$108 million today) to Conrad Hilton (above)
and Floyd Odlum, a wealthy conglomerator.
Hilton would later label his purchase
“an expensive, aristocratic old lady.”
1959
The Plaza’s Oak Bar
features prominently
in Alfred Hitchcock’s
North by Northwest. site of Truman Capote’s legendary
The hotel would later
have cameos in two
Robert Redford movies:
Barefoot in the Park
(1967) and The Way We
Were (1973, left).
BY ABRAM BROWN
Harry S. Black, and they filled their hotel with every imaginable
luxury—five grand staircases, ten elevators, 1,650 crystal chan-
deliers—to attract the country’s upper crust. In that respect,
they succeeded. The Plaza’s first guests: Mr.
and Mrs. Alfred Vanderbilt.
This set the tone for the Plaza Hotel’s
next 110 years. It would become a Manhat-
tan landmark, a star of film and fiction, and
a real estate trophy coveted by the world’s
wealthiest people.
1995
1988 Dire financial straits force
Having changed hands several times Trump to sell the Plaza in
in the previous three decades— 1995, at a loss, to billionaire
Saudi Prince Alwaleed and
including a stint in the portfolio of
Westin hotels—the Plaza is the site Singaporean billionaire
Kwek Leng Beng for
of a protracted ownership battle that
ends with Donald Trump as the victor. $325 million.
(“My Mona Lisa,” he calls the hotel,
which costs him roughly $400 million,
or $852 million in today’s money.) 2005
Now owned by the El Ad Group, which
purchased it for $675 million in 2004, the
Plaza is shuttered for three years for a
$450 million restoration to convert part
of the building into apartments.
2017
Five years after purchasing a 75%
stake in the hotel for $575 million,
Subrata Roy’s Sahara Group, which
faces a mounting financial scandal
in its native India, reportedly puts
its share of the Plaza up for sale
in August. Eloise may have yet
another new landlord soon.
1993
After appearing as himself in the
Plaza in Home Alone 2 (1992),
Trump weds Marla Maples in the
Grand Ballroom, which was the
Black and White Ball in 1966.
DECEMBER 2017 FORBES ASIA | 23

21ST CENTURY NOAH’S
ARK ARRIVES IN THE
PHILIPPINES
A groundbreaking global experiment is launched
on the island of Mindanao, the birthplace of
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte.
O
n August 22, 2017, the munici-
pality of Sergio Osmeña Sr., in
the province of Zamboanga del
Norte in northwestern Mindanao, host-
ed the Organic Osmeña Festival 2020, a
start-up event that hopes to transform
all agriculture in the region into organic
production by 2020.
The event brought together may-
ors of eight cities in the region and
officials from the Department of
Tourism, Department of Agriculture,
Depar tment of Transpor tation,
Department of Labor and Employment,
the Technical Education and Skills
Development Authority, as well as
Senator Cynthia Villar, who heads
the Committee on Agriculture and
Food, and Zamboanga del Norte
Representative Seth Frederick Jalosjos.
(L-R) Ark Systems COO Martin Salvador, Noah
Ark Coin promoter Tadashi Izumi, Philippine
Senator Cynthia Villar, Representative Seth
Frederick Jalosjos and Ark Systems CEO Clarke
Robertson speak at Organic Osmeña 2020.
More than 700 organic farmers from
39 municipalities in Mindanao attend-
ed a discussion about the importance
of organic and pesticide-free farm-
ing. While organizers expected a large
number of planters and growers from
the region to attend an event that pro-
moted organic agriculture, Organic
Osmeña 2020 differentiated itself from
other events by being the first to con-
PROMOTION
nect the country’s agricultural sector
with the growing fintech sector.
Fintech, whose core is built on
blockchains (or a digitized, centralized
public ledger of all cryptocurrency
transactions), has grown in popular-
ity in recent years. Cryptocurrencies,
such as Bitcoin, are arguably the most
disruptive of digitalized innovations
sweeping the world as their usage in
transactions between businesses and
people continues to grow every year.
While there are thousands of cryp-
tocurrencies currently existing world-
wide, the Noah Ark Coin aims to be-
come the medium of exchange and
distribution among the farmers who
took part in the Organic Osmeña 2020.
The new cryptocurrency’s rollout is
managed in the Philippines by Ark
Systems Technologies.
At the same event, the company’s
CEO, Clarke Robertson, also announced
the development of GrowKart, a dedi-
cated app that will directly connect
organic farmers to retail and service
businesses, like supermarkets and res-
taurants, as well as to consumers.
Ark Systems Technology COO Martin
Salvador also announced that infra-
structure for the farmers related to pro-
duction control, distribution control
and sales management will be devel-
oped through blockchain technology
and Noah Ark Coin.
Noah Social Innovation Foundation
believes that organic farmers will ex-
perience higher profitability and pro-
ductivity if they can deliver safe agri-
cultural products directly to sellers and
consumers without going through
distributors. This would subsequently
translate into increased investment in
organic farming, and thus lead to high-
er output.
Also, the opportunity to purchase
safe organic produce directly from the
farmers would benefit all consumers.
Through GrowKart and Noah Ark
Coin, these two pioneering innovations
hope to deliver farmers from the dif-
ficulty of subsistence farming. But, the
objectives of Noah Ark go beyond or-
ganic agriculture.
While it is known for having many of
the country’s most beautiful beaches,
Mindanao is not first-in-mind when it
comes to tourism. Among the first re-
sorts to market itself to luxury travelers,
Dakak Beach Resort is just a 30-min-
ute car ride away from Dipolog Airport
and located in picturesque and historic
Dapitan City.
Dakak Beach Resort in Zamboanga del Norte
The resort is owned by Zamboanga
del Norte Representative Seth Frederick
Jalosjos, who was among the strongest
supporters of Organic Osmeña 2020.
Featuring 50 Balinese–style villas sur-
rounding the beach, as well as infinity
pools, restaurants and spas, the resort
is close to completing a 50-year-long
development plan began by Jalosjos’
father. The resort also features a golf
course designed by golfing legend
Greg Norman, one of the country’s
top five amusement parks, the lon-
gest zipline in Asia, movie theaters and
shopping centers.
In partnership with Noah Social
Innovation Foundation, Jalosjos an-
nounced that Dakak Beach Resort will
transform an undeveloped area of its
property into the Noah Resort, which
from June 2018 will accept payments
using Noah Ark Coins.
As more brick and mortar businesses
around the world accept Bitcoin pay-
ments, there has been no instance
where one altcoin is accepted as pay-
ments in all facilities in a resort area.
Aside from GrowKart, the develop-
ers are confident that using Noah Ark
Coins to make payments in its resort
and in Dakak Beach Resort will quickly

lead to the widespread use of the cryp-
tocurrency across the entire Mindanao.
“Even though Mindanao is really a
safe, peaceful, beautiful island, very
many foreigners think the area is dan-
gerous because of the insurgency in
Marawi. I anticipate that this stigma will
break down and a lot of tourists will
visit Mindanao, thanks to this collabo-
ration with the Noah Social Innovation
Foundation,” Jalosjos said.
“I also hope that the foreign direct
investment that President Duterte is
trying to encourage will lead to ac-
celerated development in the region.
In particular, I want a lot of Japanese
people to visit Mindanao through Noah
Ark Coin, which we view as a bridge
between Japan and the Philippines.
In the future, we intend to establish
Japanese language schools to educate
Filipinos to speak Japanese and pre-
pare a system to welcome visitors from
Japan,” according to Jalosjos, who also
highlighted Japan’s integral role in the
development of Mindanao.
A Noah Resorts bus sits at the ready for guests
in Dakak Beach Resort in Zamboanga del Norte.
While Noah Ark Coin is seen as a
model of bringing together region-
al development and Fintech on the
Philippine island of Mindanao, the
company also announced its plans for
Manila. An urban version of its develop-
ment in Dakak, Noah City – which will
also accept Noah Ark Coins – will rise
on Horizon Manila, a reclaimed land
project along Manila Bay.
With a total land area of 419 hect-
ares, Horizon Manila will be made up of
three man-made islands each measur-
ing around 140 hectares. The joint en-
terprise sees a collaboration between
the local government, leaders in ocean
architecture, the Jan De Nul Group, and
up-and-coming J. Bros Construction
Corporation.
The scale of the Horizon Manila proj-
ect has attracted much attention given
that the approximate size of nearby
Aseana City and of Makati’s central
PROMOTION
business district is 200 hectares each,
while Bonifacio Global City measures
238 hectares.
On September 30, 2017, the Noah
Project and J. Bros Construction
Corporation signed an agreement to
build Noah City as part of the Horizon
Manila development project. With the
expected widespread use of Noah Ark
Coins, whether in the Noah Resort in
Mindanao or in Noah City in Manila,
the company hopes to attract huge for-
eign capital, particularly from Japan, to
invest in Horizon Manila and speed up
the city’s development.
Noah Ark Coin has recently gar-
nered much attention for its potential
in strengthening economic bonds be-
tween Japan and the Philippines.
One problem specific to the
Philippines are remittances sent by
overseas Filipino workers or OFWs to
their families back home. Remittances
from OFWs are estimated to exceed 26
billion US dollars every year, or about
10 percent of the country’s gross do-
mestic product. That amount has
grown consistently as the number of
Filipino OFWs increases annually.
Those thousands of OFWs are bur-
dened by transfer fees, unfavorable ex-
change rates, time delays and security
issues. Depending on where they live,
OFWs have often experienced large
transfer charges or low exchange rates
that greatly reduce the amount of
money received by their families back
in the Philippines.
Handled by the largest blockchain
company in the Philippines, Satoshi
Citadel Industries (SCI), and Japanese
fintech company Nippon Pay, Noah Ark
Coin hopes to change that, especially
for OFWs in Japan. In using a common
cryptocurrency, SCI and Nippon Pay
eliminate the significant charges shoul-
dered by OFWs in Japan.
Those OFWs will be able to visit any
Nippon Pay member stores and ac-
cess the SCI-run platform – Noah Ark
Wallet – through payment terminals
and exchange Japanese yen for Noah
Ark Coins. From there, OFWs can trans-
fer Noah Ark Coins from their own
wallets to those of their families in the
Philippines instantly without having to
pay any fees.
Back in the Philippines, the family of
these OFWs can exchange their Noah
Ark Coins in their wallets for Philippine
pesos, deposit those pesos into their
bank accounts or withdraw them from
their bank’s ATMs. They will also be able
to pay their utility bills, college tuition
fees and health insurance directly from
their Noah Ark Wallets.
Using the model in Japan as a pro-
totype, the Noah Project wants to build
infrastructure that will allow Noah Ark
Coins to be exchanged for any of the
world’s currencies eventually.
Representatives from Horizon Manila meet
with Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada (4th from
left) to formalize the creation of a sprawling
development on reclaimed land in Manila Bay.
“While the Philippines is drawing
the world’s attention as a fast-growing
emerging economy, it has struggled
with a range of social problems for
some time. Meanwhile, Japan is facing
a declining birthrate and its population
is aging on an unprecedented scale. It
is expected that as Japan’s population
shrinks, so will its economy,” Noah Ark
Coin promoter Tadashi Izumi said.
“I was raised in Japan, a country
that has a special relationship with
the Philippines. The two nations have
concluded a bilateral economic part-
nership agreement. As someone who
now lives in Manila, where I get to ex-
perience the allure of the Philippines
first-hand, nothing makes me hap-
pier than acting as a bridge between
the two countries, helping to resolve
the Philippines’ social problems while
jump-starting the Japanese economy
through Noah Ark Coin,” Izumi also said.
www.arkhold.co
www.sci.ph
www.dakakresort.com
26 | FORBES ASIA DECEMBER 2017
Alpha Deal
Maker From his base in Hong
Kong, Goodwin Gaw is
building his Gaw Capital
investment funds into a
global real estate force.

G
BY RON GLUCKMAN

oodwin Gaw bounds into the boardroom, T-shirt over a muscular build, shiny
black sport shoes on his feet. Looking more like a weekend clubber than a real estate rainmaker, this char-
ismatic chief executive talks in rapid-fire fashion about billion-dollar valuations, disruptive technology and
other buzzwords of the startup age.
Gaw, 49, embraces tech, yet he’s no IT mogul. Quite the contrary: He’s a Hong Kong investment guru
who digs bricks and mortar. Starting in the U.S., then ramping up in China, he and his two siblings have
built Gaw Capital into one of the world’s largest private equity firms in real estate, with $13 billion under
management. The U.K. publication PERE (formerly Private Equity Real Estate) now ranks Gaw Capital as
the 19th-biggest real estate private equity firm worldwide, up from 44th last year. Only one other Asian
firm, Singapore’s Global Logistic Properties (No. 5), cracks the top 20.
Gaw’s specialty is derelict warehouses and forlorn hotels, hardly Silicon Valley stuff. However, he’s also
invested his funds in much bigger deals, such as the $940 million purchase of the InterContinental Hotel
(the former Regent) on Hong Kong’s Kowloon waterfront. It was the largest hotel transaction in the Asia-
Pacific region in 2015 and second biggest in the world. He will close soon on The Standard, High Line,
in New York’s Meatpacking District. That hotel was supposedly sold in 2014 for $300 million, and it was
largely unknown that the deal had stalled until Gaw swooped in and agreed to pay $340 million. Hotels are
VIRGILE SIMON BERTRAND FOR FORBES

rarely the target of funds that aim to deliver alpha, but Gaw is generating excellent returns, say investors
familiar with the firm, while also cultivating an interest in hotels and urban redevelopment.
Gaw Capital doesn’t disclose returns publicly, but the Preqin Global Real Estate Report in London has
ranked it as one of the world’s most-consistent high performers among real estate fund managers for four
years in a row. This year it’s tied for fifth in the world and tops in Asia, up from a tie for seventh last year.
“Gaw definitely is among the most successful funds,” adds Joseph Tsang, managing director of the Hong
Kong office of JLL, a global real estate and investment company. He credits the firm’s portfolio diversity,

DECEMBER 2017 FORBES ASIA | 27

FORBES ASIA

GOODWIN GAW

flexibility and especially Anthony was only 57 when he died in 1999. With Goodwin
Goodwin’s risk taking. “They in the U.S., his younger brother Kenneth Gaw became director
are diligent and pay atten- of the family firm, doing deals alongside their mother, Rossana
tion to the numbers, but Wang Gaw, Pioneer’s executive chair. They’re a close family; the
Goodwin is also entrepre- Pioneer head office is on the floors above Gaw Capital’s art-filled
neurial. He takes risks and headquarters in Causeway Bay. As Goodwin’s Hong Kong business
gets results.” flourished, he offered to join up with his brother. “I said to him,
That’s how it’s been ‘What you are doing? Let’s do it together—it’s more fun!’ ”
since he started in southern It’s not only been fun but also insanely profitable for the Gaws,
California, buying the iconic as well as those along for the ride. Forbes Asia puts the family’s
Roosevelt Hotel, host of wealth at nearly $3 billion. Goodwin and his brother formed Gaw
the first Academy Awards Capital Partners, originally called Gateway Capital, and raised just
ceremony. “That really put under $260 million for the initial Gaw Capital Gateway China
me on the map,” he recalls. Fund in 2005. Two years later they raised $800 million for Gateway
It was the mid-1990s. Gaw Capital Real Estate Fund II, and the numbers keep rising. In 2008
was 29 and had been working the youngest of the three children, Christina Gaw, 45, joined the
in real estate in Los Angeles firm, bringing her experience in investment banking with UBS
for three years. Cajoling cash and Goldman Sachs. “Christina is the best fundraiser in Asia,” says
from friends, family and key Goodwin. She oversees client services and fundraising, while many
early investors, he bought call Kenneth, 47, the bean counter, deadly astute at assessing value.
a hotel built by Hollywood “Kenny was always supersmart, the best student amongst us,” notes
legends Louis B. Mayer, Mary Goodwin. “Kenny is very detail-oriented,” adds Christina. “If a
Pickford and Douglas Fair- number is a tiny bit off, he notices and corrects you. We know the
banks in 1926. But 70 years numbers will work if vetted by Kenny. He’s our safety net.”
later, he says, “it was bankrupt Goodwin, on the other hand, is the gambler on a winning
and the Hollywood district streak. “I’d always say, ‘Why can’t we do this? Why can’t we be
was on its knees.” Gaw had no doing it that way?’ I’m always looking at the glass as half-full and
experience, but in a pattern saying, ‘What can we do to make it more full?’ ” He adds, laughing,
that would typify his career, “What can go wrong?”
Gaw’s younger siblings Kenneth he immersed himself in the Both siblings describe Goodwin as more entrepreneur than
(the “bean counter”), and Christina property, talking to staff and typical fund manager. “We told him to keep at that, he’s always full
(the “best fundraiser in Asia.”) trusting his instincts. Within of ideas and innovations,” notes Christina, who says she added
two years he turned it around. structure to the firm. “That first fund was like a test fund. But then
Forming Downtown Properties, he continued buying dis- we were going for the big money. The setup needed to change. We
tressed assets, snapping up nearly 50 properties by 2002. Then he needed a good corporate structure.” Kenneth says it all worked:
rejoined his family in Hong Kong. His plan was to continue reviv- “We all know our roles and fell into them naturally.” A fourth part-
ing distressed real estate, but by scouring China and using Western ner is Humbert Pang, the director and head of China investment
capital. “I thought maybe I could channel some of that capital to for Savills China for a decade before joining in 2006 as managing
Asia and China, sort of as the local partner.” principal and Gaw’s China director.
Then the SARS epidemic hit, and Hong Kong reeled. Tourism Gaw’s funds hold investments from London to Vietnam and
plummeted and real estate tanked. Investors fled. Sensing opportu- Japan. The U.S. is a huge source of investment, with $2.7 billion
nity, Gaw went on a spending spree. “Disruption creates opportu- of assets under management via Gaw Capital USA. Yet China is
nities; to stir things up, disturb the status quo. So I like disruption,” Gaw’s main focus.
he says. “We were quite active investing during SARS
PROPERTY PROWESS
since we believed Hong Kong would bounce back.” The ASIA’S FIVE TOP PRIVATE EQUITY REAL ESTATE FIRMS
bets paid off, and Gaw had come home. ARE ALL BASED IN SINGAPORE OR HONG KONG.
His father’s family had emigrated from the Fujian
RANK FUNDRAISING
region of China to Burma before World War II. His fa- ASIA WORLD FIRM/HEADQUARTERS TOTAL (US$BIL)
ther, Anthony Gaw Teong, was born in Burma but moved
in 1955 with the family to Hong Kong when he was 13. 1 5 GLOBAL LOGISTIC PROPERTIES/SINGAPORE $8.1
He studied science at Stanford and Purdue in the U.S., 2 19 GAW CAPITAL/HONG KONG 4.5
before founding Pioneer Global Group, a listed company 3 30 PAG/SECURED CAPITAL/HONG KONG 3.4
that started in textiles in the 1970s, but later moved into 4 39 CAPITALAND/SINGAPORE 2.9
banking and shipping and then amassed a fortune in real 5 50 ALPHA INVESTMENT PARTNERS/SINGAPORE 2.3
estate. SOURCE: 2017 PERE 50 RANKINGS.

28 | FORBES ASIA DECEMBER 2017

 Gaw Capital provides more than fund management, A WINNING PORTFOLIO
often working in a variety of roles. It will act as an advi- GOODWIN GAW’S BIGGEST REAL ESTATE DEALS HAVE RANGED
sor or consultant on real estate deals, most prominently FROM THE U.S. AND LONDON TO HONG KONG AND CHINA.
as Chinese companies began acquiring trophy assets YEAR COST
in the West. Gaw may also join up with the same firms PROPERTY/CITY ACQUIRED (US$MIL)
it competes against for other properties. And it offers
INTERCONTINENTAL HOTEL/HONG KONG 2015 $940
account services for projects, and sometimes brings in KOWLOON WATERFRONT LANDMARK
investment partners, such as for the huge InterConti-
PACIFIC CENTURY PLACE/BEIJING 2014 930
nental deal. MIXED-USE COMPLEX REVAMPED AS OFFICES
Maintaining the confidence of investors isn’t all about
123 & 151 BUCKINGHAM PALACE ROAD/LONDON 2015 775
delivering results. Invariably, when talking about Gaw OFFICES AND RETAIL SPACE
Capital, sources extol the value of trust, something that is
SKY SOHO/SHANGHAI 2017 750
often in scant supply in China. “They are among the best ZAHA HADID-DESIGNED OFFICE-COMMERCIAL CENTER
operators in China,” says the former head of a large institu-
COLUMBIA CENTER/SEATTLE 2015 725
tional investor who has invested with Gaw Capital and bid 76-STORY OFFICE TOWER, TALLEST IN THE CITY
against it on some deals (he requested anonymity because
company policy forbids him to speak publicly). “You just STANDARD, HIGH LINE/NEW YORK 2017 3401
BOUTIQUE HOTEL IN MEATPACKING DISTRICT
don’t find many like the Gaws operating in China. They
uncover value and can be quick to pounce. But whether 1
DEAL NOT COMPLETED YET. SOURCE: GAW CAPITAL.

you work with them or compete against them, they are

always fair and responsible.” and electronic goods for the world,” he says. “Why not wrap it
The Gaws seem to operate under the radar. Despite their ag- in glass to showcase the industrial past? But more than that, in a
gressive deal-making around the globe, even established names creative way to attract new industry—hopefully, the tech, design
in the industry and analysts in China and Hong Kong often and fashion industries.”
haven’t heard of them. “They like to remain low-key,” notes a Goodwin circles the globe regularly, talking ideas and
senior Gaw Capital executive in Shanghai. possibilities. He confides that he originally wanted to be an ar-
In China circles, Swire Properties’ Sanlitun project is regu- chitect, but realized early that architects only design structures;
larly cited as an outstanding example of redevelopment. A run- it’s developers who really create them. And he’s acutely aware of
down section of Beijing was reborn a dozen years ago as one of how developers need to adapt to the times. “I don’t look at us as
the capital’s trendiest areas for eating, nightlife and shopping. a real estate business. I look at us as a product business. It just
Yet few know Gaw Capital’s role in the project. Goodwin spied so happens that our product is real estate. If you just think you
the area of low-rises and saw its potential as the kind of pe- are the real estate guy, you are going to be left behind because
destrian shopping district common in the West but unseen in real estate is being consumed in a very different fashion these
China then. “But it was really too big a project for us,” he says. days.” That’s why Gaw has been investing more in residential
“We had just raised our first fund. So I went to Swire, and they spaces for the mobile generation. In Hong Kong, a serviced-
came in as a co-investor.” Never mind that Swire got the credit. apartment project now features units designed for four
Gaw sold its stake in the site to Swire a few years ago, exiting students to share, dorm-style, and targets overseas students.
with a tidy profit. In China, Gaw started opening Italian-themed outlet shop-
Now Gaw Capital is back in the neighborhood, having bought ping villages outside major cities, banking on rising consumer
nearby Pacific Century Place from Hong Kong tycoon Richard Li spending. Another area of expansion is distribution and logis-
in 2014 for $924 million. When it opened in the late 1990s, office, tics, and Gaw has been acquiring warehouse space.
retail and residential space was in short supply, but now the proj- But Goodwin is big on urban renewal, describing plans to
ect must compete with glitzy shopping malls and new residential change entire neighborhoods. That is the idea for Manhattan,
developments. Goodwin’s vision was to repurpose the space for where Gaw is about to close on the 18-story Standard, High Line.
firms that wanted large open spaces with exclusive access. “It’s per- The boutique hotel, opened in 2009, lacks the history of some Gaw
fect for tech companies and the creative industries,” he says. “That properties such as the Strand, among a trio of hotels the family
worked with warehouses we’ve done in Los Angeles, and Beijing owns in Myanmar. But it sits in the middle of the old Meatpack-
has all these tech companies now.” ing District and alongside an elevated railway line that has been
He has a similar vision for Kwun Tong, an industrial area of turned into the High Line pedestrian park.
Hong Kong. Industry long ago moved to China, leaving behind Says Amar Lalvani, CEO of Standard International: “We
hulking factories. Gaw bought a dilapidated building and brought clicked right from the start. Goodwin really gets it. He under-
in Dutch design firm MVRDV. Balconies and open floor plans stands the value hotels bring to communities and to real estate.
were highlighted and a space that serves as a showroom was He’s full of ideas.” Goodwin concedes: “People say, ‘You seem to
turned into a sleek glass palace. “Hong Kong got to where we are have a passion for these old buildings, to try and give them new
today because of its industrious past, the factories that made toys life.’ I tell them, ‘These buildings speak to me.’ ” F

