Ir. Ciputra, born Tjie Tjin Hoan (1931-2019), a major Indonesian property developer and later in his life a significant philanthropist

Like all of the interviews for my books you may find it strange that I find each one unique in different ways.  This is the only interview where I was first interviewed by the subject and, having satisfied him of my bona fides, it is one of the most unusual interviews I have ever done.  It extended over several hours as, once Ciputra got flowing with his life story, he did not want to stop. But, as he had many meetings that day, he took me to them and this allowed us to continue in his car on the way to and from the various meetings.I interviewed Ciputra just after the Asian Economic Crisis hit Indonesia in 1997.  His group was significantly affected and it is my understanding he is one of a small number of developers who honoured his debts which meant it took many years for his Group to recover and continue to grow.There is one haunting story he told me of the last time he saw his father.  A distressing image of that has remained with me until today some 25 years later.Please note that these interviews took place some time ago - over 25 years ago in the case of the South East Asian life story book and around 10 to 15 years ago in the case of the two Indian life story books.  However, their stories are correct to the time of the interviews and the objective is to demonstrate the entrepreneurial skills they exhibited at the time of the interviews in building their businesses.