With his own Singapore-listed company, Goh Peng Ooi now holds the distinction of being Malaysia’s first tech billionaire. The Silverlake group of companies, founded by Goh, has seen its stock price increased four-fold since 2012.
After his nine-year career at IBM Technologies, he formed the Silverlake group of companies in 1989 which is now a provider of financial and banking software solutions to 40% of banks in South East Asia. The company is showing some promising stock market performance and is doing exceptionally well in the banking industry.
Previously named EY Entrepreneur Of The Year (EOY) 2014 Malaysia, Goh now boasts a net worth of $1.55 billion (about RM5.53 billion), crowning him the title of first tech billionaire in Malaysia. Not only that, his company now has a market cap of $1.35 Billion, making it one of South East Asia’s most valuable tech companies. On the Forbes’ list of Malaysia’s 50 richest people, Goh Peng Ooi is ranked 9th.
With Silverlake Axis, Goh has been selling financial software solutions to banks for more than 25 years. The company business model is rather simple – it licenses its software to banks, then have its engineers set up the system and run subsequent maintenance fees. The company has five business segments which includes sales of software and hardware products, rendering of software project services, maintenance and enhancement services, software licensing, as well as credit card processing services.
Born and raised in Butterworth, Penang, Goh’s father was a butcher and out of his ten children, Goh is the seventh child. He is currently 60 years old, married and has two children – a daughter and a son. His daughter is currently working at the company as an Executive Director, while his son is pursuing his own career outside of the company. Among his fellow siblings, he is the only one who graduated from college by earning a scholarship from the Japanese Government to study in the University of Tokyo.
[Source: Forbes]