DECEMBER 2017 FORBES ASIA | 29

FORBES ASIA
REBOUND
Down to Earth
After a near-death experience, Lynas Corp. hired a telecom marketing executive,
Amanda Lacaze, to turn around the Australian miner and chemical processor.
BY TIM TREADGOLD
F
ew companies come back from a 99% plunge in their
share price, but that’s what an Australian rare-earths
miner and chemical processor has done—thanks
to the electric-car revolution and an environmental
cleanup in China.
Lynas Corp. was a highflier six years ago as strong demand
and tight supplies lifted prices for the unusual metals it pro-
duces, such as praseodymium and neodymium—they’re used
to make high-strength magnets and other products essential
for a range of technologies. But from a market capitalization on
the Australian stock exchange of $3 billion in 2011, Lynas’ value
plunged to $3 million in 2015. It was only a penny stock, worth
just 2.3 Australian cents a share. High debt, problems building
its processing plant in Malaysia and tumbling prices for rare
earths had driven the company to the brink of collapse.
Tightly controlled rare-earths production in China, the
world’s major source of the odd elements, coupled with export
restrictions, had driven prices sharply higher in 2011. But after
the price boom came a rare-earths flood and a price crash.
The only U.S. rare-earths company, Molycorp, went bankrupt
in 2015. Lynas, a former gold miner, somehow survived, and
today it’s enjoying a rerun of the rare-earths shortage as China’s
tougher pollution laws and the growing popularity of electric
cars are boosting prices.
For Lynas Chief Executive Amanda Lacaze, the road back
has been rocky, with her first job being to stabilize the business
and satisfy creditors while ensuring that the Malaysia plant was
able to meet customers’ demanding specifications. She laid off
30 | FORBES ASIA DECEMBER 2017
much of the headquarters staff in Sydney and moved the rest
and herself to Malaysia. Only in the past 12 months has the
mood at Lynas started to reflect the rising prices for rare earths.
Indeed, the price of its most basic product, a mix of praseo-
dymium and neodymium that is marketed as NdPr, has risen
from around $40 a kilogram in September of last year to more
than $90 a kilogram now.
That rise, coupled with record rates of production, enabled
Lynas to lift its revenue from $139 million in the 2016 fiscal
year to $194 million in the year ended June 30 and cut a $68.5
million loss to $11.2 million. That trend accelerated in the
quarter ended in September, with sales reaching a record $88
million, up 108% from the same quarter last year. “It was our
first champagne quarter,” says Lacaze. “Revenue, production
and cash flow from operations all reached record levels. In
addition, we recorded significant improvements to our balance
sheet.”
The straight-talking Melbourne-born Lacaze, 57, who lives
with her husband near the company’s plant outside of Kuantan
in east Malaysia, is quick to advise against seeing Lynas as a
miner. “We are a specialty chemical company,” she says. “We
just happen to mine the raw material we need for the produc-
tion of a range of unique products.”
It’s rare for a woman to lead a chemical or mining compa-
ny—Australia’s richest person, iron ore queen Gina Rinehart, is
another exception—but it’s probably more unusual that Lacaze’s
background isn’t in chemicals or mining. Her career has been
spent mostly in marketing with companies such as Nestlé
MUNSHI AHMED FOR FORBES

Of recent revenue results: “It was our first champagne quarter,” says Amanda Lacaze, CEO of Lynas Corp., at her plant in Malaysia.

DECEMBER 2017 FORBES ASIA | 31

FORBES ASIA

REBOUND

growth area for rare earths, with

a turbine gear box requiring 220
pounds of rare-earths magnets.
Notoriously tricky in every
way, the 17 elements that make
up the rare-earths family not
only have tongue-twister names
such as dysprosium, ytterbium
and gadolinium, but are neither
rare (just hard to produce and
pronounce) nor earths (they’re
minerals).
In addition to their use in
long-life, high-strength magnets,
rare earths find their way into a
wide variety of products, such as
oil refining (lanthanum), glass
production (cerium), X-ray ma-
chines (thulium), naval sonar sys-
tems (terbium), aerospace equip-
ment and golf clubs (scandium, as
an alloy with other metals). None
of the rare earths are required in
Trays of rare earths on a conveyor belt being processed at the Lynas plant in Malaysia.
large quantities, which means that
the market can be quickly satis-
and Australian telecommunications leader Telstra, where she fied. This presents a challenge for achieving a balance between
worked as marketing director. It was her marketing and man- supply and demand, a test made more difficult by the nature of
agement skills that persuaded Lynas to hire her as CEO in 2014. China’s centrally planned economy.
Those skills have been instrumental in smoothing relations Extreme price moves and a very thin market have been a
with the Malaysian government, particularly on the thorny feature of rare earths for decades. A 2006 story in Forbes Asia
issue of preventing leaks of radioactive waste. Lynas is required (before Lynas started mining rare earths) chronicled an earlier
to report regularly to the Malaysian Atomic Energy Licensing surge in demand, when the rare earth europium was expected
Board, as well as pay a security deposit. to be the big profit earner. But demand for europium, which is
Lynas’ rare earths come from the Mount Weld mine in used in lasers, never developed as expected.
Western Australia. It’s an unusual mine because it does not Lacaze acknowledges the importance of Chinese production
operate continuously. Instead, roughly two “campaigns” a controls in lifting rare-earths prices and cautions that it would
year lasting a few months each are all that’s required to extract be unwise to assume this will become a permanent feature of
enough ore for a year of processing in Malaysia. the market. “The next trap is believing the market will look like
Richer in rare earths than most Chinese mines, Mount it does now forever,” she says.
Weld is a competitive advantage for Lynas, while the modern That view means that Lacaze remains focused on cost
Malaysia processing plant and its strong customer support, es- controls at the Malaysia plant and in expanding its range of
pecially from Japanese manufacturers keen to support a non- products. In its latest quarter Lynas produced 1,442 metric tons
Chinese source of supply, are also key assets. Because some of NdPr, up 99 tons on the previous quarter. Lacaze said in her
rare earths have military uses, such as in precision-guided quarterly report that demand for NdPr was being driven by
weapons, they have sometimes been at the center of diplo- factors that included magnet makers stocking up as a hedge
matic disputes. One time was in 2010, when China banned against future price rises, speculation about China building a
exports to Japan after a Chinese fishing boat was detained by strategic stockpile and “intensification” of environmental com-
the Japanese coast guard. pliance investigations by Beijing.
Electric cars are the biggest driver for rare earths today, with More work is required for Lynas to rid itself of the memories
each requiring 2 kilograms of rare-earths magnets for power of its near-death experience, including the continued retire-
MUNSHI AHMED FOR FORBES

steering, power train and chassis components; the small electric ment of debt and a one-for-ten share swap to shrink a bloated
motors that operate windows, wipers and seats; and other uses. stock register. It’s also developing new products, including
The average electric car uses ten times more permanent mag- new grades of cerium. And its lanthanum product has been
nets—ones that never lose their magnetism—than a traditional approved for purchase by two new customers. Commercial
car. Wind turbines generating energy are another significant shipments are scheduled to start next month. F

32 | FORBES ASIA DECEMBER 2017

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FORBES ASIA
FORBES@100
During our centennial year, we’re unearthing our favorite covers.
Wheels Up: June 15, 1927
BY ABRAM BROWN
NOTABLE AND
NEWSWORTHY
Vino e Il Duce
In a typically windy speech,
Benito Mussolini addressed a
topic that had long occupied
the attention of American
politicians: temperance.
He opposed it, saying, “If
reasonable doses of alcohol
were very harmful to human-
kind, humanity by this time
would have disappeared.”
SIGN OF THE TIMES
Power to the People
During the home-appliance boom,
houses across the country had
accumulated 9.9 million electric
irons, 4.3 million vacuum cleaners
and 3.2 million toasters—and
they all needed juice. Said Frank
L. Dame, president of the North
American Co., one of the largest
utilities: “There is no agency
at present in existence other
than electric power which can
be made the better means of
furthering prosperity, of furthering
production, of increasing wages
and shortening the hours of labor.”
34 | FORBES ASIA DECEMBER 2017
AFTER BAD WEATHER delayed him several days, Charles
Lindbergh took to the skies from Long Island’s Roosevelt
Field the morning of May 20, 1927. The 25-year-old aviator
traveled 3,610 miles in 33.5 hours to complete the world’s
first solo nonstop transatlantic flight, touching down in the
Spirit of St. Louis on French soil the following evening. In
a rush to greet him, tens of thousands of people pushed
past soldiers, policemen and steel fences like exhilarated
fans storming a football field.
Less than a month later, the implications of his
flight were clear. “Lindbergh’s significance to business
seems greater than that of any mercantile or financial
magnate on either side of the Atlantic,” Edward
Marshall wrote. “After Lindbergh we shall have
transocean air mail. We have done little . . . with
air transport of passengers. For a long time it has
been said to be on its way. Now it will come.”
So it did. Just weeks after Lindbergh’s flight,
a former Navy pilot, Juan Trippe, formed the
company that would grow into Pan Ameri-
can Airways. Within the year, Pan Am had
become the first U.S. airline to operate an
international air-mail service, connect-
ing Key West, Florida, to Havana, Cuba.
Then, on January 9, 1929, it launched
its first international passenger flight:
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: NEW YORK TIMES CO/GETTY IMAGES; PICTORIAL PRESS/ALAMY; LYNDEN PIONEER MUSEUM/ALAMY; ROGER VIOLLET/GETTY IMAGES
a 56-hour journey from Miami to
San Juan, Puerto Rico, with stops in
Belize and Nicaragua.
AMAZING ADS
Epic Electric
In antiquity the million-strong
army of Persian ruler Xerxes
represented great power. Now
GE marketed its new steam
turbines as the modern symbol:
According to GE, they had the
strength of 2 million men.
FAST-FORWARD
With a Whimper, Not a Bang
1927: “Sears, Roebuck’s retail stores are
doing extremely well,” enthused Julius
Rosenwald, the company’s president.
“There will probably be further
extension as demand arises.”
2017: Sears hasn’t turned a profit since
2011. The onetime retail behemoth has
closed 180 stores in the past fiscal year
amid a six-year sales slump.

INDONESIA:
A BRIGHT OUTLOOK FOR PRIVATE ENTERPRISE
Strong economic growth, rising incomes and increased investment are expected
to make Indonesia’s business story even more compelling.
Despite the global economic and geopo-
litical volatility, Indonesia’s economy con-
tinues to expand, driven by consumption,
investments and a recovery in exports.
The country registered year-on-year gross
domestic product (GDP) growth of about
5% in the second quarter of 2017, and the
World Bank expects GDP to expand by
5.3% in 2018.
Suppor ted by solid job grow th, an
increase in real wages, low and stable infla-
tion at around 4%, and a stable exchange
rate, consumption is expected to remain
robust for the foreseeable future.
“We hope this conducive environment
will support purchasing power, and con-
sumption growth can be maintained at
around 5% going forward,” wrote Indone-
sian Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati
in a recent newspaper commentary.
The government is introducing key
reforms to attract more investments to
bolster grow th. Domestic and foreign
direct investments in the first half of 2017
reached a total of 336.7 trillion rupiah
(US$22 billion), an increase of almost 13%
SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION
compared with the same period last year,
said Ms Indrawati.
All this bodes well for Indonesian com-
panies whose businesses are tied to the
country’s development. Large diversified
conglomerates such as Lippo Group, Astra
International, Bakrie Group and Sintesa
Group have businesses in almost all of the
economy’s key sectors, including mining,
infrastructure, financial services, health-
care and technology. These corporate
giants are also giving back to Indonesia
through their numerous corporate social
responsibility programs.
Exporters, too, are getting a lift from a
stronger global economy. Already the larg-
est garment manufacturer in Indonesia, Pan
Brothers has lofty ambitions to become the
largest apparel supplier in the world.
Meanwhile, specialized consumer com-
panies, such as leading bread producer
Indosari and luxury brands retailer Time
International, are relying on Indonesia’s
growing middle class and higher dis-
posable incomes to fuel the growth of
their businesses.
Jakarta, the capital city of Indonesia.
As more small and midsize enterprises
(SMEs) emerge and expand amid a more
buoyant economy, financial institutions
that focus on supporting SMEs, such as
Bank Rakyat Indonesia, will also prosper.
To attract more foreign investment,
Indonesia’s free trade zones are upgrading
their ser vices and infrastruc ture. One
prime example is the Batam Free Trade
Zone, which is located 20 kilometers south
of Singapore. With its strategic location,
as well as modern infrastruc ture and
amenities, Batam has seen a rise in the
number of companies locating there in
recent years.
While challenges to economic growth
remain, the government has announced its
commitment to tackling the issues ahead,
clearing the way for private enterprises to
continue on their journey of expansion.
“We will further boost private sector
participation in infrastructure development
and create positive synergies with state-
owned enterprises,” says Ms Indrawati.
“These investments will make our economy
even more competitive going forward.”
Indonesia 1
 SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

ASTRA:
TOGETHER AS ONE WITH INDONESIA
The Indonesian group has introduced a range of social responsibility programs and initiatives
to ensure its home also prospers alongside the company.
From automotive to financial services,
from agribusiness to proper t y, A stra
Group is an industr y leader in almost
every segment of Indonesia’s economy.
Since its start as a commodity trader in
1957, the group has expanded into seven
different lines of business, including its
most recent venture into real estate,
which it launched three years ago.
Today, Astra is one of the nation’s largest
diversified business groups. Its operations
spread across Indonesia and comprise 212
subsidiaries, joint ventures and associates,
and are suppor ted by almost 220,0 0 0
employees. The parent company of the
group, PT Astra International Tbk, listed
on the Indonesian Stock Exchange in 1990.
Beyond its sheer size, Astra has built a
strong reputation both in Indonesia and
overseas of offering only the best prod-
ucts and services, with a strict adherence
to good corporate governance and sus- Menara Astra is a prestigious office tower located in Jakarta’s central business district.
tainability standards.
This breadth puts Astra in an ideal
position to capitalize on the continuing With the group’s large footprint comes back to Indonesia. Through its nine social
prosperity of the Indonesian economy. social responsibility to the nation where it responsibility foundations, Astra contrib-
According to World Bank forec as t s, built its success. As a result, the business utes to health, education and the environ-
Southeas t A sia’s larges t economy is activities of Astra aim to have a balance ment; it also fosters the development of
expec ted to expand by a robust 5.3% of commercial considerations and a range small and medium enterprises. Astra also
in 2018. of comprehensive programs that give works with the Indonesian government to
help develop the country’s infrastructure,
ranging from constructing toll roads to
building power plants.
The group’s mission to prosper together
with the nation is best ar ticulated by
Astra founder William Soeryadjaya: “We
would like Astra to grow and flourish like
a shady tree that serves as a shelter for
many during rain or shine.” In a nutshell,
Soeryadjaya sees Astra as a company that
will benefit society and the country as it
continues to grow and prosper.

Unified Spirit for Indonesia

W i t h t h i s g u i d i n g s t r a t e g y, A s t r a
has developed an overarching blue -
print known as the Triple P Road Map,
which refers to “Portfolio, People and
Public Contribution.”
The Por t folio Road Map covers the
Prijono Sugiarto, President Director of Astra International, shared the importance of group’s wide range of business lines,
innovating at the InnovNational Seminar. with the goal of becoming one of the

2 Indonesia

best-managed companies in the Asso-
ciation of Sou theas t A sian Nations.
To achieve this, Astra aims to be the
leader in its seven key business seg-
m e n t s : a u t o m o t i v e ; f i n a n c i a l s e r-
vices; heav y equipment, mining and
energ y; agribusines s; inf ras tr uc ture
and logistics; information technology;
and property.
In the property segment, for instance,
Astra has developed an integrated office
and apar tment complex, the Menara
Astra and Anandamaya Residences in
Jakarta’s central business district, as well
as residential segments in the eastern
and southern districts. Since its launch
in August 2014, more than 90% of the
Anandamaya Residences have been sold.
The People Road Map emphasizes
the impor tance of human capital as a
key to sustaining excellent performance
in the organization. As such, develop-
ing its people is an integral part of the
SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION
the philosophy of “Winning Concept,
Winning System, Winning Team.” Astra
also constantly relies on continuous inno-
vation to deliver operational excellence.
In terms of the Public Contribution Road
Map, social responsibility is integral to the
core values handed down by the found-
ers of Astra, namely to “Prosper with the
Nation.” The group is heavily engaged
in corporate social responsibility (CSR)
initiatives with the objective of improv-
ing the quality of life of the communi-
ties where Astra operates. This includes
providing better healthcare and edu-
cation, shaping efforts to preserve and
protec t the environment and empow-
ering communitie s to improve their
Astra Financial Highlights economic welfare.
To achieve these goals, Astra runs a
wide range of programs that encompass
the four pillars of its CSR: Astra untuk
Indonesia Sehat (Healthy Indonesia), Astra
untuk Indonesia Cerdas (Smart Indonesia),
A s t r a unt uk Ind o ne sia Hijau (Gree n
Indonesia) and Astra untuk Indonesia
Kreatif (Creative Indonesia). Furthermore,
programs such as Kampung Berseri Astra
and SATU Indonesia Awards recognize
Indonesia’s talented youth who have
given back to their communities.
On its 60th anniversary, Astra’s multi-
faceted mission to be a leading company
while contributing to the development of
Indonesia is as important as ever, and will
help the group achieve its ultimate goal
of being the “Pride of the Nation.”
Astra Financial Highlights
group’s business strategy to achieve its
organizational goals. Astra aspires to
become “The Most Preferred Company
to Work For” through the implementa-
tion of human resource development
and management strategies based on www.astra.co.id
THE ASTRA WAY
Corporate Philosophy - Catur Dharma
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Mission
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Vision
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 UWUVCKPCDNGITQYVJD[DWKNFKPIEQORGVGPEGVJTQWIJRGQRNGFGXGNQROGPVUQNKF
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Indonesia 3
 SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

INDOSARI:
A NEW RECIPE FOR SUCCESS
Indonesian’s largest bread maker has all the right ingredients to grow its brand both at home and overseas.

As the producer of Indonesia’s best-

known cake and bread brands, PT Nippon
Indosari Corpindo Tbk (Indosari) is well
positioned to take advantage of the
countr y’s robust economy and rising
disposable incomes.
Southeas t A sia’s larges t economy
grew at an average rate of 5.8% over the
past decade, and is expected to expand
by a further 5.3% in 2018, according to
forecasts by the World Bank.
More affluent Indonesians now seek
out higher quality food products, such as
those offered by Indosari’s flagship brand
Sari Roti. The company was established in
1995, and a year later it started producing
Sari Roti breads from its first factory at
Cikarang, West Java.
Riding on the success of the brand,
Indosari has grown to become the largest Indosari’s mini-market profile
producer and distributor of packaged
bread in Indonesia, with 10 factories across capabilities as well as a comprehensive distributor of snacks, noodles and biscuits
the archipelago making 10 0 dif ferent distribution network that exceeds 67,500 in the country.
bread products. points of sale throughout Indonesia. Indosari holds a at 55% stake in the
The company’s first-mover advantage A par t f rom selling it s produc t s in j o i n t- v e n t u r e c o m p a n y, S a r i m o n d e
in selling products that are halal, high supermarkets and convenience stores, Foods Corporation, with Monde Nissin
quality and affordable has been key to its the company also organizes a distribution Corporation’s owning the remaining
popularity with consumers. This success system of more than 3,300 mobile tricycle 45%. As the second-largest market in the
is als o und er pinne d by t he g rou p’s carts to penetrate urban neighborhoods Association of Southeast Asian Nations,
ex panding high-tech manufac turing and shops in rural parts of Indonesia. the Philippines is a lucrative market that
In terms of technology, the company shares many similar characteristics with
utilizes advanced baking techniques the Indonesian market.
acquired through the suppor t of it s Indosari will enter the Korean market
major shareholder Pasco Shikishima this year after reaching an agreement with
Corporation, Japan’s second-largest the country’s leading coffee franchise,
bread company. Caffe Bene. The deal will give Indosari
Collec tively, Indosari’s competitive the exclusive right to supply cakes and
ad vant ag e s have t r anslated into an pastries in 576 Caffe Bene outlets in South
impressive financial performance over the Korea from December.
years. Revenue grew almost 16% in 2016 Having made the leap abroad, Indosari
from a year earlier. Meanwhile, earnings is now set to showcase its high quality
per share attributable to the owners of products and business prowess on a far
the parent entity expanded 3.5% over the bigger stage, even as it continues to pursue
same period. growth in its fast-growing home market.

A Slice of the Global Pie

Leveraging its success in building a brand
powerhouse in Indonesia’s bread industry
over the past 22 years, Indosari is now
expanding outside its home market.
In February last year, it entered into a
joint venture in the Philippines with Monde
Raising brand awareness Nissin Corporation, a leading maker and www.sariroti.com

4 Indonesia
 SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

BRI:
DELIVERING WORLD-CLASS SERVICE
The Indonesian bank is embracing digital initiatives to better serve its customers in Indonesia and abroad.

registered a net profit of IDR On the consumer banking side, BRI

20.5 trillion, (over US$1.5 billion) is committed to providing more people
up 8.2% over the previous year. with easier access to banking. Indonesia
has a high number of people who are
Committed to Inclusion not yet served by banks, with only 36%
BRI was started in 1895 in Pur- of the population aged 15 and above
wokerto, Central Java, by Raden possessing a bank account, according to
the 2014 Global Findex report.
Aria Wiriatmaja. Initially it helped
manage mosques’ cash, which To o v e r c o m e t h i s i s s u e, B R I h a s
was to be distributed to the pub- launched a number of initiatives, including
lic using a simple scheme. Agent BRILink and Floating Teras BRI, to
Since its early years, BRI has reach segments of the population without
focused on supporting micro, access to such services.
small and medium enterprises Agent BRILink utilizes a net work of
(MSMEs), and was a pioneer of agents to broaden the bank’s reach to
microfinance in Indonesia. BRI underserved regions across Indonesia.
works closely with Indonesian Agent s are selec ted from existing
MSMEs to support them in their microborrowers who have a good financial
mission to become regional track record and a permanent shop with
champions. While that commit- regular customers. There are currently
ment to small businesses contin- more than 138,000 BRILink agents offering
ues, the bank has also expanded customers a place to conveniently conduct
BRI President Director, Suprajarto its of ferings to cover a wide their banking transactions.
range of customer segments. For BRI, this innovative distribution
Fo r ove r a c e nt ur y, P T Ba n k Ra k y at Today, BRI’s businesses include its system has several benefits. It accelerates
I n d o n e s i a ( Pe r s e r o ) T b k ( B R I ) h a s microbusiness program, retail business, the process of gathering low-cost funds,
responded to the changing needs of c o r p o r a t e b u s i n e s s , i n t e r n a t i o n a l inc rea s e s t he num ber of c u s tomer s
consumers and businesses by leveraging business, treasur y and capital market and supports the growth of fee-based
innovation and technology to stay at the supporting services. Its subsidiaries are income. Over the longer term, Agent
leading edge of Indonesia’s financial engaged in Sharia banking, agribusiness, B R I L i n k w i l l a l s o d r i v e t h e b a n k ’s
services sector. remittance, insurance and financing. operational efficiency.
A m o n g i t s m a ny g ro u n d b rea k i n g
achievements, BRI was the first to provide
s e l f- s e r v ic e b a n k i n g i n t h e c o u n t r y
through its BRI Hybrid Banking service in
2013. To ensure that more people have
access to banking ser vices across the
vast Indonesian archipelago, it was also
the first to offer a sea-floating banking
service in 2015. And last year, it became
the first bank in the world to own and
operate its own satellite.
This commitment to innovation and
the tireless work of its employees have
helped propel BRI to become one of
Indonesia’s largest and most profitable
banks, offering a comprehensive range
of banking products and services to its
ever-growing customer base. The results
speak for itself: BRI has been Indonesia’s
most profitable bank for more than a
decade. In the third quarter of 2017, BRI Agent BRILink is an innovative service to boost financial inclusion.

