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From the bylanes of Jalandhar to a regular name in the annual ‘Sunday Times Rich List’, Lord Swraj Paul, who died on Thursday evening in London aged 94, was one of the most well known NRI entrepreneurs and philanthropists.
Born to Pyare Lal, who ran a small foundry used to make steel goods, including buckets and other farming equipment, Lord Paul was exposed to business early in his life much before he went on to establish UK-based Caparo Group, a diversified businesses entity with interests predominantly in design, manufacture, marketing and distribution of value-added steel and niche engineering products.
Born on February 18, 1931, he completed high school education at Jalandhar and Bachelors in Science from Punjab University in 1949.
Then he went to the US to pursue his bachelors & masters degrees in mechanical engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
After completing his studies at MIT, he returned to India to join the family business, Apeejay Surrendra Group — one of India’s oldest business conglomerates.
But as fate would have it, he relocated to the UK in 1966 in pursuit of treatment for his daughter Ambika who was suffering from leukemia. Unfortunately, she died aged four.
Later, he set up the Ambika Paul Foundation as a charitable trust that went on to donate millions to promote the wellbeing of children and young people all over the world through education and health initiatives.
The Ambika Paul Children’s Zoo in London is one of the major beneficiaries of the foundation.
Lord Paul laid the foundation to set up Caparo in 1968 with headquarters in London and it went on to become one of the largest steel conversion and distribution businesses in the UK.
Today, Caparo, which has a turnover of over $1 billion, is managed by his three children — Ambar, Akash and Anjli Paul — and operates internationally from over 40 sites, serving customers globally, primarily from operations based in the UK, North America, India, and the Middle East.
A regular in the annual Sunday Times Rich List, this year he was ranked 81st with an estimated wealth of GBP 2 billion, largely derived from the steel and engineering multinational Caparo Group.
