With the looks, come $2.9 billion — Manoj Benjamin among Top 100 Most Influential People
India's most prestigious business magazine names Manoj C. Benjamin as one of the Top 100 Most Influential People of 2007 — alongside Bill Gates, Steve Ballmer, Michael Dell, L.N. Mittal and Mukesh Ambani.
Manoj Benjamin — that's the name the realty sector wants to get to know well, and real soon. With $2.9 billion of planned foreign direct investment into Indian real estate in a single shot, he becomes the king colada, the big enchilada, and — for the sake of simple words — the number one player in the sector.
If this man's name has a huge twang of an ethnic touch, wait till you hear about the corporation he chairs: Royal Indian Raj International Corporation. RIRIC has announced multi-billion-dollar integrated townships in Bangalore, Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata, a 135-hotel partnership with Choice Hotels, exclusive Jack Nicklaus signature golf-course rights for India, and a $1 billion financing partnership with Greenwich Group International.
Mr. Benjamin's peers on the 2007 Top 100 list include Microsoft Founder Bill Gates and CEO Steve Ballmer; Intel CEO Craig Barrett; Hewlett Packard Chief Executive Mark Hurd; Dell Computers Founder Michael Dell; IBM Chairman and CEO Samuel J. Palmisano; steel mogul L.N. Mittal; and Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani.
"As the Indian economy moves into a new year with all guns blazing, B&E presents a compilation of the people who will matter most. Manoj Benjamin sits at the top of that conversation for real estate."