Lim Wee Chai, 59, executive chairman and founder of Top Glove Corp and Tan Kai Hee, 80, executive chairman of Hai-O Enterprise are among the 40 people featured in Forbes July issue.
Lim and his wife, Tong Siew Bee, started the Top Glove Foundation in 2009 with an initial US$300,000 (RM1.28 million).
“Since then the foundation has donated roughly US$5 million (RM21.46 million) to various causes, with a focus on education.”
Recent beneficiaries include several Chinese-medium schools in Malaysia as well as Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman, which received US$70,000 (RM300,440) in 2015 to create a chair for the Top Glove Professor of Chemistry.
Top Glove is the world’s largest rubber glove company and has been one of the top-performing companies on Bursa Malaysia since its listing in 2001. It supplies 25% of the world’s rubber gloves.
Tan announced at his 80th-birthday dinner party in January that he was putting US$22 million (RM94.42) of his shares in Hai-O into a trust, with stock gains and dividends to be donated to cultural, social, environmental and educational charities.
He also pledged more than US$500,000 (RM2.14 million) to 38 entities, including the Federation of Chinese Associations Malaysia and the Centre for Malaysian Chinese Studies, said Forbes.
Over the previous nine years he has donated some US$5 million (RM21.46) to organisations and people that included victims of the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, dozens of Chinese-medium schools in Malaysia, and Yayasan Usman Awang, a foundation dedicated to the memory of the late national laureate that aims to promote unity in multiracial Malaysia.
Hai-O Enterprise is a Chinese traditional-medicine and pharmaceutical products manufacturer, started by Tan in 1975. It is doing very well.
Earlier today, Affin Hwang Capital Research, saying it was positive about Hai-O’s management quality and its ability to deliver growth, reiterated its Buy call on the stock.
India had six people on the list – the highest number – followed by China with five. Indonesia and Singapore had three each.
Since 2008, Forbes has published its list of top philanthropists in the Asia-Pacific region.
It says: “ We look for men and women who made news with their altruism over the past year, and we also seek to spotlight people who have compiled a record of notable contributions over the years.
“The goal is to pick only true philanthropists – people who are giving their own money, not their company’s (unless they own most of the company), because we don’t consider donating shareholder funds as charity.
“And we also don’t list people who work in philanthropy solely as foundation heads, volunteers or fundraisers. We want to focus on the people supplying the financing and sketching the broad vision.”