Indonesian businessman Sukanto Tanoto is the Founder and Chairman of Royal Golden Eagle (RGE), and has an estimated net worth of $1.46 billion as of April 2016 according to Forbes. According to Forbes, he is the seventh wealthiest person on Indonesia’s 40 Richest List and the 503^rd richest in the World Billionaires List.

Born on December 25, 1949 in Medan, Indonesia, Mr. Tanoto accumulated his estimated net worth of $2.8 billion through his founding of RGE, a global resources-based manufacturing group of companies. It has corporate offices in Singapore, Hong Kong, Jakarta, Beijing and Nanjing.

Tanoto began his business career more than forty years ago at the age of 17. He worked in the family business that supplied spare parts to the oil and construction industries. As the eldest son, he took over the business and expanded into building gas pipelines for multinationals. The venture was quite profitable, most notably during the 1972 oil crisis.

Today, the RGE conglomerate owns palm oil firm Asian Agri and papermaker Asia Pacific Resources International Ltd. It also has a stake in cellulose producer Sateri Holdings, Tanato’s biggest publicly held investment.

He also set up the Tanato Foundation more than ten years ago. It offers scholarships, honoraria to teachers, and healthcare in remote areas. With his philanthropy and support of education, he received the Dean’s Medal from Wharton, the school’s highest honor, in October 2012. He also sits on the board of Overseers of the university.