At the age of 61, Kochouseph Chittilappilly, a successful billionaire, selflessly donated his kidney to a stranger, despite having a multi-crore empire.
Kochouseph Chittilappilly, a billionaire with a net worth of Rs 9,000 crore, built companies like V-Guard Industries and Wonderla Holidays from scratch. Yet, his selfless act of donating his kidney to a stranger sets him apart as a truly remarkable individual.
Despite objections from his family and doctors, Kochouseph Chittilappilly, a successful businessman with a multi-crore empire, donated one of his kidneys to a poor truck driver at the age of 61. He did it to encourage people to donate if their body is fit.
Kochouseph Chittilappilly was born in 1950 in a suburb of Thrissur in present-day Kerala. He completed his schooling at a local church school and earned a master’s degree in Physics from St Thomas College in Thrissur. He began his career in 1973 at an electronics company in Thiruvananthapuram where he made voltage stabilizers and emergency lamps. After working as a supervisor for three years, Kochouseph left his job to start his own company.
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Starting with just Rs 1 lakh and 2 employees, Kochouseph founded V-Guard Industries in 1977. Experience with union strikes led him to a new business model: outsourcing the product but managing quality control in-house. Today, V-Guard is India’s largest stabilizer brand. He also diversified by opening Kerala’s first water theme park in 2000 and another in Bengaluru, establishing a multi-crore business in the Wonderla brand.
In addition to his business success, Kochouseph is also a generous philanthropist, actively involved in numerous initiatives through his non-profit, the K Chittilappilly Foundation. He spearheads a project that provides homes to 1000 homeless families and chairs the Stray Dog Free movement.
He has been recognized with several accolades, including the Rashtriya Samman Award from the Government of India for being one of the highest taxpayers. Kochouseph is happily married to Sheela and has two sons, Arun and Mithun, who run V-Guard and Wonderla respectively. He is also a published author, with books such as the Practical Wisdom series and his autobiography, Ormakkilivathil, to his credit.