Billionaire birthday boy Mukesh Ambani is not an MBA; pure vegetarian, teetotaller has salary frozen at Rs 15 cr pa since 2009!

Mukesh Ambani, Reliance Industries (RIL) Chairman turned 62 today. With a net worth of $54 billion, the business-tycoon is a name to reckon with not only in India but the world over.

The elder son of Dhirubhai Ambani and Kokilaben Ambani, Mukesh was born on April 19, 1957, in Aden, Yemen. The RIL Chairman graduated in Chemical Engineering from the Institute of Chemical Technology (UDCT), Matunga in early 1970.

Mukesh went on to pursue an MBA degree at Stanford University in 1980 but discontinued studies and came back to India. After his return, he helmed a yarn manufacturing project in Reliance. The company at that time was into petrochemical, refining and oil & gas sector, but Ambani diversified his family business into sectors like telecom and retail.

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Married to Nita Ambani since 1984, Mukesh has two sons Anant and Akash and daughter Isha who recently got married to Anand Piramal, son of Industrialist Ajay Piramal. Akash is married to Shloka Mehta, daughter of India's top diamantaire Russell Mehta who is the owner and CEO of Rosy Blue Diamonds.

Ambani is a pure vegetarian and a teetotaller. His favourite place is Mysore Cafe at Matunga, Mumbai. He can eat anywhere, at a roadside stall or at a posh restaurant as long as he likes the food. Called by nickname Muku, the RIL chairman wears simple clothes and is not a fan of any brand.

Ambani never celebrates his birthday except when he celebrated his 50th one at the Jamnagar refinery with his employees. He, however, throws lavish parties at his wife's birthday.

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A deeply religious man, Ambani never leaves his house without praying. The business-magnate however, has a penchant for European cars and owns a lot of automobiles. Amongst these, Mercedes, Bentley and Maybach are his favourites.

He is the owner of one of the world's most expensive residential properties-Antilia--which is located in South Mumbai. The 27-storey building is valued at an estimated $1 billion and employs a staff of around 600 people.

Ambani reaches office at noon and works till midnight, loves old Hindi songs and spends his Sundays listening to them. He is a movie buff and has created a massive 50 seat theatre on the eighth floor of his house.

Known for being close to his family and friends, Ambani recently bailed out his younger brother Anil Ambani's Reliance Communications by paying off his Rs 463 crore debt to Swedish telecom gear maker Ericsson.

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The RIL Chairman earns a fixed salary of Rs 15 crores, a constant since 2009 despite the company achieving new milestones every year. RIL's Jamnagar refinery, the biggest refining complex in the world is Ambani's crown jewel.

Ambani and wife Nita have nurtured the Jamnagar complex since the very beginning. Commissioned in 1999 with an installed capacity of 6,68,000 barrels per day, the petroleum refinery has been the largest industrial project ever implemented by any company in the Indian corporate sector.

It currently has a refining capacity of 1.24 million barrels of oil per day, which is more than any other single location in the world.

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In January this year, RIL got an approval from a key expert appraisal committee in the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate for expanding the capacity of its refinery at Jamnagar. According to recent media reports, RIL is in talks with Saudi Aramco, a Saudi Arabian national petroleum and natural gas company as the latter is looking to pick up around 25 per cent stake in the RIL's refining and petrochemical business.

If the deal goes through, the proceeds from the same may be used by the company to fund its Jamnagar refinery's expansion.

TIME magazine recently named Ambani in the list of 100 most influential people along with the likes of US President Donald Trump, Pope Francis, Chinese President Xi Jinping, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and Indian-American comedian Hasan Minhaj.

Also Read: Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries to expand Jamnagar complex; to brace against entry of Saudi, Russian players

Under Ambani's leadership, RIL's net profit jumped 13.1 per cent to Rs 39,588 crore for the financial year 2018-19, while revenue climbed by 44.6 per cent to Rs 622,809 crore from the previous fiscal, helped by higher realisation for refining and petrochemical products.

He also became the first Indian, and only Asian, to make it to the global top 10 on Hurun's Rich list 2019 besides bagging the 13th spot on Forbes' Billionaire list.