Syed Mokhtar Albukhary

Syed Mokhtar Albukhary (born 12 December 1951 at Alor Setar, Kedah) is a Malaysian business tycoon and philanthropist of Hadrami descent who built from the rice trade an empire spanning MMC, DRB-HICOM and Bernas (Proton), and who in 1996 founded the Albukhary Foundation, a charity stated to be founded on Islamic values, which established the Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia in 1998 and Albukhary International University; his donations had exceeded US$500 million by 2013. ^{1 2}

Syed Mokhtar Shah bin Syed Nor Albukhary was born on 12 December 1951 at Kampung Hutan Keriang, Alor Setar, Kedah, the third child of Syed Nor and Sharifah Nor; his family traces its roots to the Hadramawt region of Yemen. ^{1 2} In 1961 he moved to Johor Bahru for six years, then returned to Alor Setar and attended St Michael's Secondary School, helping in his father's cattle business while still schooling; when foot-and-mouth disease collapsed that business, the family could not pay his examination fees and he left school months before completing Secondary 5, and began venturing into business on his own with his savings. ¹

In the 1970s Syed Mokhtar entered rice transportation and secured a rice trading licence for Shah Enterprise, supplying government-linked agencies; his interests expanded into manufacturing, shipping, property and agriculture, and in the 1990s he began buying into listed companies and privatised state enterprises. ¹ In 2001 he acquired a 19.9 per cent stake in MMC Corporation and took over what became Tradewinds Corporation, through which he holds Padiberas Nasional (Bernas), holder of the Malaysian rice-import monopoly. ¹ Through DRB-HICOM his group became sole owner of the national carmaker Proton by 2014, and in 2019 he became the largest shareholder in Media Prima, Malaysia's largest media conglomerate, and controls Media Mulia, publisher of Utusan Malaysia. ¹ Forbes recognised him in 2026 as Malaysia's tenth-richest individual, with an estimated net worth of US$3.5 billion. ¹ His philanthropy began in 1976, when he pledged half his salary to fifteen underprivileged families; in 1996 he founded the Albukhary Foundation, an international non-profit charity founded, in the article's words, on the Islamic values of faith (taqwa) and compassion (ehsan), which established the Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur in 1998, endows the Albukhary Foundation Gallery of the Islamic World at the British Museum, announced in 2015, and founded Albukhary International University at Alor Setar in 2010 and the Albukhary Scholarship Program in 2005. ¹ His donations had exceeded US$500 million by 2013, and Forbes Asia named him a Hero of Philanthropy in 2014. ¹

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