6 Indonesia

BRI launched Teras Mobile to reach remote areas across Indonesia.
Reflec ting its deep-rooted commit-
ment to financial inclusion, BRI has even
managed to reach customers out at sea.
The Floating Teras BRI is the world’s first
sea-based banking service that provides
fishermen and coastal communities access
to financial services.
Beyond being a floating bank outlet,
the program aims to promote the rural
economies of coastal communities. In
2016, BRI launched three vessels, the
Bahtera Seva I, II and III. In addition to
banking services, the Bahtera Seva III also
provides mobile healthcare services as
well as a free library.
The Power of Digital
With growing demand by its customers
for higher quality and more customized
financial ser vices, BRI has introduced
more technology into its operations in
recent years. Indeed, technology-centric
ser vices have become the bank ’s key
channel for engaging customers across
Indonesia as more people embrace the
digital revolution.
As part of its efforts to fulfill the needs of its digital-savvy customers,
SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION
Looking ahead, the bank will continue
to build its own digital bank brands and
has been enhancing its digital capabilities
prowess by par tnering with the best
financial technolog y specialis t s and
recruiting the best technologists from
all over the globe. It has also adopted a
mobile-first strategy and implemented
solutions such as Open APIs and chatbots.
It will soon have a credit-scoring service
that uses deep learning technology to
expedite the underwriting for its ultra-
microloan customers to support financial
inclusion in Indonesia.
The Journey Ahead
BRI is well placed to take advantage of
Indonesia’s growing prosperity. The World
Rather than view digital disruption as a Bank expects the Indonesian economy
threat, BRI sees today’s digital era as an to expand by 5.3% in 2018 as overall
opportunity to innovate to provide better, fundamentals continue to improve.
f a s te r a n d m o re c o nve nie n t
services for its customers.
For instance, it has launched
a number of digital initiatives
to ser ve it s core MSME c us-
tomer base. These include Teras
BRI Digital, e-Pasar, a one mil-
lion free domain program for
MSMEs, and the launch of a co-
working space.
With the launch of its satellite,
BRIsat, in 2016 to ensure the sta-
bility of its network, the bank can BRI is the only bank in the world to own and operate
now optimize its digital banking floating banks, providing people in coastal areas
services. BRIsat is the first com- with access to financial services.
munications satellite in the world
owned and operated by a bank to deliver The bank also has set it s sight s on
financial services. the global market and has expanded its
BRIsat allows BRI to widen its service international network in recent years.
coverage ac ros s Indonesia and ef fi- In 2017, it opened a branch of fice in
ciently deliver digital services to previ- Timor-Leste, adding to other overseas
ously out-of-reach consumers in remote units including BRI New York Agency,
areas of the world’s biggest archipelago. BRI Cayman Island Branch, Hong Kong
Representative Of fice, BRI Singapore
Branch and BRI Remittance Hong Kong.
BRI is committed to achieving top-tier
status across all its business segments in
Indonesia by 2021, and become the most
valuable bank in Southeast Asia by 2022.
Based on its track record of providing
the best banking services in Indonesia
across all its customer segments, BRI
i s w ell o n t h e road to realize t h e s e
ambitious targets.
BRI launched its first digital branch in 2016. www.bri.co.id
Indonesia 7
Healthcare
across Asia.
Committed to delivering
integrated and quality
healthcare across the
region through our
network of hospitals,
medical centres and
outpatient clinics.
Growing with you
every step of the way.

siloamhospitals.com ouelh.com healthwaymedical.com

 SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

PAN BROTHERS:
CLOTHING THE WORLD WITH INDONESIAN HEART
Indonesia’s leading apparel producer is already the supplier of choice for many of the leading international retail brands.

PT Pan Brothers Tbk (PBRX) is the larg-

est garment manufacturer in Indonesia
and aims to become the largest apparel
supplier in the world. PBRX is ready to
be par t of Ind one sia emerging as a
global leader in garment sourcing for
retail brands worldwide as PBRX’s vision
is “To Be An Integrated and Worldwide
Apparel Supplier.”
How will PBRX accomplish this lofty
goal? With continuous improvements in
productivity, efficiency and production
expansion with new technology. The
company’s IT platform in production and
planning has been running since 2010, and
in 2017, PBRX enhances more application
to support the growth and the system.
Revenue growth each year is targeted at
a minimum of 10% to 15% a year for the
next five years.
Grow th also comes from upstream
as well as downstream efforts, to create
a fully integrated supply chain. PBRX is
also compliant with standards such as
SA 8000, OHSAS, C-TPAT/GSV and ISO
cer tification. PBR X is planning to set
up a synthetic woven fabric mills in the
future. On the retail side, PBRX’s retail
business is growing existing brands such
as Zoe Black, Salt n Pepper, Asylum, FTL
and Wastu, with more than 170 stores in
Indonesia beside the online platform.
The company was established in 1980
and went public in 1990. PBRX supports
free-trade negotiation to encourage
global grow th and make it easier for
PBRX currently produces more than 90 million pieces.
Indonesia to develop its textile, garment
and ap parel ex per tise. T he ap parel
business is very competitive, but PBRX is
already a “one-stop” shop for brands to
develop, source and make their products.
P B R X ’s m i s s i o n i s t o i m p r o v e i t s
performance and products by continuously
applying the best management practice in
order to create the best opportunities for
its employees to develop and achieve their
full potential. It also strives to maximize
shareholder value, while adopting good
corporate governance and disclosure
practices in order to utilize its financial
resources efficiency.
Proof of PBR X’s customer satisfac-
tion is demonstrated in the long-term
relationship with many global brands,
which include Uniqlo, Adidas, The North
Face, Salomon, Arc’teryx, Calvin Klein,
J. Crew, Dillard’s, Belk, Orvis, Stadium,
Gerbing, Spyder, Mavic, Guess, Strellson,
Joop!, Oviesse, Coin, Holy Fashion, H&M,
Lacoste, Geox, Kathmandu, PVH, G2000,
Express, Tom Tailor, Hollister, Tommy
Hil f ig e r, A r mani, Hunte r, De s c e nte,
Mizuno, Christopher & Banks, Oakley, Tor-
rid, Speedo, Berghaus, Columbia Sports-
wear, Prada and IKEA.
PBRX produces (i) technical, functional
and activewear jackets suited for snow-
boarding, ski outer wear, ac tivewear,
jogging, hiking, and other spor ts and
outdoor ac tivities, etc. (ii) woven gar-
ments such as padded and lightweight
jackets, pants, shorts, casual pants, dress
shirts, etc. (iii) cut and sewn knit garments
such as polo shirts, golf shirts, tracksuits,
and sweatsuits. Setup capacity is tar-
geted to increase from 90 million pieces
of garments to 117 million in 2018 and
early 2019.

The company produces apparel for top global brands. www.panbrotherstbk.com

10 Indonesia

SINTESA GROUP:
WINNING TRANSFORMATION
The conglomerate has set its sights on not only being a market leader in Indonesia but also a trailblazer in sustainability.
Sintesa Group has been navigating Indo-
nesia’s dynamic business environment for
three generations. From a humble rubber
plantation founded in 1919 by Oey Kim
Tjiang, the grandfather of the current
head and owner, Shinta Widjaja Kamdani,
to the trading company Tigaraksa in 1959,
led by Johnny Widjaja, Shinta’s father.
Then in 1999, Shinta took the reins as
the third generation leader of the family
and transformed the business into a con-
solidated holding company comprised
of four business pillars, namely property,
energy, industrial and consumer prod-
ucts, and introduced the new corporate
image of Sintesa Group. Today, Sintesa
Group has become one of the country’s
major conglomerates, with about 16 busi-
nesses—two of which are listed on the
Indonesian Stock Exchange, PT Tigaraksa
Satria Tbk and PT Tira Austenite Tbk—
annual revenue of more than US$1 billion
and more than 3,000 employees.
The group underwent further trans-
formation in 2009 as a result of a desire
to modernize and to reflec t its iden-
tity as a reputable global brand. At the
time, Sintesa Group had revenue below
US$700 million—meaning group revenue
has grown more than 50% in less than a
decade. Having been in operation for
almost a century, Sintesa Group under-
stands that the key for continued growth
is sustainability.
SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION
Cognizant of its importance not only
for business but also for the environment
and community, Sintesa Group has estab-
lished a vision 2020: Sustainable Excel-
lence Company. Internally in its business,
Sintesa Group has focused on clean and
renewable energy, while at the same time
making sustainability one of its key per-
formance indicators. Sustainability is what
drives Sintesa Group, not only internally,
but it is also reflected externally in its
activities. This drive prominently started
when Sintesa Group founded the Indo-
nesia Business Council on Sustainable
Development (IBCSD) in 2011 to advocate
to businesses operating in Indonesia the
need to implement sustainable business
practice and to synergize profit with peo-
ple and the planet harmoniously. Together
with all of its members, Sintesa Group is
working on the Indonesia vision 2050 proj-
ect to develop a holistic business view of
a sustainable and sustaining civilization by
2050. Concurrently, Sintesa Group is also
aligning its business model and external
activities to help the world attain the Sus-
tainable Development Goals (SDG), pro-
viding basic education and skills training
for the underprivileged, promoting that
women empowerment in the workplace
equals Smar t economics, focusing on
developing clean and renewable energy,
raising awareness of the importance of
sustainable consumption and production,
Business pillars
helping innovative and creative entre-
preneurs to scale-up their business, and
pushing concerted efforts for these goals
through the establishment of several SDG-
related organizations.
Critical to the success of Sintesa Group
is building strong partnerships with lead-
ing multinational firms. Among the com-
panies that have partnered with Sintesa
Group are Johnson & Johnson, BASF, Car-
refour and several other multinationals.
“Our focus is to establish strategic part-
nerships with strong international brands,
maintain our proven track record and con-
tinue to innovate and grow in the Indone-
sian market,” the Sintesa Group says on its
website. In summary, with its diverse and
well-rounded experience in navigating
the Indonesia market, Sintesa Group has
and will continue to become the preferred
partner for doing business in the country.
It is also an important and valuable mem-
ber of the Indonesian business community,
both through its commercial activities and
its sustainability efforts.
www.sintesagroup.com
Indonesia 11
 SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

TIME INTERNATIONAL:
SECOND TO NONE
The watch and fashion retailer’s established presence and reputation for quality
leaves it well placed to satisfy Indonesia’s growing appetite for luxury.
With rising affluence fueled by a robust
economy, more Indonesian consumers are
opening their wallets and spending their
money on a range of luxury items—from
fashion and timepieces to accessories
and footwear.
This puts Time International, the coun-
try’s leading luxury watch and fashion
retailer, in an enviable position to capture
a big slice of this growing market.
The company has a dominant presence
across Southeast Asia’s largest economy,
holding exclusive retailing right s or
authorized sales points to more than 80 of
the world’s most renowned timepiece and
lifestyle brands.
“Despite the current challenges that
are happening in the region, we believe
that with Indonesia’s current strong and
growing domestic market, we can remain The Time Place is the company’s flagship timepieces boutique.
optimistic and benefit from the situation.
We have seen good grow th over the br and s, Aud emar s Pig uet, Breg uet, to a positive outlook for luxury goods in
years in the luxury sector, particularly in Cartier, Chopard, Fossil, Hublot, Rolex the country.
the watches segment, which is our core and TAG Heuer, as well as fashion brands Furthermore, an estimated 90 million
business,” says Ir wan Danny Mussr y, including Berluti, Chanel, Diesel, Fendi Indonesians will join the ranks of the
Time International’s President and Chief and Tory Burch. consuming class by 2030, according to
Executive Officer. This presents plenty of touch points a repor t by management consultancy
The company was established in the in an economy that relies heavily on McKinsey & Company. Only China and
1960s to assemble, service and manage domestic consumption, with consumer India are likely to surpass this increase in
the wholesale distribution of watches. spending at a mas sive 57% of gros s numbers of consumers.
Since then it has expanded into a leading domestic product. This is significantly To c a t e r t o g r o w t h i n a l l m a r ke t
retailer of high-end timepieces and other higher than the corresponding figures segments, Time International has been
premium lifestyle categories. for neighboring nations such as China, agg re s sively pur suing a multibr and
Today, it operates close to 100 stand- Malaysia and Thailand. The growing a p p r o a c h . T h e c o m p a ny ’s f l a g s h i p
a l o n e m o n o a n d m u l t i l a b e l s to r e s , number of wealthy consumers in timepieces boutique, The Time Place,
exclusively representing, among other Indonesia each year is also contributing carries the most luxurious brands, while
INTime caters to a younger, trendier
clientele that still values premium quality.
As for Urban Icon, it looks to attract a
younger demographic that is both fashion
forward and value conscious.
“We have a wide variety of custom-
ers in our por tfolio, but a few key fac-
tors remain consistent: they are sophisti-
cated, knowledgeable, brand-conscious
and want the finer things in life. These
days, they are also ver y tech-sav v y,”
says Mussry.
Despite the growth of e-commerce,
Time International’s physical boutiques
are a key channel in reaching it s
Time International exclusively represents a range of luxury brands. well-heeled audience. According to

12 Indonesia

The company has helped introduce leading international brands to the Indonesian market.
Euromonitor International, store-based
retailing still dominated the distribution
of luxur y goods in Indonesia in 2016.
Most Indonesians, especially middle-
aged, affluent consumers, prefer to make
purchases in person.
Furthermore, infrastructure improve-
ments are set to boost Indonesia’s retail
industry. The construction of a MRT (mass
rapid transit) system that will have direct
access to Jakarta’s shopping centers is
scheduled to be completed at the end
of 2018. It is expected to increase foot-
fall and drive the growth for Indonesia’s
luxury goods industry.
A Full-Service Partner
Time International entered the luxur y
fashion retail market when it opened
its first Chanel boutique in Indonesia
in 2008. It has since expanded its pres-
ence in that segment by introducing
leading international brands such as
Berluti, Diesel, Fendi and Tor y Burch
Time International’s portfolio covers all market segments.
SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION
to Indonesian consumer s hungr y for
luxury goods.
“Our customers today are most defi-
nitely more advanced, and more aware of
value, quality and services. More often than
not, customers come into our stores now
knowing already exactly what they want,
what their options are, and enjoy the knowl-
edge exchanges they have with our team
members in the stores,” says Mussry.
“It’s also now no longer just about the
products; importance lies in the entire
experience and journey of finding that
product of their dreams,” he adds.
To s u p p o r t i t s r a pid l y ex pa nd ing
business, Time International also invests
heavily in acquiring and training the
best talent the industry has to offer. The
company has a comprehensive learning
and development program for its 1,200
employees across the country.
The company has also cultivated close
relationships with the brands it represents
over the years, and acts as a full-service
partner to them. Beyond being a retailer
and marketer, Time International offers a
full suite of services to its clients as well.
The company’s well-trained technicians
at its watch-service centers, for instance,
perform everything from routine cleaning
and maintenance services to more compli-
cated repairs.
Eye on Technology
Beyond the luxury segment, the company
has also been developing businesses
in other sec tors that can benefit from
Indonesia’s continued prosperity. These
i n c l u d e v e n t u r e s i n f a s t- e m e r g i n g
technology fields such as fintech, medtech
and agrotech.
With the Indonesian economy expected
to continue growing for years to come, Time
International is well placed to find success
as a diversified business conglomerate that
places a premium on quality products and
services that are backed by high standards
of customer care.
“We are exploring other cities in Indo-
nesia that have potentially good retail
space for expansion, and aside from our
current businesses, the company is also
in the midst of carefully growing its reach
into other economic verticals such as con-
sumer-facing technology and agriculture,”
Mussry says. “All of this, without steering
away from our goals to continue being
consumer facing.”
www.timeinternational.co.id
Indonesia 13
 SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

BAKRIE GROUP:
TRANSFORMING FOR THE DIGITAL AGE
The Indonesian group has long been intertwined with the country’s fortunes,
and will continue to innovate to help ensure the nation’s long-term growth.

The Bakrie Group was founded in 1942
by the late H. Achmad Bakrie, three years
before Indonesia declared independence,
and ha s sinc e g row n along sid e t he
country—through the ups and downs, ebbs
and tides—to become one of Indonesia’s
leading conglomerates.
Bakrie has played a key role in support-
ing the development of Indonesia into
a modern economy that is the largest in
Southeast Asia today. Starting as a mod-
est commodit y trading company, the
group has expanded into multiple indus-
tries that touch almost every aspect of
Indonesian life.
In 2014, with the government focused on
infrastructure development, Bakrie worked
to synergize its assets to ensure it could
support this plan. For instance, it developed
coal-mining production to support the
country’s power plants and a gas pipeline to
support its gas-mining activities as well as
infrastructure products for the construction
of toll roads and bridges.
As two-thirds of Indonesia’s economy is
driven by domestic consumption, Bakrie
also focused on growing its media and
technology businesses as one of its key
pillars. The media and technology sectors
interact directly with consumer trends and
are an excellent platform for developing
future consumer-related businesses.
“Over the decades we have been pio-
neers in entering into businesses that are
relevant to Indonesia’s long-term growth,”
says Anindya Bakrie, the third generation to
lead Bakrie.
Leading the Way
Significantly, the businesses in these dif-
ferent verticals are run by professional
executives using globally recognized
management and governance practices.
Each vertical’s holding entity is publicly
listed and has its own independent board
of directors and set of shareholders.
Bakrie pioneered these governance mea-
sures in the 1980s at a time when many fam-
ily businesses in Indonesia were still run by
family members. It was the first major Indo-
nesian company to go public with the listing
of Bakrie & Brothers in 1989 on the Indone-
sian Stock Exchange.
Today, the group continues to innovate
in a fast-changing business landscape.
Specifically, it is using technology to
improve the efficiency of its operations
across the different verticals and to reach
out to new markets.
“By using technology, we can still move
quickly to adapt to changing business condi-
tions despite our size,” says Anindya Bakrie.
To this end, there are numerous exam-
ples of how Bakrie can rapidly expand its
businesses using technology and innova-
tion, such as using prefabricated building
techniques in construction, or offering
digital tools that allow buyers to design
their own homes for the property group.
It is also exploring solar technology to
build a solar power plant, and has adopted
yield-monitoring applications to measure
the effectiveness of yield production in
its agriculture business. The group is also
looking to leverage digital technology
to expand its presence in the media and
entertainment businesses.
Anindya Bakrie, Chief Executive Officer of
PT Bakrie Global
programs. Through it s philanthropic
foundations, the group has disbursed
more than US$120 million in just five
years. It also conducts various support
programs that focus on education, social
and environmental causes. These initia-
tives have benefited more than 500,000
people across the country. For instance,
hundreds of thousands of people in Indo-
nesia have received free access to medi-
cal facilities that support a rapid response
to natural disasters.
“In Bakrie, not only do we want to grow
over the long term but we also want to
grow together with our partners. That
is the reason we believe in solid long-
term alliances and partnership, including
with state-owned and small and medium
enterprises,” says Anindya Bakrie.
Looking ahead, the Bakrie group will
continue to evolve according to the needs
of the Indonesian and global economy,
delivering value to its shareholders and
stakeholders and contributing to the growth
of the Indonesian economy.

