Sukanto Tanoto
Source: list: billionaires, year: 2013
Net Worth: $2.8 B As of March 2013
At a Glance
- Age: 63
- Source of Wealth: diversified, self-made
- Country of Citizenship: Indonesia
- Marital Status: Married
- Children: 4
Forbes Lists
- #503 Billionaires
- #5 in Indonesia
- #418 in 2012
At age 17 Sukanto Tanoto started working in the family business, selling spare parts to oil and gas companies. As the eldest son in his family he took over the business and expanded into building gas pipelines for multinationals, an especially profitable business during the 1972 oil crisis.
Today his conglomerate, Royal Golden Eagle (RGE), owns palm oil firm Asian Agri, papermaker Asia Pacific Resources International Ltd., and a stake in cellulose producer Sateri Holdings, his biggest publicly held investment. He also plays a part in the Oil & Gas industry with Pacific Oil and Gas Pte Ltd. He set up the Tanato Foundation more than ten years ago to offer scholarships, honoraria to teachers and healthcare in remote areas for the benefit of the local communities. He received the Dean’s Medal from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, the school’s highest honor, in October 2012. Three of his children (Andre Tanoto, Imelda Tanoto, Belinda Tanoto and Anderson Tanoto) graduated from Wharton School and Tanoto sits on its board of Overseers.