Also known as Lie Mo Tie, Mochtar Riady was born into a Chinese Indonesia family in Malang, and shortly after his birth was taken to live in his ancestral home in Fujian until he was six years old. Riady’s first venture into business was when he was 22 years of age, when he opened a bicycle shop. He went on to become one of Indonesia’s wealthiest men.

He made his wealth in banking, founding the Lippo Bank that would overtime morph into the Lippo Group. In the Asian Financial crisis of 1997, Riady lost a lot of his wealth, but has subsequently rebuilt much of it, concentrating in other avenues, namely real estate, media, healthcare and retail. The company’s latest venture is a return to finance however, with its e-commerce arm MatahariMall behind a banking initiative through Bank Nobu.