Phu Kok An, founder of Anco Brothers Cambodia (born 1954)

Okhna (Lord) Phu Kok An has had a remarkable life.  He successfully navigated the horrors of the Khmer Rouge regime and the life threatening risks of being killed by pirates when he was involved in the early days of smuggling goods from Thailand to Vietnam during the US trade embargo. He then moved into the cigarette business and for many decades has been the exclusive agent for BAT in Cambodia and now represents other famous brands such as Evian and Budweiser.  Anco Brothers is now one of Cambodia's largest private companies.   This chapter appears in my book, Added Value -the life stories of leading South East Asian business people published by Murmeli in 1999.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.