Helping at Home
At the same time, Bakrie continues its
long tradition of giving back to Indone-
sian society through its many corporate
Bakrie Tower social responsibility and sustainability www.bakrieglobal.com

14 Indonesia
 PROPERTY

P L A N TAT I O N MEDIA & TECHNOLOGY

SPORTS & LIFESTYLE F O U N D AT I O N S


BATAM
FREE TRADE ZONE:
AN OPPORTUNITY FOR BUSINESS
The Indonesian island offers key advantages to companies looking to grow in the region.
From its strategic location and tax-exempt
status to its modern facilities and infra-
structure, Batam offers a host of benefits
to companies that wish to set up opera-
tions within its free trade zone.
These incentives have been effective in
attracting investment to the Indonesian
island, which is located 20 kilometers
southeast of Singapore. About US$765
million in foreign direct investment flowed
into Batam in the first nine months of
2017, up 78% from the year-earlier period.
Thirteen new companies have also set up
in the zone this year.
The Batam Free Trade Zone is at the
cros sroad s of busines s and trade in
Southeast Asia. Batam is part of the Riau
archipelago, which lies south of Vietnam
and Cambodia, to the east of Malaysia and
Singapore and to the west of Borneo.
Companies operating on Batam can
take advantage of the world-class Port of
Singapore, enabling connections to the
international shipping lane along the Strait
of Malacca that connects the Indian and
the Pacific oceans.
Batam is easily accessible from around
the region. It takes less than an hour to
get there by ferr y from Singapore or
Johor Bahru in Malaysia, and there are a
number of flights from across Indonesia to
Hang Nadim International Airport, which
features the country’s longest runway.
There are 24 industrial parks located on the Indonesian island.
16 Indonesia
SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION
Tax Exemptions
In 2007, the government des-
ig nated Bat am a f ree tr ad e
zone for 70 year s. It cover s
the islands of Batam, Tonton,
Nipah, Rempang, Galang and
Galang Baru. Companies with
manufacturing operations on
Batam are exempt from import
and expor t taxes, as well as
value-added tax.
Raw materials may also be
impor ted, processed and re- A skilled workforce is available for companies
expor ted without being sub- who set up factories in Batam.
jec t to custom duties. In the
first half of 2017, more than US$5 million electricity supply, as well as four cargo
in goods were exported from Batam, a ports, five international ferry terminals and
22% increase over the year-earlier period. an international airport. With extensive
The 24 industrial parks in Batam are paved roads and bridges, getting around
equipped with a comprehensive range of the island is easy and convenient.
facilities and amenities. The larger ones The free trade zone is designed for ease
provide clean water supply and wastewa- of doing business. Companies can now
ter treatment, workers’ dormitories and obtain the eight licenses that they need
executive housing, and even their own to operate on Batam in just three hours.
electricity power supply system. Workers Meanwhile, licensing for the transport
can also access services such as banks, of goods can be processed in just four
restaurants and food courts, as well as working days online, compared with the
retail, sports and medical facilities. 14 working days needed previously under
Outside the industrial parks, Batam’s a manual system.
infrastructure is highly developed, and With so much on offer, the Batam Free
includes fresh water from seven man- Trade Zone should be at the top of the list of
made reservoirs, waste water treatment potential locations for manufacturers look-
plant s, a surplus capacit y of 54 0MW ing to grow their presence in the region.
Phone: (+62) 778 462047-48
ext 2124, 2123, 2180
marketing@bpbatam.go.id
www.bpbatam.go.id
52 | FORBES ASIA DECEMBER 2017
PHOTOGRAPH BY JAMEL TOPPIN FOR FORBES
CREDIT
STYLETK
ASSISTANTS: MAXIMILLIAN PARKINSON AND PARIS TORIBIO; HAIR AND MAKEUP: SUZANA HALLILI USING URBAN DECAY AND MARIO BADESCU; PHOTOGRAPHED AT THE RITZ-CARLTON, BOSTON
 3O 3O

BILLION-DOLLAR
BUMBLE
Three years after leaving Tinder amid a nasty
dispute, 30 Under 30 honoree Whitney Wolfe
Herd is beating her old colleagues at their
own game, offering U.S. women a dating app
that’s designed for them—and entrepreneurs a
blueprint on how to succeed in a saturated field.
BY CLARE O’CONNOR

W
hen Whitney Wolfe Herd started planning an October launch party for a new product at Bumble,
America’s fastest-growing dating-app company, she was deliberate in her choice of venue: the Manhattan
space that for 57 years hosted the Four Seasons restaurant, where regulars like Henry Kissinger, Vernon
Jordan, Edgar Bronfman and Stephen Schwarzman created the ultimate power lunch.
The space now has a new name, new management and a new menu. And, as Herd insists, a new per-
spective on business. “The power lunch is no longer just for men,” Herd announces to the mostly young,
mostly female crowd, before ceding the stage to the pop star Fergie. “We all deserve a seat at the table.”
That table surely now includes the 28-year-old Herd, who has changed the tenor of dating dynamics. By letting women
make the first move, Bumble has amassed over 22 million registered users, to Tinder’s 46 million, and at more than 70%
year-over-year growth, to Tinder’s roughly 10%, it’s closing the gap quickly. Bumble began monetizing via in-app purchas-
es only in August 2016 and will cross $100 million in sales this year, a figure that—aided by the introduction of tailored, hy-
perlocal advertising—is projected to double in 2018. Herd turned down a $450 million buyout offer from the Match Group
earlier this year, according to sources with knowledge of the conversations. And these sources maintain that Match ap-
proached the company again this fall to discuss a valuation well over $1 billion. This 30 Under 30 honoree retains 20% of
Bumble, a stake that makes her a centimillionaire. (Match declined to comment.)
It’s a stunning comeback. As cofounder and vice president of marketing at Tinder, which has reinvented how people date and
mate, she was part of one of the great business success stories of the smartphone age. But then she found herself in one of the era’s
great public dramas. In June 2014, she sued Tinder for sexual harassment, alleging that her ex-boss and ex-boyfriend Justin Ma-
teen called her a “whore” and “gold digger” and bombarded her with threatening and derogatory text messages, which she attached
to her complaint. She also alleged that Tinder, owned by IAC and then by its Match Group spinoff, had wrongly stripped her of a
cofounder title. The company denied any wrongdoing, but Mateen was suspended and then resigned. Sean Rad, then the CEO of

DECEMBER 2017 FORBES ASIA | 53

 3O 3O
BILLION-DOLLAR BUMBLE
CEO Herd wants Bumble to
empower women in dating,
friendship and career.
Tinder, told Forbes in 2014 that Herd bore part of the blame for
the bad blood between her and Mateen. The suit was quickly
settled for a sum that Forbes previously reported to be approx-
imately $1 million. (The settlement bars the parties from dis-
cussing the case.)
There’s no question who the founder of Bumble is. Rath-
er than sulk about Tinder, Herd decided to compete against
it. In doing so, she belatedly entered one of the most crowded
and established digital fields (over 90% of online dating start-
ups fail) and nonetheless quickly carved out a lucrative space
by focusing on the needs of one segment: women. More than
10% of Bumble’s users pay $9.99 for a monthly subscription to
access perks like extra time to decide whether a suitor merits a
message. At Tinder, just about 5% of users pay for a similar ser-
vice, according to a report from the investment firm Jefferies. It
helps, of course, that her segment also happens to represent a
majority of the population.
“I just don’t harbor resentment toward anything or anywhere
or anyone—I’m too busy,” Herd says. But if success is the best re-
venge, then nine digits in three years flat offers the kind of vindica-
tion people make movies about.
HERD’S PATH TO BUMBLE WAS UNINTENDED. In the months be-
tween filing suit against Tinder and settling, she experienced the
sort of online abuse that’s all too familiar to women who make
public sexual harassment allegations. “I was being told the ugli-
est things by complete strangers, and they were having full debates
about me,” Herd says. “I wasn’t running for office. I wasn’t trying to
be on a reality show. I was just a girl who left somewhere.”
When that abuse turned into rape and murder threats from
strangers, she deleted her Twitter account. Panic attacks and para-
noia followed. A Salt Lake City native who attended private school
54 | FORBES ASIA DECEMBER 2017
and is a third-generation legacy at Southern Methodist Universi-
ty in Dallas, she retreated to Texas and the family of her then boy-
friend Michael Herd, who’s now her husband. “I was broken,” she
says. Trying to give some purpose to this trauma, Herd began
sketching out a women-only social network called Merci, which
would focus on positivity. “No compliments on physicality,” she
says. “Compliments about who they are.”
Then came an unsolicited e-mail from someone with an un-
familiar address and a Russian name, Andrey Andreev. Born
in Moscow and based in London, Andreev in 2006 had found-
ed Badoo, an online dating network that is today the world’s
largest, with over 360 million registered users in 190 countries.
Herd had met Andreev at a dinner in 2013 while she was at Tin-
der, and she’d made an impression. “To be honest, I immediate-
ly fell in love with Whitney’s passion and energy,” says the thick-
accented Andreev, who has acquired a reputation as a recluse
because he rarely grants interviews. “I thought she was a very
cool lady and that I should be watching her very carefully.”
When she didn’t reply, his team e-mailed Herd’s lawyers, wish-
ing her well with her legal battle and adding that he’d like to work
with her. “My original idea was to get her as CMO at Badoo,” says
Andreev, who’s 43.
As it turned out, Herd had plans to visit her little sister at cook-
ing school in Paris, and she made a pit stop in London. She didn’t
want any part of his job offer. “Dream on—I’m not for hire,” she
recalls saying. “I’m starting a company, and I don’t want to be in
dating.” She did pitch him on Merci, though. While Andreev liked
the idea of a women-centric social brand, he thought Herd should
stick to her forte and his: the dating sector. They spent days walk-
ing around London’s streets and parks together, exchanging ideas.
Andreev told her he wanted to pair her innate talent for marketing
and branding with the infrastructure, capital and resources at his
disposal after almost a decade at Badoo.
After she settled the Tinder lawsuit in September 2014—
which, conveniently, did not contain a noncompete clause—she
took Andreev up on his offer. He’d make an initial investment of
about $10 million for launch marketing and commit addition-
al funds to fuel growth, taking 79% of the company. She’d be the
founder, the CEO and a 20% owner, with all the autonomy those
titles imply, while tapping into Badoo’s infrastructure and An-
dreev’s know-how. Both have
come in handy. At Badoo, An-
dreev has a decade’s worth of A-B
“The power tests, data on the effectiveness
lunch is of various monetization efforts
and experience bringing a prod-
no longer uct to scale that have no parallel
just for in the dating market. When the
time came to start charging users
men. We all for in-app perks, for instance, the
deserve a team at Bumble was able to de-
velop sophisticated technology to
seat at the support subscriptions from day
table.” one thanks to input from Badoo.
From September to Decem-
 3O 3O
BILLION-DOLLAR BUMBLE
ber of that year, Herd flew
between Texas and London
around 15 times. She and “What if
Andreev brought in two
of her fellow former Tin-
women
der executives, Chris Gul- make the
czynski and Sarah Mick, to
design the new app’s back
first move,
end and user interface. (The send the first
two left Bumble in April to
launch their own agency message?
but still share the 1% of eq-
uity not held by Andreev
And if they
and Herd.) don’t, the
One night, over cock-
tails, Herd stumbled upon
match
Bumble’s special sauce. “I al- disappears
ways wanted to have a sce-
nario where the guy didn’t
after 24
have my number but I had hours.”
his,” she recalls telling An-
dreev. “What if women make the first move, send the first mes-
sage? And if they don’t, the match disappears after 24 hours, like
in Cinderella, the pumpkin and the carriage? It’d be symbolic of
a Sadie Hawkins dance—going after it, girls ask first. What if we
could hardwire that into a product?” It was the kind of brilliant
tweak that comes from someone who understands the target de-
mographic because they’re in it. After toying with names, the two
settled on Bumble, confident that branding details like hives and
bees would prove a marketing boon. The app went live in Decem-
ber 2014 and garnered over 100,000 downloads in its first month.
“Women were ready for this,” says Dave Evans, an industry con-
sultant who has chronicled hundreds of bad experiences women
have had with men on dating apps. “Women got scared years ago.
This goes way back.”
IT’S 105 DEGREES FAHRENHEIT OUTSIDE Bumble’s new head-
quarters in an otherwise residential neighborhood in north
Austin, Texas. The oppressive August heat hasn’t stopped pass-
ersby from gawking at the building’s exterior. For its grand
opening, artists have covered the sunflower-yellow roof and
walls with thousands of oversize pastel balloons. It looks like
the inside of a gumball machine. Pedestrians take selfies in
front of it; cars linger, drivers asking the name of the company
inside. At Bumble, even something as ostensibly mundane as a
crosstown move is a marketing opportunity.
Bumble has 70 employees, approximately 85% of whom are
women, including in all the top jobs, Andreev aside. The new of-
fice reflects that, from posters and neon signs espousing vari-
ous Bumble mantras like “You’re a Queen Bee,” “Be the CEO
Your Parents Always Wanted You to Marry” and “Make the First
Move.” When Bumble hands out its cream-and-yellow sweat-
ers as gifts at events—the familiar honeycomb logo on the front,
along with the word “Honey”—there’s invariably a scramble. “I
think it’s part of feeling empowered, being proud enough to say
‘I’m on this service,’ ” Evans says. “On the street, if I was wearing
an AdultFriendFinder shirt, it’d be a different story.”
The bee theme and Bumble’s signature yellow are front and
center in the app, which works like this: When two users of the
opposite sex match by swiping right on each other’s profile, the
woman must send her potential date a message first or the con-
nection is void. By giving women control over the initial contact,
Bumble feels more polite and walled-off than competitors, avoid-
ing the unsolicited photos—including the occasional male genita-
lia—that plague online dating. Last year Bumble banned shirtless
mirror selfies (common in male profiles on Tinder); they were the
most-left-swiped photos. This doesn’t mean Bumble can prevent
all abuse or unpleasant experiences—but it does undercut them.
The more controlled environment has resulted in surprising
dividends. Hundreds of thousands of women indicated on their
profiles that they weren’t there only for love. They also cared about
friendship and career. Hence BFF, an offshoot that focuses on pla-
tonic connections between women, and Bizz, which launched of-
ficially at the October party at the old Four Seasons in New York
and offers a challenge to LinkedIn, with the same women-first in-
terface that Bumble’s users have grown accustomed to. “We’re tak-
ing out the soliciting nature and the sexism that exists in network-
ing,” Herd says. “We think we have a chance.”
Success for these offshoots has been modest so far. Bumble
BFF has been tried by over 3 million users, but just 500,000 are
active in a typical month. Bumble Bizz is too new to evaluate, but
like taking on Tinder with a product customized for just under
half the workforce, even modest success carries huge potential.
“To be able to test at that scale is something most startups can’t
do,” says Evans, the consultant. “They can seed that network with
millions of people on Day 1.”
Of course, there’s at least one other dating startup that also
has the scale—and enough men and women—to delve into such
areas. Rad, who is still at Tinder running its mergers and acqui-
sitions arm, Swipe Ventures, declined to comment for this story
(as did Mateen). But the company is obviously taking notes on
Bumble’s moves: Last year Tinder also expanded into platon-
ic relationships with an investment in Hey! Vina, a fast-grow-
ing female-friendship network. And then there’s the keen in-
terest of Tinder’s parent, the Match Group, which remains the
biggest player in the online-dating business in the United States.
The publicly traded company, which in addition to Tinder owns
Match.com, OkCupid, PlentyOfFish and other niche dating sites,
would clearly like to add Bumble to its roster.
“Look, Match has been lucky, because they have 45 different
brands,” says Brent Thill, who covers the dating-app market for
Jefferies. “But probably the one brand that seems to have caught
everyone’s imagination is not theirs.”
Herd wouldn’t comment on the attempted buyouts, but selling
to Tinder’s parent and folding Bumble under the same corporate
umbrella would, of course, serve as a poetic coda to the ugliness
of 2014. Indeed, among those at the headquarters dedication were
representatives of a high-profile Hollywood production company
that is contemplating making a movie about her saga. It is, Herd
acknowledges with a laugh, a pretty good story. F
DECEMBER 2017 FORBES ASIA | 55
3O 3O
It should come as no surprise that 19% of those who made the Forbes 30 Under 30
list this year were born outside the U.S. And of that 19%, more than half were born
in Asia. Thirty-six Chinese and 19 Indians are on the list, which highlights 600
young entrepreneurs and disruptors across 20 industries in the U.S. (We feature 8
of those sectors in the pages that follow.)
To see the whole list, go to www.forbes.com/30under30. —Rana Wehbe

Young Stars of Asian Descent Making a Splash in the U.S.:

FOOD: Peter Yang is the 29-year-old cofounder of Pokéworks,
a restaurant chain in the U.S. and Canada (see p. 58).
MEDIA: India-born Rupi Kaur, 25,, has gained worldwide
Instagram fame thanks to her “Millennial-friendly” poetry
suited for the digital age. Kaur’s first book, Milk and Honey, sold
tracked and has developed a program that can predict the
future position of space junk with 98% accuracy—which is
far more accurate than the statistical models developed by
NASA. For her work, she won the 2017 Intel Foundation Young
Scientist Award and the CERN Award at the Intel Science &
Engineering Fair, and is on the way to commercializing her

STYLE ASSISTANTS: MAXIMILLIAN PARKINSON AND PARIS TORIBIO; GROOMING: SUZANA HALLILI
over 2.5 million copies in 25 languages and spent 77 weeks research with her startup, Seer, while attending Stanford

on the New York Times Best-Seller List while her latest book,
Sun and Her Flowers, which explores her Punjabi-Canadian
heritage, reached the top three on Amazon’s bestseller list.
HOLLYWOOD & ENTERTAINMENT: Kaitlyn Yang’s family
emigrated to the U.S. from China when she was 9. In the same
year, she was diagnosed with spinal muscular atrophy, which
leaves her wheelchair-bound. A graduate of USC’s animation
program, Yang, 25, founded her own postproduction company,
Alpha Studios, in 2013 and has more than 40 credits to her
name, including Robot Chicken and Falling Skies.
SCIENCE: Nine of the 30 honorees are either Indian or
Chinese immigrants. One listee is 18-year-old Amber Yang,
who wants to solve the growing problem of space junk. For
the past three years she’s worked to improve the way it is
EDITED BY CAROLINE HOWARD WITH NATALIE SPORTELLI
USING URBAN DECAY AND MARIO BADESCU; PHOTOGRAPHED AT THE RITZ-CARLTON, BOSTON
University. Another standout is Indian national Deep Jariwala,
who develops nanometer and atomic-scale devices with
applications in computing, sensors and renewable energy. His
materials research made it possible to reduce the thickness of
solar cells to less than a thousandth of that of a human hair.
HEALTHCARE: Kunwoo Lee, 29, is hoping to achieve a
breakthrough in medicine. The South Korean national has
co-authored a paper showing CRISPR technology—the basis
for genome editing—could cure muscular dystrophy in mice.
One big challenge is getting the gene editor into the body.
His solution? Nanoparticles. His startup GenEdit has already
raised $1.5 million.
RETAIL: Celebs are smelling the roses, thanks to Seema
Bansal, 26, whose flowers can last an entire year (p. 64).
PHOTOGRAPH BY JAMEL TOPPIN FOR FORBES
CREATIVE STYLE DIRECTOR: JOSEPH DEACETIS

56 | FORBES ASIA DECEMBER 2017

 MUSIC
Cardi B, 25
Musician, hip-hop
Playboi Carti, 22
Musician, hip-hop
Jovin Cronin-Wilesmith,
Tim Luckow, 27, 29
Cofounders, Stem
Lauren Daigle, 26
Musician, contemporary Christian
Will Dzombak, 29
Manager, Wiz Khalifa
Jackie Evancho, 17
Musician, classical
H.E.R., 20
Musician, R&B
Joe Jonas, 28
Musician, pop
Khalid, 19
Musician, R&B
JaQuel Knight, 28
Choreographer
Kesha Lee, 29
Recording-mix engineer
Lil Uzi Vert, 23
Musician, hip-hop
Lizzo, 29
Musician, hip-hop
Marshmello, 25
DJ-producer
Matt Meyer, 28
Agent, Paradigm
Maren Morris, 27
Musician, country
Offset, Quavo, Takeoff,
26, 26, 23
Musicians, hip-hop, Migos
Mike Posner, 29
Musician, pop
Phil Quist, 29
Agent, Creative Artists Agency
Bebe Rexha, 28
Musician, pop
Thomas Rhett, 27
Musician, country
Travis Scott, 26
Playboi Carti, 21 Musician, hip-hop
Drew Silverstein, 29
M U S IC IA N Cofounder, Amper Music
SZA, 28
There’s no bigger role model for Playboi Musician, R&B
Carti than A$AP Rocky, the Harlem-born rapper Emily Warren, 25
who earned $14.5 million last year (and graced Musician, pop
the cover of 2016’s 30 Under 30 issue). “He laid Hayley Williams, 29
out the platform, and I just went with it,” says Musician, rock, Paramore
Carti, who joined Rocky’s A$AP Mob collec- WondaGurl, 21
Producer
tive and landed a six-figure deal with Interscope
Records in late 2016. Young M.A, 25
Musician, hip-hop
His warbling flow and relentless trap beats
Young Thug, 26
allowed his single “Magnolia” to clock 150 mil- Musician, hip-hop
lion Spotify spins, and his self-titled debut LP Chris Zarou, 28
reached No. 12 on Billboard’s album charts. Manager, Logic
Playboi Carti fans also delight in his fashion
sense: Eccentric, brightly colored outfits (ac- JUDGES
cented by designer handbags) have become a Skylar Grey,
hallmark of his performances. His rising stardom singer-songwriter
resulted in landing an Adidas video campaign (Under 30 Class of 2013)
Bob Moczydlowsky,
this summer that earned him an estimated six- managing director,
figure payout. So how long until his earnings Techstars Music
put him among the top hip-hop artists? “We’ll Kevin Olusola, PLAYBOI CARTI WEARS A POLYAMIDE SHIRT ($1,153)
see,” says Carti. “Hopefully tomorrow.” Grammy-winning AND LEATHER AND COTTON SNEAKER ($703) BY
member of Pentatonix OFF-WHITE C/O VIRGIL ABLOH. PAINTER JEANS BY
—Zack O’Malley Greenburg and (Under 30 Class of 2016) AMIRI ($825). DATEJUST WATCH BY ROLEX.

Natalie Robehmed

DECEMBER 2017 FORBES ASIA | 57

3O 3O
FOOD & DRINK
Erik Brust, Connor Wray, 25, 25
Cofounders, JonnyPops
Jordan Buckner, 29
Founder, TeaSquares
Aaron Caddel, 26
Founder, Mr. Holmes Bakehouse
Sommer Carroll, 26
Cofounder, Dirty Lemon Beverages
Marian Cheng, 29
Cofounder, Mimi Cheng’s Dumplings
Benjamin Chesler, 25
Cofounder, Imperfect Produce
Ayesha Curry, 28
Chef-personality
Chase Damiano,
Jeremy Martin, 29, 29
Co-owners, Commonwealth
Joe Coffee Roasters
Mike Dee, Nick Devane, 27, 26
Cofounders, Foodworks
Graham Fortgang,
Max Fortgang, 25, 28
Cofounders, MatchaBar
David Foulquier, 27
Owner, Fooq’s
Daniel Honig, 28
Founder, Happy Valley Meat
Victoria James, 27
Corporate beverage director, Cote,
Gracious Hospitality Mangement
Laura Johnson, 26
Peter Yang, 29 Founder, You & Yours Distilling
Justin Kamine, 28
COFOUNDER, POKÉWORKS Cofounder, KDC Ag
Daniel Kurzrock,
What’s in a sushi burrito? Like tradition-
Jordan Schwartz, 28, 27
al ones, it contains rice and avocado, but the Cofounders, ReGrained
similarities end there. Roasted seaweed wraps Tracy Lawrence, 28
replace flour or corn tortillas, and inside are Cofounder, Chewse
such ingredients as raw salmon, tuna, mango, Irene Li, 27
pickled ginger and wasabi aioli. Cofounder, Mei Mei
Restaurant & Street Kitchen
The idea of a sushi burrito caused so much
Marguerite Mariscal, 28
salivation in America last year that a video of VP, brand and design, Momofuku
one prepared at Peter Yang’s Pokéworks went
Shawn Nagpal, 29
viral on Facebook, accumulating 49 million Founder, Nagpal Restaurant Group
views. After that, his six-seat Manhattan shop Grant Pinkerton, 29
had two-hour lines morning till night for the Pitmaster-owner, Pinkerton’s Barbecue
rest of the year. “It was make or break for us,” Amanda Pizarro, 25

STYLE ASSISTANTS: MAXIMILLIAN PARKINSON, DEB MILSTEIN, PATTIE BARBOSA; GROOMING: SUZANA HALLILI
says Yang, who cofounded the company with Cofounder, The Salty Donut
$150,000 in savings in 2015. Anna Polonsky, 29
As his company’s name suggests, Yang’s Cofounder, The MP Shift
work is serving up poke—pronounced poh- César Ponsonnet, 29
Maître d’, Le Bernardin
kay—to new clientele. The dishes of raw fish
Grant Reynolds, 29
are rooted in traditional Hawaiian cuisine, and Partner, Delicious Hospitality Group
Pokéworks serves bowls (fish and noodles, rice
Carlie Steiner, 26
or quinoa), salads (with add-ins like lotus-root Co-owner, Himitsu
chips, seaweed and edamame) and the afore- Michael Tierney, 28
mentioned burritos prepared on a Chipotle- Founder, Mikey’s
style assembly line. A meal costs about $12. Peter Yang, 29
Pokéworks should bring about Cofounder, Pokéworks
$15 million in revenue this year from 13 loca- Amy Zitelman, Jackie Zitelman,
tions (with 5 more set to open by 2018) across 28, 29
Cofounders, Soom Foods
America and Canada. Yang, who immigrated
Maria Zizka, 29
to San Diego with his family from China at age Cookbook writer
6 and whose first job was as a drive-through
attendant at a burger joint, hopes to reach 100 JUDGES
stores by 2020. “We focus on customization Nicholas Jammet, Jonathan
because we saw a trend for diners to be more Neman, Nathaniel Ru,
cofounders, Sweetgreen
conscientious of what they’re eating,” Yang (Under 30 Class of 2012)
says. “We wanted to have that option for ev- Lee Schrager, founder, South
erybody—just the way they like it.” —Maggie Beach and New York Wine &
McGrath, Natalie Sportelli and Chloe Sorvino Food Festivals
Christina Tosi, chef-founder,
Milk Bar

PETER YANG WEARS A SUEDE JACKET (PRICE UPON REQUEST), COTTON T-SHIRT ($128) AND STRETCH
JEANS ($198) BY JOHN VARVATOS. LEATHER SNEAKERS BY FRATELLI ROSSETTI ($560).

