KUALA LUMPUR: Sunway Group founder and chairman Tan Sri Dr Jeffrey Cheah has been named as one of Forbes Asia’s Heroes of Philanthropy for the fourth time.
The list, which is unranked, honours individuals who have demonstrated personal commitment to various social causes, in support of “solutions that look to make the world a better place”, according to the US-based business magazine.
This can be via significant financial donations from their personal fortunes, or focusing their time and personal attention to their selected causes.
Most notably, while the majority were new entrants to the list, Forbes noted that it included several previous honorees that have achieved ‘a major new altruistic milestone’ that justified a relisting.
As the sole Malaysian on this year’s list, Cheah was recognised for his unwavering commitment to education as a force for nation building and his efforts to set up an endowment fund worth over RM1bil to ensure Sunway Education Group can be self-sustaining in perpetuity and offer more scholarships to deserving students from underprivileged households.
While most of the RM1bil seed endowment will come from Cheah’s personal funds, he is also working with the government to amend existing rules requiring a foundation to disburse at least 50% of funds received annually by the following year.
The largest education-focused social enterprise in Malaysia, the Jeffrey Cheah Foundation owns and governs the Sunway Education Group.
This initiative is in addition to Cheah’s previous commitment to gift his entire personal stake in Sunway Education Group – which is valued at several billion ringgit – to the Jeffrey Cheah Foundation.
In 2020, he donated RM88mil in grants and scholarships, which totals to more than RM600mil thus far.
This is in line with his commitment to donate a total of RM1bil in grants in his lifetime.
Aside from Cheah, this year’s list includes a select group of 15 prominent philanthropists across Asia, such as Alibaba co-founder Joseph Tsai, Vingroup founder and Vietnam’s richest person Pham Nhat Vuong, as well as Indian billionaire Anil Agarwal, who in March signed the Giving Pledge to dedicate a majority of his wealth to charitable causes in his lifetime.
Previous Malaysians named in the list include business tycoons such as YTL Group executive chairman Tan Sri Francis Yeoh, Al-Bukhary group of companies’ Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar Al-Bukhary and Air Asia Group chief executive officer Tan Sri Tony Fernandes, among others.
Cheah was also recently conferred an Honorary Doctorate of Philosophy from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, one of the oldest and highest-ranked universities in the country, in recognition of his stalwart leadership in health education and sustainability networks.
It is the 12th honorary doctorate bestowed upon Cheah.