Anil Ambani (born June 4, 1959) is an Indian billionaire and a major shareholder in Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group. Anil’s elder brother, Mukesh Ambani, is also a billionaire, and owns another company called Reliance Industries.

He is a member of the Board of Overseers at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He is also the a member of the Board of Governors of the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur; Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. He is a member of the Central Advisory Committee, Central Electricity Regulatory Commission. In March 2006, he resigned. He is also the Chairman of Board of Governors of DA-IICT, Gandhinagar.

Career

Ambani joined Reliance, the company founded by his late father Dhirubhai Ambani, in 1983 as Co-Chief Executive Officer and is credited with having pioneered many financial innovations in the Indian capital markets. For example, he led India’s first forays into overseas capital markets with international public offerings of global depositary receipts, convertibles and bonds. He directed Reliance in its efforts to raise, since 1991, around US$2 billion from overseas financial markets; with a 100-year Yankee bond issue in January 1997 being the high point, after which people regarded him as a financial wizard[citation needed]. He along with his brother, Mukesh Ambani, has steered the Reliance Group to its current status as India’s leading textiles, petroleum, petrochemicals, power, and telecom company.

He has been linked with several starlets in his long career including his current wife of more than 15 years. He is a close friend of movie star Amitabh Bachchan and Subrata Roy.One of his major achievements in the entertainment industry is the takeover of Adlabs, the movie production to distribution to multiplex company that owns India’s only dome theatre and the recently announced joint venture worth US$ 825 million with Steven Spielberg

He has been embroiled in a dispute with his brother, Mukesh Ambani, over the supply of gas from the latter’s KG basin..

He recently topped Business Sheet’s “world’s biggest loser” list of business leaders who lost money in the Late 2000s recession [3], losing $32.5 billion in 2008, which brought him out of the top ten list to number 34 in 2009.

 Awards and Recognition

Voted the 3rd most powerful person in India in the 2009 India Today Power List, in March.

Voted Businessman of the Year 2006 by Times of India-TNS poll

Adjudged as the CEO of the Year at the prestigious Platts Global Energy Awards for 2004.

Voted as ‘MTV Youth Icon of the Year for 2003′ in September 2003.

Conferred ‘The Entrepreneur of the Decade Award’ by the Bombay Management Association, October 2002.

Awarded the First Wharton Indian Alumni Award by the Wharton India Economic Forum (WIEF) in recognition of his contribution to the establishment of Reliance as a global leader in many of its business areas, December 2001.

Conferred the ‘ Businessman of the Year 1997′ award by India’s leading business magazine Business India, December 1997.

Personal life

He is married to Indian Bollywood Actress Tina Munim and has two sons Anmol and Anshul. He has taken part in the Mumbai Marathon race. Ambani is also a fan of Coca-Cola Championship club, Newcastle United and was extremely close to buying the club in September 2008. In June 2004, Anil was elected as an Independent Member of the Rajya Sabha – Upper House, Parliament of India with the support of the Samajwadi Party.

Travel

He has a Bell 412 13-seat helicopter, which he purchased in 2001.

English Premier League

Ambani was in talks Everton officials over a deal to takeover the club. Before this he was also on the brink of buying Newcastle United He is now believed to be keen to re-kindle his interest in Everton as Chairman Bill Kenwright has admitted he will now actively seek to sell his shares due to the collapse of the clubs collapsed Destination Kirkby stadium project.