58 | FORBES ASIA DECEMBER 2017

 3O 3O Cody Daniel, 28
CO FOUNDER, 3SCA N

Analyzing tissue samples is a laborious, manual process that hasn’t

HEALTH CARE
Omar Abudayyeh, Jonathan
Gootenberg, 27, 26
M.D.-Ph.D.,Ph.D. candidates, Broad Institute,
changed significantly in a century. Scientists still cut tissues into slices,
SCIENCE stain them and examine them through a microscope. For Cody Daniel,
Harvard-MIT
Adelanwa Adesanya, Shuo Qiao, 27, 27
that’s not good enough. “We need to develop better tools, better under- Cofounders, Moving Analytics
Tyler Allen, 25 standing of the world around us and better methods of continuing the Waleed Asif, Alamin Uddin, 25, 24
Ph.D. candidate, North Carolina State University human endeavor here on Earth.” Cofounders, NexHealth
Dinesh Bharadia, 29 To that end his company, 3Scan, offers a modernized alternative. In- Manik Bhat, Eric Conner, Daniel
Assistant professor, University of Levenson, Alex Villa, 27, 28, 25, 27
California, San Diego stead of fewer than ten slices, its robotic microscope can turn a small tis-
Cofounders, Healthify
Kristi Bradford, 27 sue sample into up to 60,000 slices. Then rather than producing stained,
Andrew Brimer, Abby Cohen, 27, 26
Senior instrument systems engineer, two-dimensional images, its machine vision creates robust, 3-D images, Cofounders, Sparo
Planetary Resources which can be better explored. “The opportunity to influence the course of
Sol Chen, Evan Ehrenberg, 22, 24
Ritchie Chen, 29 humanity through clever tools and insightful design is a real responsibili- Cofounders, Clara Health
Postdoctoral fellow, MIT
ty,” says Daniel, who has helped 3Scan raise $21 million in funding. Giffin Daughtridge, 29
Cody Daniel, 28 Cofounder, UrSure
Cofounder, 3Scan —Alex Knapp, Sarah Hedgecock and Matt Perez
Ivonna Dumanyan,
Natalya Gallo, 29
Ph.D. candidate, University of Gabrielle Levac, 23, 25
California, San Diego Cofounders, Fathom AI

Erik Hoel, 29 Kevin Eisenfrats, 24

Postdoctoral researcher, Cofounder, Contraline
Columbia University Trit Garg, 28
Ashlee Howarth, 29 Resident physician, Stanford Health Care
Postdoctoral fellow, Jeffrey Huber, Garrett Spiegel, 28, 29
Northwestern University Cofounders, Standard Cyborg
Deep Jariwala, 29 Doug Jacobs, 28
Assistant professor, Primary care resident physician, Brigham &
University of Pennsylvania Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School
Patrick Kaifosh, 29 Alistair Johnson, 28
Cofounder, CTRL-Labs Research scientist, Laboratory for
Tomas Leijtens, 29 Computational Physiology, MIT
Postdoctoral fellow, Stanford University Moufeed Kaddoura, 25
Karthish Manthiram, 29 Cofounder, ExVivo Labs
Assistant professor, MIT Kunwoo Lee, 29
Aaron Meisner, 29 Cofounder, GenEdit
Cofounder, Backyard Worlds: Planet 9 Oren Miron, 29
Prineha Narang, 28 Research associate, Harvard Medical School
Assistant professor, Harvard University Eric Pahl, Dalton Shaull, 24, 23
Alexendar Pérez, 28 Cofounders, HealthTech Solutions
M.D./Ph.D. candidate, Weill Cornell/ Kyle Powers, 29
Rockefeller/Memorial Sloan Kettering Cofounder, PrestoDoctor
Tomas Pfister, 29 Andreas Puschnik, 29
Staff research scientist, Apple Fellow, Chan Zuckerberg Biohub
Ritu Raman, 26 Siddarth Satish, 29
Postdoctoral fellow, MIT Founder, Gauss Surgical
Negar Reiskarimian, 28 Akshaya Shanmugam, 29
Ph.D. candidate, Columbia University Cofounder, Lumme
Peyton Robertson, 16 Leah Sibener, Marvin Gee,
STYLE ASSISTANTS: MAXIMILLIAN PARKINSON, SOPHIA CHARLES, KARINA WIDJAJA; GROOMING, HAIR AND MAKEUP: SUZANA HALLILI

Inventor Luke Lee, 26, 26, 28

Conor Russomanno, 29 Cofounders, 3T Biosciences
Cofounder, OpenBCI Cody Simmons, 29
Lauren Sherman, 29 Cofounder, DermaSensor
Postdoctoral fellow, Temple University Sourav Sinha, 28
Hao Sun, 29 Cofounder, Oncolinx
Assistant professor, University of Pittsburgh Cathy Tie, 21
Danielle Szafir, 29 Cofounder, Ranomics
Assistant professor, University of Colorado, R. Danae Vachata, 29
Boulder Cofounder, Dynamic Surgical; Mallium
Fred Turner, Sam Parlett, 22, 26 Lea von Bidder, 27
Cofounders, TL Biolabs Cofounder, Ava Science
Spin Wang, 27 Andrew Warren, 28
Cofounder, TetraScience Founding scientist, product
Liang Wu, 29 development lead, Glympse Bio
Postdoctoral fellow, University of Travis Whitfill, 28
California, Berkeley Cofounder, Azitra
Amber Yang, 18 Cheryl Zogg, 28
Founder, SEER Tracking
Zhou Yu, 29 Leah Sibener, 26 M.D.-Ph.D. candidate, health law fellow,
Yale School of Medicine, Yale Law School
Assistant professor, University of California, Davis COFOUNDER, 3T BIOSCIENCES
William Zeng, 28
Director, software and applications, The latest weapons in the fight against cancer: your own white blood cells,
Rigetti Computing which scientists genetically modify to attack tumors. 3T Biosciences, founded by JUDGES
You Zhou, 29 Leah Sibener with research partner Marvin Gee and VC Luke Lee, is using ma- Peter B. Bach, director, Center for
Postdoctoral fellow, Harvard University chine learning to predict what chemicals would be on cancer cells but not nor- Health Policy & Outcomes, Memorial
Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
mal ones. Then it uses a new genetic-engineering process to modify T cells, a Cigall Kadoch, assistant professor,
type of white blood cell, to target those chemicals. In theory, those T cells should pediatric oncology, Dana-Farber
JUDGES be able to attack tumors in ways competing therapies can’t—taking on breast, Cancer Institute (Under 30 Class of
2014)
Danielle Bassett, associate professor, lung and prostate cancers. 3T Biosciences has reportedly secured investors like
University of Pennsylvania; MacArthur Steven L. Salzberg, professor,
Asset Management Ventures, Facebook billionaire Sean Parker, Peter Thiel’s Thiel biomedical engineering, computer
Fellow
Capital and Charles River Ventures. “For us, success is helping people,” Sibener science, biostatistics, Johns Hopkins
Sabrina Pasterski, Ph.D. candidate, Harvard University School of Medicine
University (Under 30 Class of 2015) says. —Matthew Herper, Sarah Hedgecock and Ellie Kincaid

CODY DANIEL WEARS CASHMERE SUIT ($9,050), COTTON SHIRT ($870), SILK TIE ($290) AND COTTON POCKET
SQUARE ($220) BY KITON. LEATHER BELT BY PENGUIN ($20) AND LEATHER SHOES BY FRATELLI ROSSETTI ($660).
LEAH SIBENER WEARS A SILK GRACE TOP ($298) AND STRETCH COTTON VANNER PANTS ($258) BY TORY BURCH. DECEMBER 2017 FORBES ASIA | 59
SANDALS BY SAM EDELMAN ($100).
3O 3O
Amandla Stenberg, 19
HOLLYWOOD & ACTOR -AUT HOR
ENTERTAINMENT “Oftentimes when we play black women, we
have to play either the pain or the comedy,” says
Fatimah Asghar, Sam Bailey, 28, 28 Amandla Stenberg. “Just now are we starting to
Cocreators, Brown Girls
have three-dimensional, nuanced black characters
Olivia Blaustein, 29
Agent, Creative Artists Agency for young women.” After landing a part as Rue in
2012’s Hunger Games, she starred in an adaptation
Kara Brown, 29
Writer of the young-adult bestseller Everything, Everything,
Steven Caple Jr., 29 playing, Maddy, a teenage polymath in an interracial
Director-writer relationship. The 2017 love story grossed a healthy
Ben Davis, 28 $61.5 million on a $10 million budget.
Agent, WME She has pushed herself beyond film and tele-
Eric Fleischman, 28 vision, coauthoring the graphic novel series Niobe:
Cofounder-producer, Defiant Studios
She Is Life—the first to be internationally distributed
Sabaah Folayan, 27 with a black female author, artist and main character.
Director-producer
In 2015 Don’t Cash Crop My Cornrows, a video
Jermaine Fowler, 29
Actor-comedian about cultural appropriation she’d made for her high
Micah Fowler, 19 school history class, went viral. Stenberg, who has
Actor also created two short films, sees herself in the di-
Sam French, 28 rector’s chair soon. “I definitely feel it is my respon-
Head of strategy and business development, A24 sibility as someone who’s been given a platform at
Gigi Gorgeous, 25 a very young age to utilize it in a way that reaches
Digital star
people and helps people and makes them happy.”
Amanda Hymson, 29 —Natalie Robehmed, Madeline Berg and Hayley
Agent, United Talent Agency
Cuccinello
Riley Keough, 28
Actor
Joel Kim Booster, 29
Comedian-writer
Zoe Kravitz, 29
Actor
Daniel Kwan, 29
Director
Sasha Lane, 22
Actor
Juan Pablo Martinez Zurita, 21
Digital star
Madina Nalwanga, 17
Actor
Sono Patel, 29
Producer-writer
Ben Platt, 24
Actor
Esther Povitsky, 29
Actor-comedian
Madeline Sayet, 28
Director
Yara Shahidi, 17
Actor
Alia Shawkat, 28
Actor STYLE ASSISTANT: JOHN ANTHONY BONILLA; HAIR AND MAKEUP: KATHLEEN MARSH
Trey Shults, 29
Director-producer-writer
Kofi Siriboe, 23
Actor
Hailee Steinfeld, 21
Actor-musician
Amandla Stenberg, 19
Actor-author
Kaitlyn Yang, 29
Founder, Alpha Studios

JUDGES
Rachel Bloom, writer, comedian, cocreator
of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (Under 30 Class of
2016)
Gale Anne Hurd, CEO, Valhalla
Entertainment
Kathleen Kennedy, president, Lucasfilm
Mira Nair, director, producer, writer

AMANDLA STENBERG WEARS A STRETCH COTTON-AND-WOOL DRESS BY YIGAL AZROUËL ($890) AND
60 | FORBES ASIA DECEMBER 2017 SANDALS BY GIUSEPPE ZANOTTI ($845). EARRINGS BY LINGUA NIGRA ($128)
 3O 3O MEDIA
Sarah Adler,

FINANCE Ryan Williams, 29 Mackenzie Barth, 26, 26

Cofounders, Spoon University

Sunil Abraham, 29 CO FOUNDER, CADRE Laila Alawa, 26

Quantitative researcher, Cofounder, The Tempest
Two Sigma Investments What does Ryan Williams think about commercial real estate? “A pretty Jurassic Emma Allen, 29
Anne-Victoire Auriault, 29 industry,” he says. Cadre, he insists, is the dawn of a new age. He founded the start- Cartoon editor, New Yorker
VP, Goldman Sachs up in 2014 with heirs to the Kushner real estate fortune: Harvard classmate Josh, co- Erin Lee Carr, 29
Ben Bologna, 29 founder of Oscar Health, and Jared, son-in-law of President Trump. Their business Documentary filmmaker
Managing director, Maverick Capital offers an online marketplace for pre-vetted real estate deals: “a digital stock market Brent Chow,
Vitalik Buterin, 23 for real estate today and for other alternative asset classes in the future,” says Wil- Sophia Dominguez, 28, 25
Founder, Ethereum Cofounders, SVRF
liams. It collects fees from investors—the company won’t offer specifics but insists
Olaf Carlson-Wee, 28 Marley Dias, 12
they’re 40% less than private equity fund fees. Investors Founder, #1000blackgirlbooks
Founder, Polychain Capital
have used Cadre to close a dozen deals, worth a total Sky Dylan-Robbins, 28
Danielle Cooper, 28
VP, Bank of America of $1 billion. For now, Cadre is open to only accred- Founder, The Video Consortium
Tom Dadon, 26 ited investors (folks with at least Aaron Edwards, 26
Head of mergers and acquisitions, $1 million in net worth). Special projects editor, The Outline
Kraft Heinz Co. —Nathan Vardi, Antoine Caroline Fairchild, 27
Wendy De La Rosa, 28 Managing news editor, LinkedIn
Gara, Lauren Gensler
Cofounder, Common Cents Lab Windsor Hanger Western,
and Kristin Stoller
Michael Dechert, 29 Stephanie Kaplan Lewis,
Analyst, Farallon Capital Management Annie Wang, 29, 29, 28
Cofounders, Her Campus Media
Michael Ding, 27
Investment analyst, Coatue Management Cooper Hefner, 26
Chief creative officer,
Maria Egee, 29 Playboy Enterprises
Director, Bank of America
Jazmine Hughes, 26
Quinten Farmer, 27 Associate editor,
Cofounder, Even New York Times Magazine
Jonathan Fife, 29 Andrew Kaczynski, 28
Portfolio manager, BlueMountain Senior editor, KFile, CNN
Capital Management
Rupi Kaur, 25
Lalit Gurnani , 28 Author
Associate, Goldman Sachs
Khaled Khatib , 21
Jason Guss, 28 Cinematographer, The White Helmets
Cofounder, Octane Lending
Jack Kramer, Nick Martell, 29, 29
Peter Gylfe, 29 Cofounders, MarketSnacks
Founder, Bay Street Capital Partners
Benny Luo, 29
Salim Hirji, 28 Founder, NextShark
Principal, Apollo Global Management
Charlie Neiman, 29
Amol Jain, 29 Senior content acquisition manager,
Analyst, Duquesne Family Office Amazon Video
Thomas Kamei, 27 Olivia Nuzzi, 24
Senior associate, Morgan Stanley Washington correspondent,
Charles Korn, 29 New York Magazine
Partner, Pershing Square Capital Alexandra Petri, 29
Management Columnist, Washington Post
David Levine, 29 Phillip Picardi, 26
Principal, Blackstone Group Digital editorial director,
Luca Lin, Christina Qi, Jonathan Teen Vogue and Allure, Condé Nast
Wang, 27, 26, 26 Lauren Shippen, 26
Cofounders, Domeyard Creator, The Bright Sessions
STYLE ASSISTANTS: MAXIMILLIAN PARKINSON, DEB MILSTEIN, PATTIE BARBOSA; GROOMING: SUZANA HALLILI

Fahmi Quadir, 27 Jacob Smilovitz, 28

Founder, Safkhet Capital Management Director, M&A and investments,
Douglas Schadewald, 28 New York Times
VP, Barclays Clint Smith, 29
David Sklar, 29 Author
VP, Bank of America Peter Sterne, 26
Saron Tesfalul, 28 Senior reporter,
VP, Bain Capital Freedom of the Press Foundation
Ryan Williams, 29 Ben Taub, 26
Cofounder, Cadre Staff writer, New Yorker
Grant Wonders, 27 Jacob Tobia, 26
Portfolio manager, Author
Viking Global Investors John Traver, 29
Charles Young, 28 Cofounder, Frame.io
VP, Morgan Stanley John Traver, 29 Lilly Workneh, 26
Senior editor, Black Voices, HuffPost
Julia Yu, 28 COFOUNDER, FRAME.IO
Investment analyst, Rachel Zarrell, 28
Millennium Management Ever watched a Facebook video? There’s a good chance it was made using Frame.io, New initiatives lead, BuzzFeed
a subscription-based Web platform for creating videos. It takes traditional editing soft-
JUDGES
ware and, using a page out of Slack’s playbook, adds a new layer that makes it easier for JUDGES
Leon Cooperman, founder, Omega multiple people to collaborate. Frame.io has 380,000 users, including firms like Snapchat,
Advisors Jim Bankoff, CEO, Vox Media
Steven Schonfeld, founder, Apple and Disney. “With those higher-end clients it’s more pressure to keep the platform Brian Stelter, senior media
Schonfeld Group up and developing,” John Traver says. More than 700,000 videos are uploaded monthly correspondent, CNN (Under 30
Class of 2014)
Vlad Tenev, cofounder, Robinhood to Frame.io, which has raised $32.2 million. “People are pivoting to video because it’s the
(Under 30 Class of 2016) Elaine Welteroth, editor-in-
preferred way to consume information,” says Traver. “You know, people typically aren’t chief, Teen Vogue
reading as much as they used to.” —Madeline Berg, Emily Inverso and Mark Joyella

RYAN WILLIAMS WEARS A COTTON JACKET BY BELSTAFF ($1,095), COTTON T-SHIRT BY KOTN ($30), JEANS BY PT
PANTALONI TORINO ($395), AND LEATHER SNEAKERS BY TO BOOT NEW YORK ($375).
JOHN TRAVER WEARS A LEATHER JACKET BY MISBHV ($1,380), COTTON SHIRT BY JOHN VARVATOS ($118) COTTON DECEMBER 2017 FORBES ASIA | 61
PANTS BY MARCELO BURLON COUNTY OF MILAN ($511), AND LEATHER BOOTS BY HARRYS OF LONDON ($895).
JEWELRY BY JOHN VARVATOS. CLASSIC FUSION POWER RESERVE WATCH BY HUBLOT ($16,700).
PROMOTION
1

I
t was a celebration of leadership
like none other, when the finest
of Indian industry congregated
to raise a toast to the winners of
the Forbes India Leadership Awards
(FILA) 2017, in a sparkling ceremony
held on November 14 in Mumbai.
Veteran industrialists and budding
entrepreneurs mingled to discuss the
state of the economy, and cheered
the winners across 10 categories.
A Toast to India Inc’s
A highlight of the evening was Adi
Godrej, chairman of the Godrej Group,
receiving the Lifetime Achievement award
for his leadership of the conglomerate for
Tallest Leaders
over five decades. Godrej received the
The seventh edition of the awards honours
honour from last year’s recipient Cipla’s industry chieftains who have led the way with their
Non-executive Chairman YK Hamied. transformational leadership, vision and foresight
2 3 4 5

6
Luxury Partner

State Partner Hospitality Partner

Associate Sponsor Knowledge Partner

 PROMOTION
7

9 10

1. (Standing, from left) Anant Goenka, MD, CEAT and

GenNext Entrepreneur award winner; Ranu Vohra, co-
founder, Avendus Capital; Ronnie Screwvala, co-founder,
UpGrad; Sourav Majumdar, editor, Forbes India; Avinash
Kaul, managing director, A+E Networks, TV18 and
president-strategy, product and alliances, Network 18;
Vikram Pawah, president, BMW India; Joy Chakraborthy,
CEO, Forbes India and president-revenue, Network 18;
and Manish Maheshwari, CEO, Network 18 Digital;
(Sitting, from left) Harsh Mariwala, chairman, Marico;
Suresh Narayanan, CMD, Nestle India and Best CEO-MNC
winner; Alluri Indra Kumar, MD, Avanti Feeds, which was
11 bestowed with the Value Creators award; YK Hamied,
non-executive chairman, Cipla and winner of Lifetime
Achievement Award in 2016; Adi Godrej, chairman, Godrej
Group and Lifetime Achievement Award winner; Chetna
Sinha, founder, Mann Deshi Mahila Sahakari Bank and
Entrepreneur with Social Impact awardee; Hari Mohan
Bangur, MD, Shree Cement and Entrepreneur for the Year
award winner; Abhaya Prasad Hota, former MD and CEO,
NPCI and winner of the Best CEO-Public Sector award
2. CNBC-TV18 Executive Editor Latha Venkatesh hosts a
fireside chat with Bangur 3. Godrej and Hamied share a
light moment on stage 4. Anant Maheshwari, president,
Microsoft India 5. Aman Singh, principal secretary,
Chhattisgarh 6. A keen audience looks on 7. (from left)
Dinesh Kanabar, CEO, Dhruva Advisors and NP Singh,
12 13 CEO, Sony Pictures Networks India with RPG Enterprises
Chairman Harsh Goenka at the Networking Lounge
8. Sinha; Kshama Fernandes, MD and CEO, IFMR Capital
(centre) and Revathi Roy, CEO, Hey Deedee 9. The cover
of the special issue on the 2017 Forbes India Leadership
Awards is unveiled 10. Abhinav Aggarwal, co-founder,
Fluid AI gives a talk on ‘Demystifying Artificial Intelligence’
11. Arun M Kumar, chairman and CEO, KPMG India
moderates a panel discussion with FMCG stalwarts Godrej,
Narayanan and Mariwala 12. Screwvala on ‘Confessions
of a Serial Entrepreneur’ 13. (from left) Ranjit Shahani,
vice-chairman and MD, Novartis India; Narayanan and his
wife Rajitha; Shahani’s wife Indu; and Raghav Aggarwal,
co-founder, Fluid AI
3O 3O RETAIL &
E-COMMERCE
Sarah Ahmed, 28
Founder, Warp + Weft
Seema Bansal, Sunny Chadha, 26, 28
Cofounders, Venus ET Fleur
Parker Burr and Taylor Offer, 24, 24
Cofounders, FEAT Socks
Jan Bednar, 26
Founder, ShipMonk
Henry Burner, 14
Founder, Buttonsmith
Meghana Dhar, 29
Director, retail partnerships, B8ta
Jess Edelstein, Sarah Ribner, 29, 28
Cofounders, PiperWai
Alexandra Fine, 29
Cofounder, Dame Products
Beatrice Fischel-Bock, 26
Cofounder, Hutch
Marshall Haas, 27
Cofounder, Need/Want
Cathy Han, Nicolas Porter, 28, 27
Cofounders, 42 Technologies

Seema Bansal, 26 Rami Helali, Benjamin Sehl,

Mackenzie Yeates, 29, 29, 28
COFOUNDER, VENUS ET FLEUR Cofounders, Kotn
Alexis Irene, 24
You can only stop to smell the roses if Founder, Static Nails
they’re still alive. And a garden-variety bou- Dylan Jacob, 23
quet doesn’t last longer than one week in Founder, BrüMate
a vase. Robert Kirstiuk, Joseph Lee, 22, 22
The roses from the green- Cofounders, Coastline Market
thumbed Seema Bansal, on the Caroline Klatt, 29
other hand, last an entire year in Cofounder, Headliner Labs
full bloom without water. “We treat Andy Krantz, 28
Cofounder, Paravel
them with our proprietary wax-
Ali Kriegsman, 26
based solution,” explains Bansal, Cofounder, Bulletin
who bootstrapped the New
Lynn Le, 29
York-based e-commerce Founder, Society Nine
business with her now-fi- Alissa Lentz, 28
ancé Sunny Chadha, 28, in Founder, HERO New York
2015. “But the rose’s tex- Alex Lin, 26

