Family Office Interview – a conversation with Riaz Currimjee
Relishing conflict - a driver for change
Sector: In this Family Office Interview we speak to Riaz Currimjee, Founder and Managing Partner of Surya Capital, the family office backed Africa focused private investment firm he set-up in 2016, and also a Non-Executive Director of his family’s company, Currimjee Jeewanjee & Co Ltd, one of the largest family-owned multi-sector conglomerates in Mauritius.
The Currimjee Jeewanjee & Co story begins back in 1884 when an adventurous twenty-two- year old, Currimjee Jeewanjee, Riaz’s great-grandfather, set foot on the shores of Port Louis, Mauritius, from Gujarat, India. He started a small business in 1890 at Louis Pasteur Street, trading in commodities, which grew over 130 years into a conglomerate with significant interests in telecommunications (as controlling shareholder of Emtel, the first mobile telecommunication company in the Southern Hemisphere and the first to launch 3G in Africa) and founding shareholder of Bharti in India. Its other business interests include: satellite television, real estate, hospitality, tourism, energy and FMCG, including partnerships with Airtel, Canal+, Total, Minor, Singapore Airlines and PepsiCo International.
As both an intrapreneur; a driver for change within his family’s company, and an entrepreneur outside it, Riaz offers a tremendous insight into how to keep the entrepreneurial spirit alive through multiple generations, as well as how to avoid falling into the ‘clogs to clogs in three generations’ trap.
To read the full interview click here.