Aloke Lohia
Quick Facts
Biography
Aloke Lohia (born 1958) is an Indian billionaire businessman, and the founder and group CEO of Indorama Ventures PCL. He is the chairman of the company's sustainability committee and a member of the nomination, compensation and corporate governance committee. From 1979 to 1987, he was the finance director of P.T. Indorama Synthetics, Indonesia, and in 1994 he founded Indorama Ventures in Thailand.
According to Forbes rankings in June 2018, Lohia has a net worth of $3.1 billion and is the 9th richest person in Thailand.
Early life
Lohia was educated at Delhi University where he received a bachelor of commerce degree. He moved to Thailand and has lived there since 1988, during which time he founded Indorama Chemicals (now known as Aurus Specialty Company Limited). This very first business of Lohia was about turning corncobs into furfural alcohol. The investment was supported by the German Investment Corporation or DEG (Deutsche Investitions- und Entwicklungsgesellschaft). Lohia started Thailand's first wool business under the name Indorama Holdings in 1994. Then he started Thailand's first PET (Polyethylene Terephthalate) business, Indorama Polymers, in 1995. In February 2010, Lohia delisted Indorama Polymers and simultaneously listed its parent company Indorama Ventures on the Stock Exchange of Thailand.
Indorama Ventures' revenue was approximately $7.5 billion at the end of 2014.
Personal & family life
Lohia is married to Suchitra Lohia who runs the packaging arm of the company and is a director and vice chairman of the company as well as several of its subsidiaries. Suchitra is a bachelor of commerce graduate of Delhi University and of the OPM Executive Education Program of Harvard University.
Aloke and Suchitra have three children. Their daughter Aradhana Lohia Sharma graduated magna cum laude in Business Management from Babson College in the United States. Aradhana was married on 21 April 2013 to Kevin Sharma, in Florence, Italy. Their son Yashovardhan Lohia studied Engineering Business Management at the University of Warwick in the UK. Their youngest son Anuj Lohia is studying Business Management at Babson College.
Recognition
In 2011, Lohia was appointed an honorary investment advisor to the Government of Thailand. In 2011–2014, Lohia was included in the Top 40 Power Players by ICIS (Independent Chemical Information Service), the world's largest petrochemical market information provider.