STYLE ASSISTANTS: MAXIMILLIAN PARKINSON, DEB MILSTEIN, PATTIE BARBOSA; HAIR AND MAKEUP: SUZANA HALLILI
ture, its shape and a little Cofounder, Hush
bit of its scent remains.” Michael Markesbery,
Rithvik Venna, 25, 24
Bansal (born in Can- Cofounders, OROS
ada to Indian immigrants)
Brad McDonald, 29
and Chadha grow the flowers Cofounder, Agroy
on a farm in Ecuador, where they’re Jeremy Miller, 29
cut before being delivered to New York Founder, Label
by air. From there, “we remove the color from Jordan Nathan, 25
the roses, then we can go ahead and dye them Founder, Vremi
any Pantone color,” she says. Besides traditional Iyore Olaye, 23
Product development engineer,
shades of red, champagne and white, customers Walker & Co.
can opt for blue, green, silver or lavender. Pric- Akash Shah, 29
es start at $39 for a single rose, with shoppers Cofounder, Care/of
typically spending between $300 and $1,500 for Lauren Stokes, 28
large arrangements. Founder, Lauren James
Venus ET Fleur is profitable, and revenue, Julia Zhu, 27
estimated at $7.5 million, has grown 226% in the Founder, Few Moda
past year. By the end of the year, Bansal and Amanda Zuckerman, 26
Cofounder, Dormify
Chadha plan to open their second distribution SEEMA BANSAL WEARS A JACQUARD
AND POLYESTER DRESS BY ST. JOHN
center, in Los Angeles, where their long-lasting ($1,395) AND LEATHER SANDALS BY JUDGES
JIMMY CHOO ($895). EARRINGS ($245),
flora is already the talk of the town. Back on Val- 5-LINE BANGLE BRACELET ($545) AND Rebecca Kaden, partner, Union
11-LINE BANGLE BRACELET ($1,340)
entine’s Day 2016, Khloe and Kourtney Kardashi- BY OFFICINA BERNARDI. GOLD LOVE Square Ventures
an posted Venus ET Fleur bouquets on Insta- BRACELET ($6,300), JUSTE UN CLOU Neil Parikh, cofounder, Casper
BRACELET ($6,800) BY CARTIER.
gram. “Our phones did not stop ringing,” Bansal (Under 30 Class of 2015)
says. “And the emails kept pouring in.” Kendra Scott, founder, Kendra
Scott Jewelry
—Clare O’Connor, Vicky Valet and Katherine Love Emily Weiss, founder, Glossier
(Under 30 Class of 2015)

64 | FORBES ASIA DECEMBER 2017


EMBRACING THE DIGITAL FUTURE
Thailand’s economic outlook is rebounding to healthy levels as it prepares to transition from its traditional economy to
a modern “intelligent” model that will greatly enhance its connectivity and participation in the global arena.
Thailand’s traditional economic drivers
of agriculture, manufacturing, export,
construc tion and tourism have been
rebounding to healthy (and growing)
levels, with The Asian Development Bank
projecting gross domestic product growth
of 3.6% for 2018—an uptick from 3.5% for
2017 and the continuation of a steady rise
since hitting a low of 0.9% in 2014. This
compares favorably with the World Bank’s
mid-year report projecting global growth
of 2.7% in 2017.
Thailand 4.0
But while these traditional sectors have
served Thailand’s economy well since it first
began its breakneck boom in the late 1980s,
at this advanced stage of development,
the country’s economy is moving to the
next level—interconnecting with other
countries in the region and beyond, both
physically with international transportation
infrastruc ture and digitally—with the
Thailand 4.0 strategy.
In the Thailand 1.0 stage, the agricultural
sector played the largest economic role.
Thailand 2.0 moved the country from a low-
income economy toward a middle-income
SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION
Thailand:
economy with a focus on light industries.
Thailand 3.0, where the country’s economy
has developed for well over a decade,
emphasizes advanced heavy industries,
such as its successful automotive sec-
tor. Remaining at this level would create
an unbalanced middle-income economy
squeezed between low-income competi-
tors and wealthy nations that dominate the
swift changes in technology. The country
must and will move upward economically.
Enter Thailand 4.0, a major move toward
aligning with the digital and mobile
technology that most of the population has
already embraced in the form of personal
computers and smart phones. This stage
recognizes the digital transformation
of both industries and lifest yles and
their place in the global economy in an
“intelligent world.”
An Intelligent Country
The strategy involves the government and
the private sector tapping into the potential
of infor mation and communic ations
technology, with the goal of Thailand
becoming an “intelligent country” over the
next decade.
Bangkok, Thailand
Many in the country’s private sector
have seen the writing on the wall and are
taking bold initiatives in global digital
connection, collaboratively developing
bespoke technologies via tourism
marketing, booking and services, just-in-
time manufacturing and employee training,
as well as in numerous other areas.
And while the traditional economic foun-
dations of construction, manufacturing,
engineering, agriculture, tourism, infra-
structure and other sectors will continue,
they will be expanded, enhanced and inter-
connected in the 4.0 phase.
Following a year of national mourn-
ing that came to a close with the funeral
and cremation in Oc tober of King
Bhumibol Adulyadej, Thailand’s king for
70 years, who was head of state during
the dramatic social and economic trans-
formation of the country, Thailand is mov-
ing forward with its new monarch, King
Vajiralongkorn Bodindradebayavarangkun,
and a national election is promised for
late 2018. These events mark a sea change
in the nation’s thoughts and ac tions,
as it progresses into a new era of true
modern globalization.
Thailand 1
 SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

Sansiri:
EVERYDAY VISIONARIES
Thailand’s leading property developer is making the forward-looking move to expand its holdings and invest in cutting-
edge technology and lifestyle entities that support and enlarge its vision of “Next Generation Living.”

Sansiri PCL was founded in 1984 and

listed on the Stock Exchange of Thailand
in 1996. In its earlier years, the company
concentrated on developing, selling and
renting out mid-city condominiums. It later
expanded into proper ty management
through it s subsidiar y, Plus Proper t y
Company Limited, and then into landed
property developments in Bangkok and
other locations across Thailand.
Sansiri has a history of making bold
moves and standing out from the crowd.
The firm’s first construction project, Baan
Kai Muk, was in 1988 on family land in the
seaside town of Hua Hin. A mustard-yellow
tiled condominium, its design and build
quality was unlike anything Thailand had
seen and predated the city’s foreign tourist
boom by at least a decade. The units sold
swiftly for unprecedented prices at the time
and nearly 30 years later, still command
excellent resale value.
Sansiri saw the future back then and
has remained on the cutting edge with its
developments in design and location, such
as Sansiri’s most recent flagship property,
98 Wireless—an exclusive condominium in
Bangkok—which has raised the bar for what
is possible in luxury living.
The brand has become synonymous
with quality and value and is perceived by
both domestic and international buyers as
a solid property investment, from its more
affordable developments through to top-
end, ultra-luxury properties.
The company has grown into Thailand’s
only full-service, real estate developer
One Night App
with more than US$1.2 billion in annual
sales and a presence in China, Hong Kong,
Singapore, Taiwan and Japan.
Investment in a Broader Future
With its new and diverse investments,
Sansiri is looking beyond the traditional
build-sell-manage property development
model toward a more globally intercon-
nected future.
The company is branching out into per-
haps unexpected lateral areas. The list of
buy-ins includes: Standard International,
a prominent boutique hotel brand in
the U.S.; One Night, a last-minute book-
ing app that was developed by Standard
International; Hostmaker, London’s top
Airbnb hospitality management service;
JustCo, Southeast Asia’s biggest provider
of flexible workspace solutions; Farmshelf,
developer of hydroponic indoor farms that
make it easy for anyone to grow their own
food; and Monocle, an influential multime-
dia brand.
The benefits of these investments are
myriad. Aside from allowing Sansiri to
expand beyond property, which is subject
to the whims of the market, investment
in individual asset-light financial entities
in high-grow th sec tors will generate
overseas income.
98 Wireless
According to Sansiri’s President Srettha
Thavisin, “These strategic investments
will develop Sansiri beyond its core busi-
ness for the first time. We are expanding
our global reach to generate new revenue
from property-related industries and uti-
lize these partnerships to strengthen our
core real estate business.”
These investments will focus Sansiri
on developing proper ty technologies
in partnership with innovative industry
disr uptor s w hile also e s tablishing a
position in the media sector.
Shaping the Future
Each of the new investment plays a unique
role in taking Sansiri to the next level of
industry innovation.
Standard International, which owns bou-
tique hotels in New York, Los Angeles and
Miami Beach, with a new property opening
in London next year, is the largest of Sans-
iri’s investments. Sansiri’s 35% stake in the
company, which is valued at US$58 million,
encompasses the Standard International
hotel brand and operations, the Bunkhouse
Group—an Austin-based boutique hospi-
tality company—and the One Night mobile
booking platform. The investment will sup-
port the development of new hotels and
related food and beverage outlets.

2 Thailand

Hostmaker
The injec tion will also fund fur ther
development of the One Night app, which
Sansiri will help to grow internationally,
particularly in Asia.
Hostmaker, which has a strong presence
in London, Rome, Paris and Barcelona,
allows Sansiri to tap into the fast-growing,
home-sharing market. In turn, Hostmaker
can rely on Sansiri’s support to expand its
services throughout Asia.
Sansiri believes big corporations will
join hot-desking start-ups in adopting
Singapore-based JustCo’s efficient model
of shared workspaces to spur the cross-
pollination of ideas and to develop new
connections. The two companies plan to
launch four JustCo offices in Bangkok next
SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION
Standard International
year as part of a wider initiative to open 20
new offices Asia-wide.
Eyeing the growth of the health and
wellness industry and the drive for fresh,
high quality food, Sansiri sees Farmshelf
as an opportunity to integrate the firm’s
innovative and environmentally friendly
home and office food-growing system
with Sansiri properties. At the same time,
the system provides readily available
produce for Sansiri’s customers, bringing
healthy food production to the places
where people live, work and eat.
Sansiri’s inves tment in U.K. media
brand Monocle will leverage the group’s
global reach and allow it to engage with
an informed international following, while
Monocle London
Farmshelf
JustCo
interpreting and shaping consumer behav-
iors. This highly regarded publication has
been successful at delivering quality jour-
nalism and a luxury experience, with tie-
ins to retail and hospitality.
These investments are just the start of
Sansiri’s international plans, as the group
continues to seek fresh opportunities to
expand and more readily meet the needs
of its customers.
Thavisin is optimistic about the future of
Sansiri’s new and synergistic relationships:
“Our core business continues to be devel-
opment and placemaking, but our broader
focus now encompasses a radical com-
mitment to elevating quality of life, from
the homes we live in, the way we travel,
to the access we have to the freshest pro-
duce,” he says. “Sansiri, along with our
partners, will be right there at the edge
of the emerging future, shaping the ways
that we’ll live, work, learn and play—for
the better.”
sansiri.com/everydayvisionaries
Thailand 3
 SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

Bangkok Bank:
THE FUTURE OF FINANCE
By embracing fintech and other innovations, Bangkok Bank is building on its traditional close relationships
with customers to capture opportunities from domestic and regional growth.

Throughout its 72-year history, Bangkok

Bank has always been an innovator. It
was the first Thai bank to of fer trade
finance services, the first to establish an
international branch network and the first
to computerize its banking system. Now
as financial technology revolutionizes the
banking industry, Bangkok Bank is once
again at the forefront of change.
To ensure it maintains its leadership in
technology and keeps in tune with custom-
ers, the bank is supporting small fintech
start-ups through its accelerator program,
Bangkok Bank InnoHub. This year, eight
leading global fintech companies were
selected to develop cutting-edge services Chartsiri Sophonpanich, president and director of Bangkok Bank, (fifth from right) joins
for the Thai and regional markets alongside other technology leaders from the bank’s 12-week accelerator program, InnoHub.
the bank, covering areas such as wealth
management technology solutions, mobile developing blockchain solutions for the larges t international net work of any
security and blockchain-based fund trans- financial industry. Consortium members Thai bank.
fers. Working with fintechs such as these will are collaborating on innovative and Bangkok Bank is an active participant
help the bank bring innovative products and groundbreaking commercial blockchain in capital markets, not only in fundraising
services more quickly to the market. More- applications in areas such as trade finance. activities covering Thai baht and baht-
over, with the use of big data and artificial denominated transac tions, but also
intelligence, it will be able to mine customer Thailand’s Regional Bank managing transactions for its clients with
data to better target and tailor its services. As Bangkok Bank heads down this bold and major global and regional currencies. In
The use of blockchain technolog y exciting path, its goal is to be an industry addition to its domestic wholesale and retail
will increase the speed of transactions, leader, not only in Thailand but also in banking activities, the bank also provides
reduce costs and facilitate secure identity Southeast Asia where it has 16 international a comprehensive range of international
verification. The bank has joined the branches. The bank also has branches in transaction services.
R3 consortium, a global partnership of China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, the U.K. In 2016, Bangkok Bank’s assets totaled
more than 100 leading banks, which is and the U.S.—32 branches in total—the THB2.94 trillion (US$82.17 billion), with
THB152.75 billion (US$4.26 billion) in total
income and THB31.81 billion (US$888
million) in net profit.

The Human Touch

Bangkok Bank has always prided itself
on its long and close relationships with
its customers, large and small, and its
c o m mi t m e n t to d eve l o pi ng a m o re
affluent society and sustainable economic
growth in Thailand. These principles are
the foundation of its values and culture,
now suppor ted by the latest tools of
modern technology.

The Bangkok Bank (China) head office in Shanghai is just one of six China branches,
including Beijing, Chongqing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Xiamen. bangkokbank.com

6 Thailand

Anantara Residences:
ULTIMATE TROPICAL LUXURY
The hospitality and leisure provider’s ultra-exclusive villas in Thailand
offer the very best in architecture, location and amenities.
The Anantara brand under Minor Interna-
tional PLC—one of the largest hospitality
and leisure providers in the Asia-Pacific
region with 155 hotels and more than 2,000
outlets in 19 countries—has become syn-
onymous with five-star luxury around the
world since its inception in 2001.
One of the most luxurious examples
of the brand is the Layan Residences by
Anantara. Bearing the tagline of “an island
oasis of pure indulgence,” the spectacular
collection of 15 spacious and lavish villa
residences sets a new standard for a
second home.
Modern Luxury Meets Nature
and Tradition
Set on the lushly forested hills adjoining
Layan Beach on the west coast of Phuket,
Thailand, with panoramic views of the
azure Andaman Sea, Layan Residences by
Anantara offers unrivalled luxury, amenities
and VVIP exclusivity.
8 Thailand
SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION
The 15 residences are the last work of
renowned Indonesian designer, the late
Jaya Ibrahim. They blend into the forested
cove, with mature trees integrated into the
structure of the two-story villas that vary
from three to six bedrooms and range
between 1,700 to 3,650 square meters in size.
Ibrahim’s mission was to present a
modern interpretation of a classical Asian
space, drawing on the surrounding culture
and countryside. The residences come
fully furnished with a minimalistic but
detailed décor.
In addition to the bedrooms and living
areas, the residences include a fully fitted
kitchen, rooftop terrace and a 21-meter
infinity pool as well as a study, spa room
and gym space.
In the Lap of Luxury
Each residence is assigned at least one
private butler, a highly skilled point of
contact available around the clock, seven
days a week, who also cooks
breakfast daily in your own kitchen.
Though the residence is a self-
contained cocoon where a chef
can customize a menu and cook
for you and your guests, with a full
food and drinks service brought to
you to enjoy on the rooftop terrace,
many other amenities are available
at the adjoining Anantara Layan
Phuket Resort.
Layan Residences by Anantara
The pristine and sparsely populated
Layan Beach is a shor t golf car t ride
away. The resort also features a spa, Thai
kickboxing lessons at an outdoor stadium,
a kitchen for Anantara’s Spice Spoons
cooking school, a yoga pavilion and Thai
and Mediterranean restaurants.
You can spend the day sea kayaking,
or char ter the resor t’s 90 -foot motor
yacht. For fishing, snorkelling and diving,
there is a 36-foot speedboat that can
swiftly transport you to the area’s best
sites. Those with their own watercraft can
berth them at the easily accessed Royal
Phuket Marina.
Whether you use your residence as a
holiday home or as your primary retire-
ment residence, everything you could
need and desire is readily available.
Owners who aren’t using their resi-
dence have the option to rent their prop-
erty out to visitors. There are still a few of
these exclusive personal palaces avail-
able for purchase, with prices starting
at US$7 million.
residences-anantara.com
A development by Minor International PCL

Indorama Ventures:
FUTURE-PROOFING SUCCESS
The Thai petrochemical company has built itself into a global powerhouse on the back of strategic acquisitions and
commitment to growth. And it’s just the beginning.
Since its start more than two decades ago,
Bangkok-based petrochemical company
Indorama Ventures (IVL) has emerged
as an integrated chemicals company
with global leadership in key feedstocks,
polyethylene terephthalate, or PET, and
the specialty fibers businesses. Its global
expansion strategy has largely consisted
of acquisitions in developed markets
such as North America and Europe while
simultaneously building up an asset base
in Asia, and it is unique in owning West
Africa’s only PET production site, in Nigeria,
completing its positioning in four of the
world’s major continents.
Led by its charismatic founder, Group
CEO Aloke Lohia, the company listed on
the Stock Exchange of Thailand in 2010
and now has a market capitalization of
more than US$7 billion and an enterprise
value exceeding US$10 billion. Strategically
acquisitive, Lohia has built a global empire
that currently consists of 74 manufacturing
sites and 11 research and development
centers as well as numerous sales offices
around the world.
Widening Its Reach
With the aspiration of being “a world-
class chemical company making great
products for society,” IVL aims to double
10 Thailand
SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION
Aloke Lohia, Group CEO of Indorama
Ventures PCL, founded and built
Indorama Ventures into a world-class
company. He is among the ICIS Top 40
Power Players and was Global Banking
and Finance Review magazine’s pick
for Best Company CEO South East
Asia 2016.
in size every five years. This ambitious
target is being achieved by strengthening
its core businesses to accelerate growth in
attractive market segments and regions.
For example, its expected acquisition of
DuPont Teijin Films, subject to regulatory
approval, will diversify the company’s
portfolio into polyester films and offer
customers a broader platform of related
products. In addition, its expansion into
high value-added segments, such as fibers
IVL has held itself to high standards of corporate
governance, ethics and transparency, recently achieving
a listing in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index.
for automotive, has led to collaborative
projects with a number of major industry
partners and customers. Such combinations
will “future-proof” the company, allowing it
to shape its future regardless of regional
economics and short-term cycles.
Leader in Sustainability
An enduring theme of the company has
been to deliver outstanding value to its
investors and stakeholders. To do this,
it conduc ts today’s business with one
eye fixed on the future. A sustainable
business is part of the rigour of being a
global industrial powerhouse and IVL has
taken measures to reduce the environ-
mental impact of its operations, which
include efficient use of water, energy and
a decrease in waste, as well as actively pro-
moting recycling and the use of renewable
resources. It has held itself to high stan-
dards of corporate governance, ethics
and transparency, achieving a listing in
the Dow Jones Sustainability Index, and
is currently positioned among the top five
most sustainable chemical companies in
the world.
Ingredient for Growth
Innovation is the lifeblood of any com-
pany, but to achieve this, people have
to be ready to see change as an oppor-
tunit y. The corporate imperative has
been to gain the commitment of all the
company’s 15,000 employees, and IVL
has adhered closely to its core value to
put people first. This has meant focus-
ing closely on training and develop-
ment, which the company’s Group CEO
considers key to the future grow th of
the company.
As IVL continues to acquire new busi-
nesses, management’s goal has been to
integrate them quickly by focusing on
accountability and empowerment. Its
strategic advantages have proven time
and again to be its vast global footprint,
its encompassing multiculturalism and its
drive for shared success.
indoramaventures.com
 SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION
ICONSIAM:
A NEW SYMBOL OF NATIONAL PRIDE
The mega-development will combine the very best of Thai culture with offerings from top international brands
to help transform Bangkok’s riverfront into a global destination.
ICONSIAM: Where the best of the world meets the best of Thailand.
An alliance of three of Thailand’s most a conf luence of ar t, culture and cre-
successful companies—Siam Piwat, the ative vitality from Thailand and around
owner and operator of prestige retail the world.
developments such as Siam Paragon; ICONSIAM is introducing to Thailand
MQDC, a top-end residential developer a completely new approach to property
of projects such as Magnolia Ratchad- development by creating a new, national
amri Boulevard; and multinational Cha- destination that is comprehensive and
roen Pok phand Group —are creating integrated, much like a city, and one that
ICONSIAM, a major riverside develop- has a role to play in carrying forward the
ment in Bangkok that will become a new rich culture of Thailand. The visionar y
symbol of national pride for Thais and approach leaves behind traditional con-
rank among the world’s most exciting cepts of mixed-use development: It is a
new destinations when completed in unique example of a project that is the
late 2018. result of collaboration between a large
ICONSIAM is one of Thailand’s great- group of public and private sector stake-
est property endeavors. It includes stun- holders, including riverside communi-
ning attractions packed into a vibrant life- ties, who are working together to create
style, retail and residential development a globally visible new landmark for Thai-
that come together to make ICONSIAM land as well as helping to revitalize and
conserve the Chao Phraya River.
Located on a beautiful 22-acre
site along the river, the US$1.6 bil-
lion development has a gross floor
area of 750,000 square metres. It
includes two extraordinary retail
c o m p l e xe s c ove r i n g 5 2 5 , 0 0 0
square metres, two super-luxury
waterfront residential condomin-
ium buildings, and a multitude
of attractions.
Every attraction is the first or
the best of its kind in Thailand
The development is attracting new names and some are the best in Asia.
to Thailand’s retail scene. They aim to make ICONSIAM a
12 Thailand
must-visit destination that will be a mag-
net for the country, drawing hundreds of
thousands of visitors a day from Thailand
and around the world.
Among the firsts are “True ICONSIAM
Hall,” Bangkok’s first world-class audito-
rium that is outfitted with state-of-the-art
technology and able to seat 3,000 peo-
ple; “River Park,” a riverside event plaza
covering more than 10,000 square meters
that can host world-class performances;
the longest multimedia water-and-fire
feature in Southeast Asia; and “Venice of
the East,” an indoor city that presents 100
artisan villages featuring the best prod-
ucts from Thailand’s 77 provinces.
Retail and Lifestyle
ICONSIAM presents Asia’s most breath-
taking retail complex that includes a
complete range of products and services
from more than 50 0 retailers around
the world to fulfill its promise to be the
destination where “the best of the world
meets the best of Thailand.”
The t wo retail complexes of ICON-
SIAM—ICONSIAM and ICONLUXE—are
closely associated with cultural values
and beliefs tied to the Chao Phraya River.
The ICONSIAM is a highly modern build-
ing; its architectural design was inspired
by the way a krathong* is folded, translat-
ing traditional Thai design signatures with
a modern interpretation.

