January 17, 2008 | 12:00am
I met Bob Chandran 20 years ago in a golf game in San Francisco when he was Tony Garcia’s partner. Bob was a self-made man who was born to a middle class family in India, finished his Master of Science at the Madras University and later obtained a scholarship for his MBA in Business Administration at the Asian Institute of Management (AIM) in 1974.
At the time when I met him, he had just started his business Chemoil, engaged in the trade of bunker fuels. Chandran seemed like a person who was very consumed by business and was always in a hurry. He wanted to finish the golf game quickly because of another appointment. But even then, I saw a man destined to become wealthy and successful.
From a small company with just a staff of two, he turned Chemoil into one of the world’s major players in the fuel oil industry, competing with the likes of BP, Chevron and Vitol. The firm, which describes itself simply as a gas station for ships, has become the biggest supplier of marine bunker fuel in the Americas, with an estimated annual revenue of approximately $4.4 billion and a market cap of $640 million.
Chemoil has physical operations in the biggest bunkering ports in Los Angeles and New York, as well as in Europe, specifically in Rotterdam in the Netherlands and Antwerp in Belgium. Chandran entered the Singapore market in 2000, then opened the company’s Latin American operations in Panama three years later, followed by Colombia in 2005.
Chandran – who has chosen to become a Singapore citizen – worked his way to the top. Forbes magazine ranked him as the 14th richest man in Singapore with his personal wealth estimated at $490 million. In 2005, he pledged half a million dollars to AIM’s W. Sycip Graduate School of Business to fund the best start-up entrepreneurial venture by the most promising MBA graduate of the school. Every year for five years beginning in March 2006, the most promising graduate will be given $100,000 to get him started on his planned business. Called the Robert V. Chandran $100,000 Venture Capital Award, the fund is meant to encourage AIM graduates to come up with creative and innovative ideas that will most likely become successful businesses.
I was shocked to find out last week about the death of Chandran in a helicopter crash in Indonesia on Jan. 7. The 57-year-old Chandran was riding on a 47-year-old Indonesian military chopper with five other people to visit a palm oil plant when the crash occurred in Riau province, seemingly due to heavy rain. He was the only casualty, and he left behind his Filipina wife and two children. The Singapore business community, particularly the oil industry, was naturally rocked by the sudden death of the Indian-born businessman, with Chemoil shares experiencing a sudden slump to an all-time low of 43.5 cents.
Bob’s death dawned upon me how a man who has built such an enormous wealth could suddenly be gone just like that. It reminded me of the many wealthy people I have known all these years who had no inkling that they would be gone in just the blink of an eye. But one thing that one has to always remember is how to give back some of your wealth and share the blessings that you have been given.
As a matter of fact, Tony Garcia reminded Bob Chandran just a couple of weeks before he died that perhaps it was time for him to give back some of his wealth with notable causes. While Chemoil is known as a supporter of corporate social responsibility (it sponsored the Asian Forum on CSR last year), one cannot substitute company advocacy for personal involvement and conviction in helping the less fortunate in this world.
This only goes to show that wealth is really something that is temporary, no matter how you look at it. A man has to remember how to share some of that wealth so that in this material world, he can be remembered. Because at the end of the day, you can’t take it with you. In the end, everything will be gone forever when you die – and all that will be left is just a memory.
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US energy firm to make Masinloc environmentally compliant
US energy firm AES Corp., which won the bid for the 600-MW Masinloc coal-fired power plant, is all set to overhaul and rehabilitate the nine-year-old plant to optimize its operating performance and make it more environmentally compliant. According to AES’ report to the Asian Development Bank, Masinloc’s emission monitoring systems are not functioning, with emissions at levels that could pose health hazards both to the plant workers and the residents living in the nearby areas.
The report also added that the wastewater treatment plant was not functioning and that untreated wastewater as well as coal and ash were discovered in the Oyon and Masinloc Bays, apparently having been discharged through the storm drainage channels. Another area of concern was the inappropriate handling and storage of chemicals and wastes which could have contaminated soil and groundwater – which obviously would be risky to the health of the residents in the outlying areas.
Hopefully, the privatization of Masinloc can help avert a potential power crisis that could hit the country in the next two years, as well as prevent further degradation of the environment due to pollution.
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