Dhirubhai Ambani

Dhirubhai Ambani was an Indian businessman who founded what became Reliance Industries, beginning as a small textiles trading and manufacturing venture in the 1960s and growing it, through vertical integration into petrochemicals, polyester and later oil refining, into India's largest private-sector company. He was an early and prolific user of the Indian stock market to raise capital for expansion, drawing hundreds of thousands of small retail shareholders into Reliance's public offerings at a time when broad equity ownership was unusual in India, a practice credited with helping popularize stock investing among the Indian middle class. He led the company until a stroke in 2002 and died later that year, after which the business was divided between his sons Mukesh and Anil Ambani.