One of the most anticipated innova-
tions at ICONSIAM is ICONLUXE: a stun-
ning 25,000-square-meter, super-luxury
glass pavilion that is close to the river
and forms a part of the multicomponent
retail and lifestyle complex. ICONLUXE
pioneers a new paradigm of purest lux-
ury. It is being built with specially com-
missioned “ultra-transparent” glass that
is wrapped around several stand-alone
mansions creating an “icon within an
icon” and a nirvana of luxury with many
of the world’s most prestigious brands in
fashion, jewelry and watchmaking.
ICONSIAM will also be a gour met
paradise, featuring Michelin-star chefs,
al fresco dining with river views and a
starlight setting, and more than 100 new-
to-Thailand restaurant brands, in addition
to hundreds of cafes, bars and eateries.
ICONSIAM reinforces
Bangkok’s stature as a
“world-best” destination
with “first-in-world” and
“first-in-Thailand” features.
The 14 Cineplex and 1 IMA X will be
another first as the country’s most innova-
tive movie-going experience with the lat-
est projection, sound equipment and the
newest concepts in layout and seating.
ICONSIAM also brings, for the first time
in Thailand, entertainment for the whole
family where children can experience
state-of-the-art excitement.
ICONSIAM’s other retail offerings include
the venerable Japanese department store
Takashimaya, which will open its first store
in Thailand at the destination.
The complex will offer a range of retail, entertainment and residential options.
*A small floating sculpture used during the Loy Krathong festival.
SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION
ICONSIAM will restore focus to the cultural significance of Chao Phraya River.
Riverside Residences
The residential components of ICONSIAM
also represent many “firsts.”
The 52-floor residential building will be
Southeast Asia’s first Mandarin Oriental
branded residences and called The Resi-
dences at Mandarin Oriental, Bangkok.
It will include 146 super-luxury, freehold
riverside residences that are situated
diagonally across the Chao Phraya River
from the legendary Mandarin Oriental,
Bangkok hotel. The Mandarin Oriental,
Ba n g ko k w i ll p r ov i d e m a n a g e m e n t
services for The Residences, as well as
bespoke amenities for individual residents.
The Residences at Mandarin Oriental,
Bangkok are designed to the highest
standards of luxury that, together with
the enchanting location, make these res-
idences among the best in the world, lift-
ing the prestige of a Bangkok residential
address to a new level. No expense has
been spared. Every home has an unob-
structed view of the river and lush gar-
dens, and offers a feeling of being close
to nature as well as a unique sense of
Thai charm.
The 70-floor Magnolias Waterfront Resi-
dences at ICONSIAM is also setting new
benchmarks in residential development
in Thailand and ranks among the world’s
best residential properties.
Paradigm of Excellence
Throughout ICONSIAM, the ex terior
architec tural design and the internal
spaces are an embodiment of the
culture and spirit of Thailand and blend
it with the most advanced materials and
technologies of the 21st century.
According to ICONSIAM’s direc tor,
Chadatip Chutrakul, “ICONSIAM
illustrates our core belief that collaboration
with local and world-renowned artists,
designers, communities, retailers and
other stakeholders is the only way forward
for the future of great development, and
we have held it as our priority to closely
integrate into our project all stakeholders
and communities so that they may prosper
with us and so that we may also better
serve our country, and help preserve our
national heritage.”
iconsiam.com
Thailand 13
TECHNOLOGY
Honey, I Shrunk
the Factory
Using software and 3-D printing, Kevin Czinger wants to
miniaturize the auto plant. It’s the opposite of Elon Musk’s
plans for Tesla and every bit as radical.
BY ALAN OHNSMAN AND JOANN MULLER
N
obody has to remind Kevin
Czinger what the Rust Belt was
like during the heyday of Amer-
ican manufacturing. The pun-
gent smells, the dark soot spewing
from smokestacks and his summer job shoveling
coke at a steel plant are all seared into memories
of his youth in Cleveland in the 1970s. The north-
ern Ohio city was a symbol of industrial might—
until suddenly it all crumbled.
Now the 58-year-old entrepreneur wants to
help usher in a new manufacturing era—one
that can withstand the forces that decimated his
hometown along with vast swaths of the United
States. You can get a glimpse of this new era at a
miniature auto factory, about the size of a large
grocery store, tucked inside a concrete-and-glass
office park in suburban Los Angeles. Beyond
darkened glass doors, parked in the gallery-like
lobby of the headquarters of Divergent 3D, his
five-year-old startup, is the Dagger, a sporty-
78 | FORBES ASIA DECEMBER 2017
looking motorcycle. Nearby sits the Blade, a
sleek silver sports car that calls to mind vehicles
in the sci-fi film Minority Report. Czinger built
both with a patented approach to manufactur-
ing that relies heavily on new digital technolo-
gies like 3-D metal printing. They’re less expen-
sive than traditional manufacturing methods
and better for the environment, and they could
prove as disruptive to the transportation indus- Divergent 3D CEO Kevin
Czinger is betting on a
try as electric vehicles and self-driving cars. radical transformation
The Blade and Dagger are prototypes, but of the manufacturing
sector that will change
Czinger has teamed up with France’s Groupe how industrial goods
PSA, which makes Peugeot and Citroën vehicles, are made.
to work on a number of development projects
over the next few years. And his mini-factory
will be making batches of other test vehicles—
van-like shuttles—for customers Czinger won’t
yet name. Investors like Hong Kong billionaire
Li Ka-shing’s Horizon Ventures and Altran Tech-
nologies, a French high-tech engineering consul-
tancy that works in the automotive sector, along

with Czinger himself and others, have poured $28 million into
the company. A new investment round targeting up to $100
million is expected to close soon.
“Traditional auto manufacturing is fundamentally bro-
ken from an economic and environmental standpoint,” Czing-
er says. “You can’t scale factories up and down to meet chang-
es in the market.”
Divergent 3D, he says, points the way to a better future for
how industrial goods are made. In place of Detroit’s mega-
factories—or Elon Musk’s Gigafactories—21st-century man-
ufacturing will be ruled, Czinger believes, by networks of
small-scale urban factories like his. They’ll be able to deliver
low-cost, low-carbon vehicles in small and highly customizable
FUTURE OF MANUFACTURING
ETHAN PINES FOR FORBES
batches. And they could help bring jobs back to communities
that have lost them.
A typical car factory costs between $500 million and $1 bil-
lion to build, and the tooling and machinery are amortized
over many years, which is why they need to produce hundreds
of thousands of vehicles per year to be profitable. Divergent
3D promises it can build a production line for 20,000 or more
cars a year in a warehouse-type space, complete with large-
scale 3-D metal printers, laser cutters and assembly robots, for
just over $50 million. Because of lower capital and production
costs, vehicles would be up to $6,700 cheaper to build, on aver-
age, Czinger says.
Czinger is hardly alone in betting on industrial-scale 3-D
DECEMBER 2017 FORBES ASIA | 79
TECHNOLOGY FUTURE OF MANUFACTURING

printing. Until now, 3-D printing has been used mostly to PSA in 2016, engineers determined that using Divergent 3D’s
make prototypes. But the technology is changing fast, with tech to develop a popular SUV would have had a dramatic up-
ever bigger machines now able to “grow” larger parts from a side: Development time would be reduced by a year, vehicle
variety of advanced materials, including metal powder. weight would be trimmed in half, 75% fewer parts would be
Sales of advanced 3-D printers, which are being used to required, and there would be more flexibility to make chang-
make engines for SpaceX rockets and giant wind turbines es on the fly. “This has the potential to dramatically scale down
for GE, are soaring. Ford Motor may not 3-D print F-150s the size and scope of our manufacturing footprint, reduce
any time soon, but it is using the technology to make facto- overall vehicle weight and build complexity, while also giv-
ry equipment. HP predicts the technology will usher in a “dis- ing us almost limitless flexibility in design output,” Tavares said
tributed manufacturing” future in which companies build what after signing the deal with Czinger last year. “We are talking
they need, when they need it and where they need it, says Tim about a radical change for our industry.”
In all, Divergent 3D has devel-
opment deals with about “half a
dozen” companies, Czinger says.
If Alphabet’s Waymo or Apple one
day opts to build its own autono-
mous vehicles, the Divergent 3D
system could make that happen,
he says. “My focus is to do this
globally,” Czinger adds.
As industrial disruptors go, Cz-
inger is a curious candidate with
an eclectic background. His foot-
ball talents helped get him to
Yale, where he was named Ivy
League Player of the Year in 1980.
After earning undergraduate and
law degrees there, he worked as
a federal prosecutor in the late
1980s (under U.S. attorney Rudy
Giuliani) and as a Goldman Sachs
banker in the early 1990s. He later
had stints at Webvan, where he
The prototype Dagger was built using Divergent 3D’s patented 3-D printing techniques. was chief financial officer, and at
another investment firm.
Weber, an executive at the company’s 3-D printing unit. “Imag- Divergent 3D isn’t Czinger’s first attempt at auto industry
ine you are on a marketplace like Amazon,” Weber says. “You disruption. In 2008 he cofounded Coda Automotive, which
order a car. Maybe it was designed in Lithuania, but it’s built hoped to kick-start electric-vehicle sales with a ho-hum Chi-
in your hometown and delivered a few days later. That’s the di- nese-made sedan. Timing wasn’t on his side. Just as Coda was
rection it’s going—maybe not immediately, but the fourth in- ramping up deliveries, Tesla released the elegant Model S that
dustrial revolution is exactly that.” Costa Samaras, an assistant redefined the EV market.
professor of civil and environmental engineering at Carnegie Coda flopped, but Czinger’s odds with Divergent 3D may
Mellon University, says industrial 3-D printing “will disrupt a be better. He’s not trying to compete head-to-head with Tesla
lot of existing supply chains.” or anyone else by making cars. Instead, his business model
Czinger’s version of that disruption relies on using com- relies on licensing Divergent 3D’s technology to manufactur-
plex 3-D-printed metal joints as the “connective tissue” that ers. His timing could be right this time. As pressure for sus-
attaches to the carbon-fiber structure, or “bones,” of a car’s tainability increases and private car ownership gives way to
chassis using a high-strength adhesive, rather than being transportation as a service, especially in crowded cities, 3-D
welded. The result is a strong, lightweight underbody that printing offers an efficient way for automakers to locally pro-
costs a fraction of one built using traditional stamping meth- duce clean, inexpensive cars for shared urban fleets.
ods. In lieu of a paint job, cars get colored vinyl wraps that are “We can do it at the right economics with much greater
durable and scratch-resistant. Because cars made this way will flexibility,” Czinger says. A car for Los Angeles may look
ETHAN PINES FOR FORBES

be lighter, they will also require less fuel. very different from a car for Paris or Shanghai. “This is
Groupe PSA embraced Divergent 3D in order to accelerate what it comes down to,” Czinger says. “The resilience of the
its manufacturing efficiency, part of a broader turnaround ef- environment, the resilience of the economy depends on
fort under chairman Carlos Tavares. In a six-month study for diversity.” F

80 | FORBES ASIA DECEMBER 2017

Credit Suisse.
Helping
entrepreneurs
and businesses
succeed in
$VLD3DFLƟF
Indonesia’s 50 Richest
EDITED BY KERRY A. DOLAN & LUISA KROLL WITH FORBES INDONESIA & NAAZNEEN KARMALI

Taking It to the Bank

The Hartono brothers open a bigger lead as several lesser fortunes lose ground.

E
ven among the elite ranks of the top 50
richest in Indonesia, there is a hierarchy.
Yet again, the very richest have gotten
even richer. The Hartono brothers, who
have ranked No. 1 for nine years in a row,
continue to distance themselves from the pack. Their
net worth nearly doubled to over $32 billion, up from
$17.1 billion, largely thanks to a nearly 50% rise in the
value of their stake in listed Bank Central Asia (BCA).
The brothers inherited kretek maker Djarum decades
ago but smartly diversified, picking up the BCA stake
after the Salim clan (see p. 86) lost control of it during
the 1997–1998 Asian financial crisis. This year the
Hartonos upped their BCA stake to 55%, from 47%.
Looking ahead, they are also betting on red-hot Sin-
gapore gaming-devices firm Razer (see p. 17), which
recently listed on the Hong Kong exchange. All but
one of Indonesia’s top ten richest saw their fortunes
increase by at least 10% in the past year, thanks in
part to higher stock values. Indonesia’s stock market
rose 17% over the same period.
Another factor driving up valuations of list mem-
bers like Jogi Hendra Atmadja: increased disclosure
in the aftermath of last year’s tax amnesty program,
R. Budi Hartono, of the fraternal dynamic duo, whose wealth doubled this year.
which let the country’s tycoons declare previously
hidden assets in exchange for a small penalty. empire, Monde Nissin, that spans Asia. Another two, Iwan
The total net worth of the 50 Richest is now $126 billion, Lukminto and The Ning King, returned to the ranks after
up from $99 billion a year ago, and the minimum to make the absences of a year or more. Not everyone had a banner year:
list is $450 million, $30 million more than in 2016. There are 16 list members are poorer than they were a year ago. Long-
TATLER INDONESIA

just 2 new faces among the top 50. Arini Subianto claims the time listee Arifin Panigoro is one of three dropping below the
fortune belonging to her father Benny, who died in January. ranks, due to information that revealed a lower ownership
Hartono Kweefanus joins based on his ownership of a biscuit stake in Medco Energi Internasional.
 THE LIST

1
R. BUDI & MICHAEL
HARTONO
$32.3 BILLION S
BANKING, TOBACCO AGES: 76, 77

2
EKA TJIPTA WIDJAJA
$9.1 BILLION S
PALM OIL AGE: 94

3
SUSILO WONOWIDJOJO
$8.8 BILLION S
TOBACCO AGE: 61

4
ANTHONI SALIM
$6.9 BILLION S
DIVERSIFIED AGE: 68

5
SRI PRAKASH LOHIA
$6.4 BILLION S
POLYESTER AGE: 65

6
BOENJAMIN SETIAWAN
$3.65 BILLION S
PHARMACEUTICALS
AGE: 84

7
CHAIRUL TANJUNG
$3.6 BILLION T
DIVERSIFIED AGE: 55

8
TAHIR
$3.5 BILLION S
DIVERSIFIED AGE: 65

9
MOCHTAR RIADY
$3 BILLION S
DIVERSIFIED AGE: 88

10
JOGI HENDRA ATMADJA
$2.7 BILLION S
CONSUMER GOODS
AGE: 71
ARINI SUBIANTO: NEXT CHAPTER 11
Indonesian tycoon Benny Subianto once told Forbes It’s a bit of a shift for Arini, a prominent socialite best PRAJOGO PANGESTU
Indonesia that he would like at least one of his three known for her love of books and gifts. In 2001, Arini, who $2.6 BILLION S
daughters to take over his businesses. His wish was graduated from Parsons School of Design and got an PETROCHEMICALS AGE: 73
finally fulfilled by his oldest daughter Arini Subianto, M.B.A. at Fordham (both in New York), opened a gift and
12
47, who stepped into her father’s role shortly after his furniture shop in Jakarta. Two years later she merged her MURDAYA POO
death in January. Arini is now president director of the shop with neighboring bookstore Aksara, cofounded by $2.2 BILLION
family’s holding company, Persada Capital Investama, her middle school friend Winfred Hutabarat. “We decided DIVERSIFIED AGE: 76
AHMAD ZAMRONI

and oversees its investments in everything from wood- to build something that’s unique in Jakarta, bringing
processing products and palm oil to rubber processors and home the retail experience we had in the U.S.” Today
coal. Her youngest sister, Ardiani, 40, works with her while Aksara, which means “letters of the alphabet,” has three SUP MORE THAN 10% TDOWN MORE THAN 10%
sister Armeilia, 44, runs her own graphic-design business. locations. —Deniz Cam ÌNEW TO LIST 3RETURNEE
Indonesia’s 50 Richest
Museum MACAN is devoted entirely
to modern and contemporary art.
HARYANTO ADIKOESOEMO: CHEMICALS COLLECTOR
The son of billionaire Soegiarto Adikoesoemo and CEO of the family’s
chemicals outfit AKR Corporindo, Haryanto Adikoesoemo started collecting
art over 25 years ago. Over time he has accumulated 800 pieces, including
works by Andy Warhol, Mark Rothko and Gerhard Richter. Roughly half
of Adikoesoemo’s collection consists of works by Indonesian artists. Now
this heir to a chemicals fortune is taking his treasure trove public, opening
a museum dedicated entirely to modern and contemporary art, Museum
MACAN, in early November. Much of the art is on loan from Adikoesoemo’s
collection, but the museum is also commissioning works. His daughter
Fenessa chairs the foundation that runs the museum. Located in Jakarta, the
43,000-square-foot space includes a sculpture garden that features works
by Jeff Koons and Yayoi Kusama, an area with art catering to children and
exhibits that rotate throughout the year. On display now is a custom piece
made up of 13 Asian flags, constructed out of colored sand and connected
by transparent tubes. A colony of 5,000 weaver ants lives within the display,
and as the tiny creatures move through the flags, the sand is transferred
from one flag to another, creating constantly shifting visuals.
—Jennifer Wang
 THE LIST

13
PETER SONDAKH
$1.9 BILLION S
INVESTMENTS AGE: 67

14
PUTERA SAMPOERNA
$1.8 BILLION
INVESTMENTS AGE: 70

15
EDDY KATUARI
$1.7 BILLION
CONSUMER GOODS AGE: 66

Chairal Tanjung (second from left) representing brother 16

Chairul at the November inking of a deal with AccorHotels. KUNCORO WIBOWO
$1.6 BILLION S
RETAIL, TOOLS AGE: 61
SPREADING WINGS
17
Chairul Tanjung is expanding his CT Corp into new areas with the help of his brother Chairal Tanjung. In early HUSODO ANGKOSUBROTO
November, Chairal represented CT Corp, best known for its Visa cards, hypermarkets and TV stations, at a ceremony $1.55 BILLION S
inking a deal with AccorHotels of France to open 30 hotels in Indonesia with a total of 6,000 rooms. The agreement DIVERSIFIED AGE: 62
comes at a time when international tourism to Indonesia is booming. In July, CT Corp sold a 49% stake in its
insurance arm, PT Asuranci Jiwa Mega Indonesia, to Prudential Financial of the U.S., which is betting on growth in the 18
LOW TUCK KWONG
life insurance market. (The sale price was not disclosed.) Prudential notes that the Indonesian life insurance market $1.53 BILLION S
is 1.3% of GDP—one third the penetration of that in nearby Malaysia and half that of India. Chairul said in a statement COAL AGE: 69
that increases in both life expectancy and financial literacy have fueled the domestic market for life insurance.
19
THEODORE RACHMAT
UP AND COMERS $1.5 BILLION T
DIVERSIFIED AGE: 73

Entrepreneurs on the Rise 20

DJOKO SUSANTO
$1.47 BILLION S
SUPERMARKETS AGE: 67

I
n Indonesia, where the 50 richest are 68 years old on average and 37 are over the age
21
of 60, young wealth is a rarity. These three entrepreneurs are not in the ranks yet, but CIPUTRA
their booming businesses, two in tech and one in luxury retail, make them the ones to $1.45 BILLION
REAL ESTATE AGE: 86
watch in 2018 and beyond. –Angel Au-Yeung
BOTTOM (FROM LEFT): AHMAD ZAMRONI; ORE HUIYING/BLOOMBERG; AHMAD ZAMRON

22
HENGKY NADIEM STEFANUS CILIANDRA FANGIONO
SETIAWAN, 48 MAKARIM, 33 LO, 50 $1.42 BILLION
Setiawan got Makarim founded His father PALM OIL AGE: 41
his start in 1992 Go-Jek in 2010 founded a small
23
selling prepaid and grew it from jewelry shop in
GARIBALDI THOHIR
phone cards a motorcycle- Jakarta in 1967. $1.41 BILLION S
from a tiny stall. ride-hailing phone After graduating COAL AGE: 52
Now his publicly- service to an from university
traded PT Tiphone Mobile Indonesia on-demand transportation app that in 1990 with a degree in civil 24
is the largest prepaid phone-card rivals Uber in Indonesia. In August engineering, Lo joined the family MARTUA SITORUS
$1.4 BILLION
distributor in the country with more 2016 the company raised $550 business and grew it into PT Central
PALM OIL AGE: 57
than 450 outlets and $2 billion million at a $1.3 billion valuation. Mega Kencana, the largest jewelry
in revenues. Hengky, who owns The app, which operates in 50 cities retailer in Indonesia. The company 25
around 50% of the company with his across the country, is reportedly has four brands: Frank & Co, Mondial, SOEGIARTO ADIKOESOEMO
brothers Welly and Ferry, is worth an in the process of raising another Miss Mondial and The Palace. In $1.35 BILLION
estimated $280 million. He owns 73 $1.2 billion. The company won’t November the company celebrated CHEMICALS AGE: 79
Mercedes-Benzes and is chairman of confirm his stake, but based on best its 50th store opening. Lo is worth an SUP MORE THAN 10% TDOWN MORE THAN 10%
Aston Martin Owners Club Indonesia. estimates it could be as high as 10%. estimated $200 million. ÌNEW TO LIST 3RETURNEE
Indonesia’s 50 Richest
LIEM SIOE LIONG
b. 1915, d. 2012
Founding Chairman

ANTHONI SALIM
President and CEO

Hong Kong-listed investment firm has assets

of $17.2 billion, with holdings in consumer food
products, infrastructure, natural resources and
telecommunications in six Asian countries.
Salim Group ownership stake: 44%.

First Pacific bought 50% of
this century-old Australian
food company in 2015. It pro-
duces and distributes bread,
cooking oils, snacks, dairy
products and poultry, and
sells some items to China.
This Philippine publicly traded
investment firm owns stakes
in water and electric utilities,
toll roads and hospitals. First
Pacific owns a 42% stake.
The largest telecom compa-
ny in the Philippines is listed
on both the Philippine Stock
Exchange and the New York
Stock Exchange. First
Pacific owns just over 25%.
Recent market capitaliza-
tion: $7.1 billion.
One of the world’s largest
instant-noodle producers
also makes snack foods,
palm oil, pasta and rubber,
and has exclusive rights to
produce and sell Pepsi drinks
in the country. First Pacific
stake: 51%.

