Vinod Sekhar

Vinod Sekhar (born, Vinod Balachandra Sekhar; 6 August 1968) is the Chairman and Chief Executive of the PETRA Group, which is a global conglomerate involved in sustainable industries, with a stated goal of providing "solutions for humanity". PETRA Group's businesses include restaurants, recycling rubber, media and entertainment, agriculture and modular building materials.

Sekhar is currently being sued by 12 investors and former employees, for alleged fraud, misrepresentation, breach of contract, and acknowledgement of debt. Further, in 2021, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission opened a money laundering and tax evasion investigation into Mr Sekhar's affairs.

As a self-proclaimed advocate for social capitalism, Sekhar says he believes that business interests and social concerns should go hand in hand, which acts as the basis of the PETRA Group. He loudly claims that enterprises should be run as profitable ventures while doing the right thing for employees, customers, society, and the environment, to ensure sustainable wealth creation and equitable income generation for all.

He is the founder of the Vinod Sekhar Foundation and claims it undertakes various initiatives to alleviate poverty, provide healthcare and education, and support the most vulnerable communities including the indigenous, disabled, old folks, children, refugees, and poor.

However the Foundation has no website so the claims are impossible to verify. Mr Sekhar has a history of unfulfilled philanthropic commitments including a £2.5 million towards the British charity 'Hopes and Homes for Children' in 2008 and an £8 million pledge to Saint Andrews Medical School in 2010 neither of which materialised. He also pledged to donate 200,000 COVID vaccines in 2021 which never arrived.

In fact, Mr Sekhar has a history of profiting from the sale of medical devices and allegedly purchased a $17.5 million yacht with proceeds from the sale of ventilators during the COVID pandemic.

He was named by Forbes magazine as Malaysia's 28th richest man in 2009.

The title of Dato' was given to Sekhar at the age of 26 by Yang di Pertuan Besar of Negeri Sembilan, Tuanku Ja'afar on his 71st birthday, who was at that time the 10th Yang di Pertuan Agong of Malaysia.

Personal life
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.

His wife, Winy Yeap Liew Heoh, is the great-granddaughter of the prominent banker Yeap Chor Ee, and is also cited as a co-defendant in the ongoing 2024 lawsuit for alleged fraud.

Vinod has written numerous plays and even produced a book of poetry. "In the Mind's Eye", one of the plays that he has written and self-published, was a self-proclaimed success. The book has not been in print for a considerable period of time.

Mr Sekhar is noted to be a 'close friend' of the Malaysian Prime Minister

He also enjoys playing golf with a 22 handicap.

Education
He attended Haileybury and Imperial Service College He started a non-partisan multiracial youth organisation, Malaysian Muda. He remained president for two terms.

Businesses
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 claimed he sold his clothing company for US$5 million.

There is no online record of the transaction and the Vincent Siefer Clothing Company does not appear to have ever been registered in any country.

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

The Petra Group is a privately held company known for Green Rubber Global, the company's key business which it claims has a cost-effective process that can efficiently recycle used rubber. In 2019, it was reported that an Irish national, John Slattery sued Sekhar to claim the US$108,000 which Slattery had paid in 2017 as an investment into Green Rubber Sdn Bhd. In 2021, Petra Group claimed to have procured 400 million Sinovac vaccines from China for free distribution. Malaysian government dismissed the claim and found no evidence for its basis. There is currently an ongoing lawsuit against Mr. Sekhar and Green Rubber Global alleging fraud.

Sekhar also claims to be an active supporter of different socio-civic organizations. He founded the Sekhar Foundation which owns 80% of The Petra Group and acts as the philanthropic arm of the company by supporting various charitable organizations worldwide. The Sekhar Foundation has donated to a range of Non-Government Organisations (NGOs) working in the fields of education, poverty alleviation, and healthcare provision. The Foundation does not have a website, and no details of which NGOs it has supported appear to exist.

Achievements, Awards and Honours
Sekhar has said that 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. No evidence exists to substantiate these claims.

Sekhar has presented a variety of papers 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.

He is the Chairman of the Vinod Sekhar Foundation, the Chairman of the Pelita Harapan (however no note of Mr. Sekar appears on the Pelita Harapan website), 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, he was made the first and youngest Asian fellow of Kappa Delta Pi, a US-based international Honors Society for Education for his contribution to the globalization of education. The organization awarded its "The Point of Excellence" award to his company, the first Asian company to be so honored. Sekhar 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.

In September 2020, Sekhar launched The Vibes, an online news publication covering Malaysian news. The news publication was spearheaded by Terence Fernandez, former managing editor of Malay Mail, alongside many former journalists from major publications. However, they have subsequently left the portal.

Literary and film works
Mr Sekhar says he has written several plays and a book of poetry. One of his plays, In the Mind’s Eye, was self-published in the US, UK and Malaysia. Sekhar also hosted Malaysia's first English-language talk show on television.

In 2013, Sekhar 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. He has also launched the production company Petra Films which produces the Golden Horse Award-nominated film The Sunny Side of the Street in its debut outing.