Gopinath Pillai

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Gopinath Pillai
BBM
ഗോപിനാഥ് പിള്ള
Padmashree Gopinathan Pillai.jpg
Born1937 (age 87–88)
Singapore, Straits Settlements
Alma mater University of Malaya (BA)
Occupations
  • Diplomat
  • businessman
Children4
ParentK.S. Pillai (father)

Gopinath Pillai (born 1937) BBM is a Singaporean diplomat and businessman who served as an ambassador-at-large at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. [1] [2]

Contents

In 2012, Pillai was conferred the Padma Shri by the Indian government, the fourth highest Indian civilian award. [3]

Early life

Pillai was born in Singapore to K. S. Pillai, a journalist who ran a daily, Kerala Bandhu, known to be the only Malayalam language daily published outside India. [2] He spent eight years of his childhood in Kerala, India, where his family is from, as he could not return to Singapore due to the outbreak of World War II. [2] After the closure of the daily, his family finances dwindled and Pillai opted for a government-funded education. [2] He graduated from the University of Malaya with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1961 and was a member of the Socialist Club. [4] [5]

Career

Pillai started his career as a journalist with Reuters [4] [6] but had to abandon the job to fulfil his commitment to the government to work as a teacher, a prerequisite for availing government funding for education in Singapore. [2] He subsequently joined Bangkok Bank [4] as an Economic Research Officer and worked as a correspondent for the Far Eastern Economic Review . [2] He worked at the bank for five years before moving to Malaysian Industrial Development Finance Bhd as an economist, during which Singapore had become a separate country in 1965. [4] He stayed in Malaysia until 1969, when he returned to Singapore with his family to take up an appointment as the head of a government-owned textile factory. [2] He later worked at United Industrial Corporation and then the State Trading Corporation [2] for around 10 years in total. [5] [7]

He has authored two books, The History of Banking in Thailand [4] [6] and The Political Economy of South Asian Diaspora: Patterns of Socio-Economic Influence in 2013. [8]

Pillai served the first chairman of NTUC FairPrice after its establishment in 1983, a position he held until 1993. [4] He remains as a Trustee of NTUC FairPrice. [9]

Pillai launched KSP Group along with two of his friends, Sat Pal Khattar and Haider Sithawalla, and holds the post of a Director of the company. [2] [9] The company has since been rebranded as KSP Investments Private Limited, and serves as the holding company for Pillai's business investments. [2] He is reported to have invested in a number of businesses and holds positions in many of them. He is the executive chairman of Savant Infocomm, an IT company, [4] [5] [9] Playware Studios Pte Ltd [10] [11] and holds the chairmanship of companies such as Windmill International Private Limited [9] [12] and Gateway Distriparks Limited and one of its subsidiaries, Snowman Logistics Limited. [2] [5] [9] He is the director of another Gateway Distriparks subsidiary, Gateway Rail Freight Limited [2] and JTC Consultancy Services (Holdings) Private Limited. [5] He is also the director of AEC Edu Group Private Limited [13] and holds directorship of two of its subsidiaries, AEC College and AEC Education Plc. [5] [14]

Pillai is the chairman of the Management Board of the Institute of South Asian Studies, [4] [9] [14] [15] [16] a National University of Singapore-funded research institute. [17] He also holds the post of the deputy chairman of Ang Mo Kio-Thye Hua Kwan Hospital [4] [6] [15] a healthcare centre in Singapore for rehabilitative care. [18]

Public career

Pillai's diplomatic career started with his assignment with the Government Parliamentary Committee on Defence and Foreign Affairs in the 1980s. [4] In 1990, he was appointed as Singapore's Non-Resident Ambassador to Iran, a post he held until 2008. [4] [19] He later served as Singapore's High Commissioner to Pakistan. [2] [4] Pillai is a former Ambassador-at-Large at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. [2] [4] [14] [15] [20]

Awards and recognitions

Pillai, a recipient of the Meritorious Award and Friend of Labour Award from National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) [5] [9] and Distinguished Alumni Award from the National University of Singapore, received the MCD Award from the Ministry of Community Development and Sports in 1998. [4] [5] [9] In 1999, he received the Public Service Star Award. [4] [5] [9] [14] Singapore Computer Society conferred on him the Friend of IT Award in 2001 [5] [9] and the Singaporean government honoured Pillai, in 2009, with the National Day Award. [4] The Indian government included him in the Republic Day honours list in 2012 for the civilian honour of Padma Shri. [3] [4] [14]

In August 2022, he was conferred the Darjah Utama Bakti Cemerlang (Distinguished Service Order) by the Singapore government. [21]

Personal life

Pillai is married and the couple have four children. [4]

Bibliography

References

  1. ↑ "Arabian Business". Arabian Business. 30 November 2013. Retrieved 12 December 2014.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 "Live Mint". Live Mint. 21 November 2013. Retrieved 12 December 2014.
  3. 1 2 "Padma Shri" (PDF). Padma Shri. 2014. Archived from the original (PDF) on 15 October 2015. Retrieved 11 November 2014.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 "South Asian Diaspora". South Asian Diaspora. 16 January 2013. Archived from the original on 19 December 2015. Retrieved 12 December 2014.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 "Business Week". Business Week. 2014. Archived from the original on 12 December 2014. Retrieved 12 December 2014.
  6. 1 2 3 "LKY". LKY. 2014. Retrieved 12 December 2014.
  7. ↑ "India Info". India Info. 21 August 2014. Retrieved 12 December 2014.
  8. ↑ Pillai, Gopinath (October 2013). The Political Economy of South Asian Diaspora: Patterns of Socio-Economic Influence. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN   9781137285966.
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 "Savant Bio". Savant. 2014. Retrieved 12 December 2014.
  10. ↑ Sek, Victoria (29 November 2017), This S'pore Game Company Created An Epic 3D Board Game That Raised $122k On Kickstarter , retrieved 17 March 2018
  11. ↑ "Playware Studios Asia and UniSIM collaborate on games design". imda.gov.sg. Retrieved 17 March 2018.
  12. ↑ "Eastcom". Eastcom. 2014. Retrieved 12 December 2014.
  13. ↑ "Bloomberg". Bloomberg. 2014. Retrieved 12 December 2014.
  14. 1 2 3 4 5 "Milken Institute". Milken Institute. 2014. Archived from the original on 15 December 2014. Retrieved 12 December 2014.
  15. 1 2 3 "Global Schools". Global Schools. 2014. Retrieved 12 December 2014.
  16. ↑ "ISAS". ISAS. 2014. Archived from the original on 24 December 2012. Retrieved 12 December 2014.
  17. ↑ "ISAS Home". ISAS. 2014. Archived from the original on 13 December 2014. Retrieved 12 December 2014.
  18. ↑ "AMKH". AMKH. 2014. Retrieved 12 December 2014.
  19. ↑ "Arabian Business". Arabian Business. 30 November 2013. Retrieved 12 December 2014.
  20. ↑ "Ministry of Foreign Affairs Singapore" . Retrieved 20 July 2023.
  21. ↑ "National Day Awards 2022". Prime Minister's Office, Singapore. 9 August 2022.
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