BY ANGEL AU-YEUNG

T
wo decades after the collapse of the Salim family’s Bank
Central Asia during the Asian financial crisis, Anthoni
Salim moved his clan’s conglomerate more firmly into
banking, acquiring a majority of Jakarta’s Bank Ina Perdana in
May. The shift came five years after the death of Anthoni’s father,
Liem Sioe Liong, a poor immigrant from China who founded
the Salim Group and prospered early on due to close ties with
autocratic Indonesian president Suharto. Anthoni oversees the
assets of Indonesia’s fourth-richest clan with help from multiple
family members: his brother Andree Halim and Andree’s son Len
Keijian; his sister Mira Salim and her husband Franciscus Weli-
rang, a board member at Indofood; his son Axton Salim, a board
member at Indofood; and his cousin Gianto Gunara, a director at
bread maker QAF. The family keeps a low profile.
 THE LIST

26
EDDY KUSNADI
SARIAATMADJA
$1.3 BILLION
MEDIA, TECH AGE: 64

27
ALEXANDER TEDJA
$1.25 BILLION
REAL ESTATE AGE: 72

28
HUSAIN DJOJONEGORO
The Salim family increased its Singapore-listed bread maker has $1.2 BILLION
ownership of the bank from 17% to plants in Malaysia and the Philippines CONSUMER GOODS AGE: 68

51% in May. The bank is working to and processes pork in Australia. 29

develop e-banking features for the Anthoni’s brother Andree Halim is HARJO SUTANTO
Web and mobile phones. deputy group managing director and $1.18 BILLION
the largest shareholder, just over 50%. CONSUMER GOODS
AGE: 91

30
SUKANTO TANOTO
$1.1 BILLION T
DIVERSIFIED AGE: 67

31
HARY TANOESOEDIBJO
$1.05 BILLION
MEDIA AGE: 52

The listed firm runs Indomaret,
the country’s largest mini-mart
chain; Sari Roti (largest bread
maker); and has a stake in KFC
restaurant franchise in Indone-
sia. Salim has 58% stake.
32
AKSA MAHMUD
While the Salim family gave Anthoni Salim owns 74% of $1.04 BILLION S
up running Bank Central Asia this company, whose assets CEMENT AGE: 72
in 1998, Anthoni owns a 1.76% include a 52% stake in Indo-
stake worth nearly $700 mil- mobil Sukses Internasional; 33
KUSNAN & RUSDI KIRANA
lion. The bank is controlled by it assembles and sells Audi,
$970 MILLION T
the Hartonos, the country’s Nissan, Renault and other AIRLINES AGES: 58, 54
richest family. auto brands in Indonesia.
34
BACHTIAR KARIM
$900 MILLION T
MANUFACTURING
AGE: 60

35
HASHIM DJOJOHADIKUSUMO
$850 MILLION S
DIVERSIFIED AGE: 63

36
GRPAHIC: PETER AND MARIA HOEY FOR FORBES

Founded in 1956, property,
auto and health insurance
company also operates in
H.K., Thailand, Philippines,
Laos and Cambodia. Anthoni
is chairman and owns 33%.
Anthoni’s sister Mira Salim
founded this trading com-
pany in 2001 to distribute
Indonesian food in Hong
Kong and China, includ-
ing Indofood’s Supermi
noodles.
SJAMSUL NURSALIM
$830 MILLION S
TIRES, RETAIL AGE: 76
37
Four-decade-old publicly
ARINI SUBIANTO
traded cement company. $820 MILLION Ì
Customers include the Indo- COAL, PALM OIL AGE: 46
nesian government. Salim
Group stake: 13%
SUP MORE THAN 10% TDOWN MORE THAN 10%
ÌNEW TO LIST 3RETURNEE
Indonesia’s 50 Richest

S.P. & AMIT LOHIA:

POLYESTER ROYALTY
More than 40 years after emigrating from India,
Indonesia’s polyester king S.P. Lohia continues
to spin the family’s fortune well beyond yarn
and plastics with help from his 43-year-old
son Amit. Indorama Group, which they head
as chairman and vice chairman, respectively,
announced plans in November to acquire Tata
Chemicals’ fertilizer business. A month earlier
Indorama Ventures, his biggest holding run by
brother Aloke, agreed to buy Dupont Teijin,
a joint venture that specializes in PET film
products for industrial use. Indorama is also
investing more than $1 billion to build a second
fertilizer plant in Nigeria and in the process
of adding fertilizer manufacturing capacity in
Uzbekistan. Amid these moves, Lohia’s fortune
rose by $1.4 billion to a record $6.4 billion.

MUKI HAMAMI:
HEALTHY BET
After entrepreneur Achmad
Hamami lost his eyesight
to glaucoma in 1999, eldest
son Muki stepped in to help
run the family’s diversified
Tiara Marga Trakindo and its
flagship subsidiary Trakindo
Utama, the sole dealer in
Indonesia for Caterpillar
equipment. The family, which
has the license to operate
Carl’s Jr. burger restaurants,
is betting on Malaysia’s
BookDoc, an online platform
that connects patients to
health care professionals.
AHMAD ZAMRONI(BOTTOM)

They were early investors

along with Macau gaming
magnate Stanley Ho’s family
and the Brunei Royal family.
—Anis Shakirah Mohd Muslimin
 THE LIST

38
FUN & GAMES SUDHAMEK
$810 MILLION S
SNACKS, BEVERAGES AGE: 61

39
ACHMAD HAMAMI
$800 MILLION
HEAVY EQUIPMENT AGE: 87

Sportsman Bro 40
LIM HARIYANTO WIJAYA SARWONO

Steps Up $790 MILLION S

PALM OIL AGE: 89

41

W
hen Erick Thohir, 47, took over as ABDUL RASYID
$780 MILLION
head of the organizing commit- TIMBER, PALM OIL AGE: 59
tee of next year’s Asian Games in
42
Jakarta, he had mixed feelings. Planning had EDWIN SOERYADJAYA
fallen so far behind that the city faced losing $720 MILLION
COAL, INVESTMENTS AGE: 68
the event to Beijing. Jakarta had a bad record
when it came to putting on sporting events. 43
OSBERT LYMAN
The capital’s attempt at hosting the 2011 South- $700 MILLION S
REAL ESTATE AGE: 67
east Asian Games ended in disaster when two
died in a stampede at the soccer final between 44
KARTINI MULJADI
Indonesia and Malaysia. $680 MILLION T
That experience prompted Thohir to set PHARMACEUTICALS AGE: 87

strict terms when the country’s president, “I am not Superman,” says Erick Thorir, regarding his
45
supervision of next year’s Asian Games in Jakarta.
Joko Widodo, asked him to take the job in PURNOMO PRAWIRO
$640 MILLION S
early 2015. Thohir, who is the founder and Inter Milan (making Thohir the first Indone- TAXIS AGE: 70
chairman of media company Mahaka Group, sian to control a major European sports team), 46
would put on the show with no responsibili- later selling the stake in 2016 to better focus HARTONO KWEEFANUS
$540 MILLION Ì
ties for venues and athletes. “I said to him, ‘Mr. on his Asian Games role (he remains as Inter FOOD MANUFACTURING
President, I am not Superman. I am happy to Milan’s president).
47
offer my expertise, but if I have to also ensure Despite its bumpy start (Vietnam pulled IRWAN HIDAYAT
that the venue is done and the athletes are out in 2014) the games appear on track. A $500 MILLION
HERBAL MEDICINE
prepared, then forget it,’” Thohir recalls. dazzling launch event in August, featuring
Few in Indonesia are better suited for the acts such as K-Pop troupe Girls Generation 48
IWAN LUKMINTO
task. Thohir—the brother of billionaire Garib- and Widodo showing off impressive archery $490 MILLION 3
aldi “Boy” Thohir (No. 23), who runs Adaro skills, helped focus attention and gener- TEXTILES AGE: 42

Energy—is the only Indonesian known to own ate excitement. Sponsors like car service 49
SANTOSA HANDOJO
stakes in international sports teams. He is a Grab are stumping up a total of $80 million $460 MILLION T
LIONEL NG/GETTY IMAGES FOR ICC

shareholder in D.C. United, a U.S. soccer team, to offset the inevitable government budget POULTRY, BEEF PROCESSING AGE: 53

and also had bought and sold a stake in the U.S.’ cutbacks. “Sports creates enthusiasm,” says 50
Philadelphia 76ers basketball team. In 2013 Thohir. “People are united through sports.” THE NING KING
$450 MILLION 3
he bought a 70% stake in Italian football club —Jeffrey Hutton DIVERSIFIED AGE: 86

SUP MORE THAN 10% TDOWN MORE THAN 10%

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FORBES ASIA

LICENSEE COVERS

Around Asia
In Forbes:

FORBES KOREA DECEMBER

A push by new President Moon Jae-In to foster Korean growth companies prompts
a discussion among four “venture business gurus”—a professor from KAIST (Korea
Advanced Institute of Science & Technology) and CEOs from Jusung Engineering,
FORBES JAPAN JANUARY 2018
Dasan Networks and CrucialTec. (forbeskorea.com)
The magazine’s selections for best startups over the past three
years are headed by founder and CEO Yasukane Matsumoto of
Raksul (connects online graphics with hard-copy printing jobs)
and Genjiro Miwa, CEO of Megakarayon (producing platelets
for blood transfusions that don’t require donors).
(forbesjapan.com)

FORBES INDIA NOVEMBER 24

Entrepreneur of the Year H. M. Bangur,
managing director of family-run
Shree Cement, caps the Forbes India
Leadership Awards for 2017, the
magazine’s signature issue and event.
(forbesindia.com)

FORBES THAILAND
DECEMBER
Nuttapong Hirunyasiri, 33, is third-
generation managing director of
his family’s MTS Gold, advancing
it into Thailand’s top three firms
in the metal. He wants the country
to be ASEAN’s gold hub, initiating
futures trading in Bangkok as well.
MTS targets 2017 revenues above $1
billion, with an IPO within two years.
(forbesthailand.com)

DECEMBER 2017 FORBES ASIA | 91

Forbes Life
The Sweet Spot
Despite little name recognition, San Francisco chocolate maker Guittard has managed to
survive competition from both the Davids and the Goliaths.
BY STACY PERMAN
F
or many, the arrival of Scharffen Berger’s bean-to-bar
chocolate bars some 20 years ago—with their $10 pric-
es, quirky origin stories and artsy wrappers—marked
the starting point of the craft movement in American
chocolate. For Gary Guittard, president of Guittard Chocolate,
Scharffen Berger’s arrival marked something darker. “I smelled
something dangerous for us,” Guittard says.
Scharffen Berger, using old world artisanal methods and
rare cacao beans, upended an industry that had turned to in-
dustrialized manufacturing and cheaper ingredients to reduce
costs. Over time, Guittard acknowledges, his company and oth-
ers had “washed out a lot of the flavor in the beans.” The mar-
ketplace responded to the new brand with wild enthusiasm,
says Guittard, 71, who concluded, “I needed to make changes
in order to survive.”
He spent the next four years experimenting, a process Guit-
tard says nearly did him in. Founded by Gary’s great-grandfa-
ther in San Francisco in 1868, E. Guittard & Co. Chocolates &
Cocoa survived the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake, the Great
Depression and the sudden deaths of Gary’s father and brother,
then the company’s president and its designated heir, respec-
tively. The challenge posed by Sharffen Berger was to refine and
reengineer manufacturing techniques to produce the kind of
flavor found in artisanal batches but on a larger scale. “I almost
lost my mind trying to duplicate that,” he says. “I went back to
the way we made chocolate 100 years ago.”
In short, Guittard managed to find a sweet spot by using
types of beans the company hadn’t used in decades, old fam-
ily recipes and some new processing techniques. He could
make chocolate with better quality than the big guys, and he
could produce that chocolate in quantities that artisanal mak-
ers couldn’t match.
In the $22.4 billion American chocolate market, Guittard
generates more than $100 million in annual revenue, far be-
hind Hershey and Mars, which together make up about three
quarters of the U.S. market, but substantially more than small-
batch makers like Askinosie, Dandelion and Madécasse (Her-
shey acquired Scharffen Berger, then generating an estimated
$10 million, for a reported $50 million in 2005). Today, Gary
says, the company is profitable but chocolate-making remains
92 | FORBES ASIA DECEMBER 2017
capital-intensive, and he plows an average of 30% of profits
back into the business each year.
Guittard is the biggest American chocolate company most
people have never heard of. It has never established a large re-
tail presence, mostly to avoid competing with core custom-
ers like See’s Candies, the iconic California confectioner owned
by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway. Guittard began work-
ing with See’s, its biggest customer, in the 1930s, supplying it
first with dark chocolate and then picking up its milk chocolate
business four decades later when Nestlé, See’s original suppli-
er, began selling branded truffles that competed with See’s. “We
work very closely with them,” says Brad Kinstler, See’s CEO.
“Our particular chocolate that they produce is critical to our
flavor. We have special requirements, and they are able to meet
our specifications to a T.”
Other clients of Guittard’s bars, chips, wafers, sweet-
ground chocolate and cocoa powder include Williams-So-
noma, Baskin-Robbins and scores of bakeries, candy makers
and chefs—from Thomas Keller to Jacques Torres. Shake Shack
puts Guittard in its chocolate frozen custard, and Wolfgang
Puck has used it to make his miniature Oscars for the post-
Academy Awards Governor’s Ball. Two years ago, when the res-
taurant Untitled opened at the Whitney Museum, Grub Street
dubbed its Guittard-based triple chocolate cookie New York’s
finest. “I like to say, you don’t know how much Guittard you’ve
consumed,” says Amy Guittard, 35, Gary’s daughter and the di-
rector of marketing.
Guittard began as many ventures do, with aspirations that
shifted dramatically. Gary’s great-grandfather Etienne Guit-
tard left his home in Tournus, France, for San Francisco’s Bar-
bary Coast, hoping to strike it rich in the Gold Rush. When he
found that wealthy miners would pay handsomely for his choc-
olates, he changed course. Similarly, Gary never planned to
work at Guittard, where his older brother Jay was expected to
take over. Passionate about the outdoors and adventure sports,
Gary went to college in Colorado and then worked in advertis-
ing in San Francisco.
In 1973, he returned to the fold, “hat in my hand,” after
being laid off. His father, Horace, told him to work elsewhere
and develop a skill, and he landed a job as a food broker, in-
 SMALL GIANTS

Gary Guittard’s
business has built key
relationships, like one
with a certain Seattle
coffee chain.

of ‘aha’ moment or ‘Oh God’ or

‘Oh boy.’ There was just the fact
and reality that this is the way it
is.”
The family’s business had al-
ways been based on doing what
it takes to build relationships.
When sugar prices quadrupled in
the 1970s, Gary went to each of
his clients and asked them to re-
negotiate their contracts. The ex-
ercise taught him not only who
his friends were but also an im-
portant lesson: “Those that rene-
gotiated stayed in business. Most
of the ones that didn’t don’t exist
today.”
In the 1950s, when See’s want-
ed its chocolate delivered in liq-
uid form, Guittard began sending
tankers of melted chocolate di-
rectly to the company. This sum-
mer, after Guittard missed a de-
livery date, it took an $11,000 hit
to fly 2,000 pounds of chocolate
to the Honolulu Cookie Co. Mark
Spini, vice president of sales, who’s
been with Guittard for 31 years,
says, “We understand we’re deal-
ing with entrepreneurs growing
troducing new products to grocery stores. Two years later, he their businesses. We were once like that too.”
joined Guittard, sharing an office with his father and brother, In the 1970s, a Palo Alto housewife named Debbi stopped
and focused on expanding sales of consumer products, such as by regularly as she experimented with a chocolate chip cookie
the home-baking line. recipe. Eventually, she launched Mrs. Fields Cookies. Around
TIMOTHY ARCHIBALD FOR FORBES

And then in 1989, after his father, 76, and brother, 46, died
within six months of each other, his father of ALS and his
brother of a heart attack, Gary took over the company. The loss
was devastating personally, but he says he was ready: “I had a
vision; I felt pretty confident. I just focused on the things that
needed to be done and what came next. There wasn’t any kind
the same time, a friend of Gary’s, working at a fledgling coffee
roaster in Seattle, called him seeking help to develop mocha for
hot chocolate; Starbucks remains a customer today. “When our
customers are successful, we are successful,” says Clark Guit-
tard, 45, Gary’s nephew and director of international sales. “We
grow with them.” F

DECEMBER 2017 FORBES ASIA | 93

Forbes Life
Highest-Paid Models
Kendall Jenner takes the crown from Gisele.
BY NATHALIE ROBEHMED
F
or the first time since 2002, Kendall
Gisele Bundchen is not Jenner
the world’s highest-earn-
ing model. Kendall Jenner,
22, steals the top spot with a
mammoth $22 million year.
Thanks to an Instagram account
that lets her disseminate advertise-
ments to 85 million followers, Jen-
ner tallied a career-best total in the 12
months to June from favorable deals
with Estée Lauder, La Perla and Adi-
das, among others. Paychecks from her
family’s reality TV show, her Kendall +
Kylie clothing line with her sister, Kylie
Jenner, and numerous social media en-
dorsements juice her modeling money.
She edges Bundchen ($17.5 million)
who had a quieter year. The 37-year-
old still posed for a Carolina Herrera
fragrance and Arezzo shoes and
Vivara jewelry in her native Brazil, but
fewer campaigns meant her take-home
dipped 43% from 2016’s $30.5 million
total.
Rounding out the top three is Chris-
sy Teigen ($13.5 million), who joins the
list for the first time. With an outsize 1. KENDALL JENNER
social following, the foodie and former 2. GISELE BUNDCHEN
Sports Illustrated cover girl mints mil- 3. CHRISSY TEIGEN
lions from deals beyond fashion, in- 4. ADRIANA LIMA
cluding advertisements with beverage 5. GIGI HADID
brands such as Vita Coco and Smirnoff. 6. ROSIE HUNTINGTON-WHITELEY
Together, the world’s 10 highest- 7. KARLIE KLOSS
paid models banked $109.5 million be- 8. LIU WEN
tween June 1, 2016, and June 1, 2017, 9. BELLA HADID
before taxes and fees. Earnings are 10. ASHLEY GRAHAM
based on income from cosmetics, fragrance and other con-
tracts; estimates are sourced from interviews with numerous
managers, agents and brand executives.
As fashion changes, so do the rankings of highest-paid
models. Take Instagram-famous newcomer Bella Hadid (No.
9, $6 million), who joins the top earners thanks to a busy
year posing for more than a dozen brands including Dior
makeup, Nike and Nars cosmetics. Her sister, Gigi Hadid,
94 | FORBES ASIA DECEMBER 2017
MOVING UP
outearns her by $3.5 million, marking the
first time siblings have ever appeared on
the highest-paid models list. “With social
media there are more opportunities to cre-
ate your own content and use your voice,”
said Ivan Bart, president of IMG Models.
“The stars are using it.”
Karlie Kloss ($9 million) is one such
multi-talent eager to speak up. With a
YouTube channel and a forthcoming talk
show on Freeform, she has leveraged a
large social audience—some 12.6 mil-
lion followers across platforms—to grow
Kode With Klossy, a nonprofit that aims
to balance the gender disparity in soft-
ware engineering and has educated more
than 500 girls so far. “I realized, here I
am with this platform and reach to young
women across the country and around the
world,” Kloss told Forbes. “If I could just
help a handful of girls, that would be real-
ly meaningful.”
By decentralizing fame, social media
has empowered women once ignored by
fashion. Ashley Graham ($5.5 million)
built her own audience instead of relying
for exposure on editorial shoots, which
$22.0 MIL rarely feature models beyond sample size.
17.5 MIL The first curve model to make our high-
13.5 MIL est-paid list, Graham has her own lines for
10.5 MIL Addition Elle, Dressbarn and Swimsuits
9.5 MIL For All, plus campaigns for Lane Bryant
9.5 MIL and H&M, among others. “It is not about
9.0 MIL who has the highest cheekbones anymore,”
6.5 MIL the 30 Under 30 honoree told Forbes in
6.0 MIL 2016. “It is really about how to be a boss, a
5.5 MIL brand and a businesswoman.”
Though fashion is taking steps towards inclusivity,
Liu Wen ($6.5 million) remains the only nonwhite model
among the top ten. But change is coming: A recent survey
JACOPO RAULE/GETTY IMAGES
by FashionSpot found that for the first time nonwhites ac-
counted for more than 30% of the models cast in fall 2017
advertising campaigns, meaning models of color are now
booking not just low-paying catwalks but lucrative adver-
tisements, too. F
 ON THE BLOCK

Drive Like
a Billionaire
BY MICHAEL SOLOMON

GIVEN THAT A CAR from Apple is still years away, how
about the next best thing? On December 6, RM Sotheby’s is
auctioning a silver-and-black BMW Z8 once owned by Steve
Jobs. The Apple cofounder purchased the roadster new in
2000—reportedly on the advice of Oracle’s Larry Ellison. At
the time, the car cost $128,000, but the provenance is sure to
add to its auction value. A pre-owned 2000 Z8 typically sells
for between $170,000 and $250,000; Jobs’ car has a presale
estimate of $300,000 to $400,000. Here’s how his iCar com-
pares with other billionaire rides at auction.

HERB CHAMBERS
CEO, THE HERB CHAMBERS
COS. ($1.3 BIL)
Car: 1995 MCLAREN F1
Sticker price: $970,000
Auction price:
$15.6 MILLION (IN 2017)
Added value:
A MODEST 9,600 MILES
ON THE ODOMETER
TOP TO BOTTOM LEFT: KARISSA HOSEK © 2017 COURTESY OF RM SOTHEBY’S; COURTESY OF NAPLES MOTOR

STEVE WYNN
CEO, WYNN RESORTS
(NET WORTH: $3.2 BIL)
Car: LAFERRARI
SPORTS; COURTESY OF PROXIBID; COURTESY OF BONHAMS;

Sticker price: $1.4 MILLION

Sale price: $3 MILLION
Added value:
ONLY 499 MODELS
WERE PRODUCED
WARREN BUFFETT
CEO, BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY
($80.7 BIL)
Car: 2006 CADILLAC DTS
Sticker price: $41,000
Auction price:
$122,500 (IN 2015)
Added value:
A DASHBOARD SIGNED
BY BUFFETT

DECEMBER 2017 FORBES ASIA | 95

THOUGHTS ON

Ambition

“At age 6 I wanted

to be a cook. At
7 I wanted to be
“Would you give
Napoleon. And my up the craft of
ambition has been your hands, and
growing steadily the passion of
ever since.” your heart, and “The future is what matters,
—SALVADOR DALÍ the hunger of because one never reaches it,
your mind, to but always stays in the present.”
buy safety?” —SYLVIA PLATH
“FIRST —URSULA K. LEGUIN

THINGS “Ambition is “’TIS NOT WHAT A

FIRST; the growth of MAN DOES THAT
SECOND ev’ry clime.” EXALTS HIM, BUT
THINGS —WILLIAM BLAKE WHAT A MAN
WOULD DO.”
NEVER.” “Well is it known
—ROBERT BROWNING
—SHIRLEY CONRAN that ambition
can creep as
“FAIN WOULD I CLIMB, YET FEAR I TO FALL.” well as soar.” “The trouble
—WALTER RALEIGH —EDMUND BURKE with fulfilling
your ambitions is
“Ambition, n. An overmastering desire to be vilified by enemies you think you’ll
while living and made ridiculous by friends when dead.” be transformed
—AMBROSE BIERCE
into some sort of
archangel, and you’re
not. You still have to
“ALL MY LIFE

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP CENTER: ART COLLECTION/ALAMY; HULTON ARCHIVE/GETTY IMAGES; CULTURE CLUB/GETTY IMAGES;
“THERE IS ALWAYS wash your socks.”
ROOM AT THE TOP.” I WANTED TO —LOUIS DE BERNIÈRES

—DANIEL WEBSTER BE SOMEBODY.

NOW I SEE THAT
HULTON-DEUTSCH COLLECTION/CORBIS/GETTY IMAGES; JOHN LINDSAY/AP; BETTMANN/GETTY IMAGES
I SHOULD HAVE
BEEN MORE
SPECIFIC.”
—JANE WAGNER

“If you would hit the mark, you must aim a

little above it; every arrow that flies feels the
attraction of the earth.” FINAL
—HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW
THOUGHT
“MAY HE GIVE YOU THE DESIRE OF YOUR “Ambition is best
HEART AND MAKE ALL YOUR PLANS SUCCEED.” not naked.”
“Desire makes everything
—PSALM 20:4 —MALCOLM FORBES
blossom; possession makes
everything wither and fade.” SOURCES: POETICAL SKETCHES, BY WILLIAM BLAKE; SAUL, BY ROBERT BROWNING; THE TIMES BOOK OF
QUOTATIONS; ELEGIAC VERSE, BY HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW; THE DEVIL’S DICTIONARY,
—MARCEL PROUST BY AMBROSE BIERCE; OXFORD DICTIONARY OF MODERN QUOTATIONS; SUPERWOMAN, BY SHIRLEY CONRAN;
THE UNABRIDGED JOURNALS OF SYLVIA PLATH; THE FARTHEST SHORE, BY URSULA K. LEGUIN.

96 | FORBES ASIA DECEMBER 2017

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