David Teoh

David Siang Hai Teoh is an Australian businessman, and the 25th-richest person in Australia, estimated to be worth approximately US$2.9 billion.

He is the executive chairman of TPG, a company he founded with his Taiwanese wife Vicky in 1992 after emigrating from Malaysia in 1986.

TPG started off as a computer retail company, but several acquisitions including the purchase of a mobile spectrum licence, have contributed to its success as a major internet service provider.

In August 2018, Teoh announced TPG was in discussions with Vodafone Hutchinson Australia about a proposed $13 billion merger. Teoh’s only comment about the proposed merger was the pricing would be “very aggressive” and that it would bring value to the customer. It was blocked by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission on the grounds that it would lessen consumer choice in both the internet and mobile phone markets. But in early 2020 Vodafone and TPG were granted permission by the Federal Court to merge, paving the way for the stalled $15 billion deal to finally proceed.

Famously reclusive, Teoh has only been photographed in public twice. A photographer staked out his house for three days in 2015, and in 2019 the proposed merger with Vodafone obliged him to attend court.

His four sons, Shane, Jack, John and Bob, have launched more than a dozen startup companies dealing in clothing, furniture, technology, and eyeglasses. Vicky Teoh has her own substantial investments, including Vita Life Sciences Ltd, a pharmaceutical and healthcare company.