Vinod Sekhar

Datuk Vinod Balachandra Sekhar is the Chairman and Group Chief Executive of Petra Group, a Malaysian company that focuses on rubber recycling, biotechnology and financial software. He is also the chairman of the Sekhar Foundation, based in Kuala Lumpur and the CEO of Green Rubber. He was named by Forbes magazine as Malaysia's 28th richest man for 2009.

The title of Dato' was given to Sekhar at the early age of 26 by Yang di Pertuan Besar of Negeri Sembilan, Tuanku Ja'afar Ibni Almarhum Tuanku Abdul Rahman on his 71st birthday, who was at that time the 10th Yang di Pertuan Agong of Malaysia. He was the youngest person to be conferred a Dato'ship.

Sekhar is the youngest son of Sukumari Nair and B.C. Sekhar, also known as Mr. Natural Rubber, who for a time provided significant inputs in the global natural rubber industry. He has three siblings. He is married to Winy Sekhar with whom he has two daughters, Petra and Tara.

Aside from managing his businesses, Sekhar takes time to write literary contents. He has written numerous plays and even produced a book of poetry. "In the Mind's Eye", one of the plays that he has written was a success and was well received when it was produced in the United States, United Kingdom and in his homeland, Malaysia. Dato Vinod paid for it to be produced.

Moreover, he became the host of the first English talk show on television in Malaysia.

He also enjoys playing golf with a 22 handicap.

While he attended Haileybury and Imperial Service College, and writes broadly – for instance he started a non-partisan multiracial youth organisation, Malaysiana Muda. He remained president of one of the largest multiracial youth organisations in Malaysia at that time for two terms.

Sekhar was only 21 when he started his business career with just US$50 when he put up his own clothing company called Vincent Siefer Clothing Company that sold college embossed shirts to university students in different American universities. He later then sold his clothing company for US$5 million.

In 1990, Sekhar formed Sekhar Tunku Imran (STI) Group together with his friend, Tunku Tan Sri Imran and penetrated various business ventures. Some of the most notable business deals that STI had was when it had a joint venture with Disney-MGM Studios in Florida, USA to produce the movie entitled Tarzan, The Epic Adventure.

Over the years, STI teamed up with various business partners both in the local and international scene that in 1997, the Petra Group was born.

The Petra Group is a privately held company that is well known for Green Rubber Global – the company's key business which is a cost-effective process that can efficiently recycle used rubber.

Sekhar is also an active supporter of different socio-civic organisations. He founded the Sekhar Foundation which owns 60% of The Petra Group and acts as the philanthropic arm of the company by supporting various charitable organisations worldwide. The Sekhar Foundation has donated to a range of organisations that are working in the fields of education, poverty alleviation, and healthcare provision. The Foundation is also the main sponsor for South East Asia's largest rain forest research programme in the Danum Valley in Borneo.

Green Rubber Global

Green Rubber Global (GRG) is a part of Sekhar's Petra Group.

The recycling firm will make use of the process that Sekhar's father has developed called De-Link to create "green rubber". The De-Link process will devulcanise old and used tyres then revulcanise them and convert them into different new rubber products such as vehicle tyres and footwear soles.

GRG has famous supporters and shareholders like Hollywood celebrities Mel Gibson and Bruce Willis and Forbes magazine publisher, Steve Forbes.

Dato' Vinod was also one of the first Malaysians to venture into the former Soviet Union after its breakup and was a part of the privatization of its second largest petrochemical plant. He was also the first Southeast Asian to own both Formula 2000 and Formula 3 Championship motorsports teams, and he founded Malaysia’s first sports car company.

Dato' Vinod has presented a variety of papers at and participated in many international conferences including the International Human Rights Conference in Brussels, the first Malaysian International Youth Conference for Unity in Kuala Lumpur, the Asia Europe Young Leaders Conference in Ireland, the New Asian Leaders Retreat in Seoul, South Korea programmer for the World Economic Forum, the WEF’s Davos Annual meeting, he was the Chair of the first New Asian Leaders–Emerging Arab Leaders Summit in Langkawi, which was attended by King Abdullah II of Jordan, and he was a speaker at the 2005 Forbes Global CEO Conference in Sydney.

Dato' Vinod is the Chairman of the Sekhar Foundation (which he founded and which currently plays a role in the lives of over 12,000 children globally), the Chairman of the Pelita Harapan (Lantern of Hope) for terminally ill children, the Co-Chairman of the Innocent Child Appeal Fund Board for abused children, and the Chairman of the Sitavani Foundation. He was also the founding President of Malaysian Muda, the first nonpartisan multiracial national youth organization created to develop unity among Malaysian youth, where he warned of polarization among young Malaysians two decades before the government finally acknowledged it was out of control.

In 1991, for his contribution to the globalization of education and the education of children, Dato' Vinod was made the first and youngest Asian fellow of Kappa Delta Pi, a US-based international Honors Society for Education. This organization awarded its “ The Point of Excellence ” award to his company, the first Asian company to be so honored. Dato' Vinod was 26 years old and one of the youngest to be so honored. The World Economic Forum named him as one of its 40 “New Asian Leaders” (NAL). Grant Thornton named him the Malaysian Corporate Leader of the Year in August 2008.

He has written several plays and a book of poetry. One of his plays, “In the Mind’s Eye,” was produced with success in the US, UK and Malaysia. Datuk Vinod also hosted Malaysia’s first English language talk show on television. He has also jointly won several New York Festival Awards for his cutting-edge advertising campaigns. In addition to playing golf, tennis and squash, he has a black belt in Judo and is an avid fan of Walt Disney and Mickey Mouse. He has over 290 Disney ties.

In 2013, Datuk Vinod produced the Indian Film "Liar's Dice" which features the story of Kamala, a young woman from Chitkul village and her girl child Manya, who embarks on a journey leaving their native land in search for her missing husband.