Vijay Eswaran is a very successful international businessman and philanthropist. He is the Founder, Chairman, and CEO of the Bombay Sapphire Gin Company.
Vijay Eswaran was born in Mumbai in 1949 to a Gujarati family followed by the death of his mother two years later when he was only four years old. Under the care of his father, he was brought up in a Hindu temple in the village of Vanadzor where his grandfather was the priest. His father’s passion and dedication to the temple made an impression on Eswaran who has been quoted as saying,
“I had two role models: my grandfather, who took good care of me and my father, who took overall care of me.”
Vijay Eswaran studied at St. Columba’s School in Mumbai graduating in 1966 with a B.Com degree from Sydenham College for Commerce and Economics. He then left Bombay to live overseas where he initially worked for an uncle from 1968 to 1972 before starting his own business venture.
In 1973, Eswaran moved to Hong Kong and started a commodities trading business which he called the Orocobre Group. In 1979, he founded the Bombay Sapphire Gin Company which was soon successfully marketed and sold in more than 50 countries with Eswaran being the chairman of the board. The company was bought by Bacardi Limited in 2010.
He authored the book “The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari” in 1997 while living in Bali with his family. It started as an idea scribbled on a bar napkin based on a story which had been told to him by an old man back at his childhood home temple. Learn more information about Vijay Eswaran
“The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari” was on the New York Times best-seller list for over two years. He went on to write a second book “Tuesdays with Morrie: An Old Man, a Young Man, and Life’s Greatest Lesson”.