Guided by a strong belief and value system instilled into him by late patriarch Shyam Sundar Jhunjhnuwala, Naumi Hotels founder and managing director Surya Jhunjhnuwala share how philanthropy is more than just about giving money, but your time too
Hard work, honesty and consistently challenging yourself—these are the values that Surya Jhunjhnuwala lives by, inspired by his late father, Shyam Sundar.
The founder and managing director of the Singapore-headquartered Naumi Hotels, under the privately-held Hind Group umbrella, says, “The entrepreneurial DNA in our family builds the foundation for the continuity of the business, ensuring that wealth can be sustained and grown through the generations to come. At the same time, Dad also taught us that philanthropy should be a value to live by, and not an afterthought. It should start from young, and anyone can do it regardless of their status or net worth.”
Surya, who shares three children and one grandson with wife Ritu, was born into a family of entrepreneurs. Originally from Rajasthan in India, the family moved to Rangoon (now Yangon in Myanmar) to become one of the country’s biggest textile merchants. They later had to flee the country, twice—first during the Japanese occupation, and later the military coup. Having to pick up the pieces, Shyam Sundar moved to Hong Kong and ventured into the watch business in the 1950s. They became one of the largest watch manufacturers in the city, producing over 300,000 watches a month at its peak.
“We’ve had a pretty interesting family history—having everything, and then losing everything. But we’ve always managed to get back on our feet—it all boils down to finding the right opportunity,” Surya tells us.
Today, the Hind Group’s core business is in property and hospitality. Surya helms Naumi Hotels, which he founded in 2007 with its flagship property at Seah Street, and his younger brother Girish runs the Ovolo Hotels in Hong Kong. The family’s remarkable rise from humble beginnings, through diversification and sheer resilience, can be attributed to the foresight of its patriarch, who passed away in 1997.
Life Lessons
The fifth child among eight siblings, Shyam Sundar lived his life with honesty and integrity, showing kindness and concern for people around him, no matter what their station was in life. The fact that he never got to pursue his dream of going to college made him particularly passionate about education.
He was also a strong believer that girls should get an equal opportunity to receive a good education, and his family was no exception. With this forward-thinking belief, he became a mentor for the Phoola Devi High School for Girls, one of the first all-girls schools in the family’s ancestral home in Rajasthan.
Surya’s eldest son Gaurang, who oversees Naumi Hotels’ properties in Australia and New Zealand, says, “Despite the fact that we never lived in India, we’re Indian. We keep our roots in India and travel there almost every quarter. The philosophy around the cause of educating the girls is still prevalent in our family, and we still like to promote causes within India with that in mind. I think that has transcended between generations, and is something we would like to keep focusing on.”
The Hind Group also supports numerous selected charities on an ad-hoc basis, including the Madras Diabetes Research Foundation, with which it has established the S S Jhunjhnuwala Diabetes Research Centre to fund research into the disease.
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