Dato Vijay Eswaran , Qnet Founder

Vijay Eswaran , Founder of Qnet .

Early life

Vijay Eswaran was born in Penang on 7 Oct 1960 to Pushpavathy Chinnaiah, a teacher and Vijayaratnam Saravanamuthu, who was with the Malaysian Ministry of Labour.Vijayaratnam's work with the Labour Ministry had the family moving to different parts of Malaysia during Vijay Eswaran's childhood.
Vijay Eswaran graduated with a socio-economic degree from the London School of Economics in 1984. Thereafter he stayed on in Europe for a year and did several odd jobs, including working on a construction site in Belgium, plucking grapes in France and driving a cab in London. It was in the UK that he was introduced to binary system marketing, and that prompted him to obtain a professional qualification from CIMA in the UK, followed by an MBA from the Southern Illinois University in 1986. At this time he was involved in multilevel marketing (MLM) on a part-time basis while working for Synaptics in the U.S.. It wasn't until his return to Malaysia, where he was approached by the Cosway Group to start its Philippines business, that he began looking at MLM more seriously.

QI group

In 1998, after his return to Asia, he co-founded a multilevel marketing company that would eventually grow and expand into what is today the QI Group, an e-commerce based conglomerate with businesses in travel, media, telecommunications, luxury products, wellness, training, and corporate investments. The QI Group has regional offices in Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia and a presence in nearly 10 countries through a wide range of subsidiary companies.

Speaker and author

Vijay Eswaran has spoken at management and business forums such as the sixth Pravasi Bharatiya Divas in India,and the World Economic Forum.
His first book In the Sphere of Silence, was published in 2007. It explains his personal life management philosophy and his habit of starting each day with an hour of silence. Eswaran has also developed an interactive program called the Thought of the Day, or TOD Program. His second book, In the Thinking Zone, a collection of thoughts and reflections on life, was released in May 2008. His third book, 18 Stepping Stones, was launched in 2010. On the Wings of Thought, a collection of his photography, was released in 2011.

Philanthropy

Vijay Eswaran has also established the RYTHM Foundation, the corporate social responsibility arm of the QI group. In Malaysia, Vijay Eswaran has established a charitable organization, the Vijayaratnam Foundation, which is named after his father. Through these foundations Vijay Eswaran has initiated community programs, such as mentorship, and has also made donations to individuals and charities.
In the July 2011 issue of Forbes Asia, he was named as one of 48 'Heroes of Philanthropy' in the region.

Awards and accolades

In February 2013, Vijay Eswaran was named in Forbes Asia's Malaysia's 50 Richest at Number 25. In 2012 Eswaran was given the New Global Indian (NGI) award for philanthropy and business excellence at the Global Indian Business Meet (GIBM) in New York.,

Controversies

In May 2007 The International Herald Tribune reported his arrest on an Interpol warrant. A dispute in Manila, Philippines filed by two former partners of the original founding team was escalated to an alleged ‘offence’ leading to an Interpol Red alert listing of four directors. These included the two main founders, Vijay Eswaran, who was then Group Managing Director and Joseph ‘Japa’ Bismark, Founding Director. The case was fought out substantially in the courts of Manila and Jakarta. After three weeks, Indonesian courts released him; a Manila court dismissed the charge soon afterward.
In August 2013, a newspaper in India reported that Vijay Eswaran was being investigated by the Economic Offences wing in regards to Qnet, which he founded. Police have frozen six of Qnet's bank accounts in the country. In an interview about the charges, Vijay Eswaran has denied any wrongdoing, and dismissed the claims as being indicative of corruption and poor journalistic standards in India. Qnet has also stated that Vijay Eswaran is neither director, nor shareholder of Qnet's Indian franchise(Vihaan Direct Selling Pvt. Ltd.).

Personal life

He is married to Umayal Eswaran who is the Chairperson of the Vijayaratnam Foundation.^[28]

1.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qnet

2.http://blog.qnet.net/2013/09/reach-out-and-touch-100-hearts-together-well-touch-a-billion-dato-sri-vijay-eswaran/

3.http://blog.qnet.net/2012/07/dato-vijay-eswaran-wins-the-outstanding-entrepreneurship-award-2012/