Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi, one of 11 children born to a poor Bangkok street vendor left school at just nine years of age in order to work. In time, he began supplying the state-run Thai whiskey distilleries, and by leveraging the contacts he made in that role, acquired his own license to produce and distribute alcoholic drinks to the 15% of the market that was not state run. In 1985, the remaining portion of the market was opened up, and using his stocks of alcohol as collateral won the entire concession becoming his very own monopoly and bringing in 5% of Thailand’s national budget in excise duties.

In 1991 he moved his sights onto beer, teaming up with Carlsberg to gain knowledge of the industry and process, before going alone with his Chang Beer, a brand which quickly claimed 60% of the local market.

Since the turn of the century, Charoen has become more and more interested in property, and his family are now Thailand’s largest developer and landlord. They also own TCC Land a large property developer in Singapore. In 2016 he bought the hypermarket chain Big C Supercenter for more than $6 billion.