Vijay Eswaran,a Malaysian businessman and executive, was born in June 1956 and is the chairman of E-ventures Holdings. He is an advisory board member of the U.S.-based technology company Qualcomm, and UAE’s national telecom company Etisalat Group as well as being a member of the International Advisory Council for Strategy& at Harvard University. He also served on Apple Inc.’s board from 2008 to 2012. He was previously advisor to the government of Malaysia as well as a member of the Malaysian Investment Development Authority. He is also chairman and founder of international business conglomerate E-ventures Holdings.
Vijay Eswaran started out with a degree in engineering from Ist Nazrul University before earning an MBA from the University of Warwick. VJE Ventures, the company he founded in 2000, is based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. In 2007, E-ventures Holdings’ subsidiary E-ventures International Co. Ltd launched its global business to provide value added services to clients in Asia and Europe.
Vijay Eswaran goal is to become Southeast Asia’s leading tech company. Its first acquisition was the Mobile Planet Group, a Malaysian mobile phone and prepaid card distributor. As of February 2010, E-ventures Holdings’ subsidiaries also included E-ventures International Co. Ltd, which provided international business development support in Asia and Europe, as well as VJE Ventures Sdn Bhd, and VJE Venture Capital Sdn Bhd. Its holdings also included an office building in Kuala Lumpur’s business district, Eight Sentral Tower. In 2011 it acquired The Mint Digital Group, a digital media company focused on mobile advertising.
In 2012, E-ventures Holdings’ subsidiaries also included E-ventures Sdn Bhd, and E-ventures Venture Capital Sdn Bhd. However, in 2014, the company had its shares delisted from the Bursa Malaysia Securities Berhad due to large amounts of outstanding warrants being unpaid. In 2013, Vijay purchased a 16% stake in Singapore telecoms firm M1 Limited for $30 million. The money was used to purchase 51% of M1’s parent company Hutchison Whampoa’s stake in Australia’s Optus and through a deal with China Unicom to acquire majority ownership of Africa’s Cell C.
More details are available on Vijay Eswaran’s Twitter