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Emerging Leaders
Thomas White’s Emerging Leaders showcases the decision makers and rising stars in emerging market countries around the world. With interest in developing economies mounting, Emerging Leaders will chronicle the stories behind the men and women who will pave the way in this exciting new marketplace in the years to come.
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Hungarian real estate entrepreneur Sandor Demjan, who is the chairman of TriGranit Development Corporation, has come up the hard way. Starting off by launching the first department store in the then communist country, Demjan dabbled in banking and investments before focusing on real estate sector as his business of choice. Today, TriGranit is the biggest real estate firm in central Europe with projects spread across Poland, Russia, and Slovakia. Still, Demjan’s business achievements owe a lot to the relatively lighter control exercised by Soviet Union over Hungary compared to its other satellite states. |
Anthony Francis Fernandes is a no-frills man, not unlike AirAsia, the airline he founded in the early 2000s. A man of efficiency, he doesn’t even mind shortening his name to Tony Fernandes if it can help save time and effort. But when the no-frills man realized his boyhood dream of owning an airline, millions of his fellow Asians realized theirs too, longing to fly in an airplane at least once in their lifetime. |
Zdenek Bakala staged a dramatic escape from what was then known as Czechoslovakia to the shores of America, a gripping tale of determination and risk-taking, which eventually saw him taking the reins of private equity company BXR Group – whose varied interests range from natural resources and property to media, transport, and brewing. In hindsight, it was a big bet for a freshly-minted businessman to put his money in the Czech energy sector, which was primarily dependent on polluting coal for its energy supplies. |
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Alfredo M. Yao is one of the most admired businessmen in the Philippines today. The two flagship companies of his sprawling Zesto Group are called Zest-O-Corporation and Zest Airways. The names couldn’t be more appropriate. After all, these are enterprises built on the foundation of Yao’s enormous enthusiasm for finding another way. |
Uday Kotak, the founder and managing director of Kotak Mahindra Bank, has built one of the best known institutions in India’s financial services industry and, in the process, earned a fortune currently worth over $4.5 billion. |
When Sung-joo Kim wanted to setup her fashion retailing business three decades ago in South Korea, she not only had to take on the male-dominated South Korean society and the old boy’s network, but also her family’s scepticism about her ambitions. Today Sung-joo is one of the few self-made woman entrepreneurs to emerge from South Korea. Sung-joo’ business empire is made up of a few hundred luxury accessory retail outlets spread across nearly 30 countries. |
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