Gopinath Pillai | |
|---|---|
| ഗോപിനാഥ് പിള്ള | |
 | |
| Born | 1937 (age 87–88) |
| Alma mater | University of Malaya (BA) |
| Occupations |
|
| Children | 4 |
| Parent | K.S. Pillai (father) |
Gopinath Pillai (born 1937)BBM is aSingaporean diplomat and businessman who served as anambassador-at-large at theMinistry of Foreign Affairs.[1][2]
In 2012, Pillai was conferred thePadma Shri by theIndian government, the fourth highest Indian civilian award.[3]
Pillai was born inSingapore to K. S. Pillai, a journalist who ran a daily,Kerala Bandhu, known to be the onlyMalayalam language daily published outside India.[2] He spent eight years of his childhood inKerala,India, where his family is from, as he could not return to Singapore due to the outbreak ofWorld 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 theUniversity of Malaya with aBachelor of Arts degree in 1961 and was a member of the Socialist Club.[4][5]
Pillai started his career as a journalist withReuters[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 joinedBangkok Bank[4] as an Economic Research Officer and worked as a correspondent for theFar 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] andThe Political Economy of South Asian Diaspora: Patterns of Socio-Economic Influence in 2013.[8]
Pillai served the first chairman ofNTUC 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] andGateway 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] aNational 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]
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 toIran, a post he held until 2008.[4][19] He later served as Singapore's High Commissioner toPakistan.[2][4] Pillai is a formerAmbassador-at-Large at theMinistry of Foreign Affairs.[2][4][14][15][20]
Pillai, a recipient of the Meritorious Award and Friend of Labour Award fromNational Trades Union Congress (NTUC)[5][9] and Distinguished Alumni Award from theNational University of Singapore, received the MCD Award from theMinistry of Community Development and Sports in 1998.[4][5][9] In 1999, he received thePublic 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 ofPadma Shri.[3][4][14]
In August 2022, he was conferred theDarjah Utama Bakti Cemerlang (Distinguished Service Order) by the Singapore government.[21]
Pillai is married and the couple have four children.[4]
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
