FIRST MALAYSIAN PHILANTHROPIST RECEIVES PRESTIGIOUS KNIGHTHOOD
FROM KING CHARLES III
Sunway City, Kuala Lumpur – 12th December 2023 – Malaysian tycoon and philanthropist Tan Sri Sir Dr. Jeffrey Cheah KBE AO has been conferred Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (KBE) by His Majesty King Charles III of the United Kingdom. Cheah is founder and chairman of Malaysia’s Sunway Group. The award is in recognition of his extraordinary achievements in, and his services to, higher education, health services and philanthropy.
This rare and highly prestigious distinction makes Cheah only the second citizen of Malaysia ever to have received an honorary knighthood, and the first bestowed upon a Malaysian national by King Charles III of the UK.
Cheah is also the founder and trustee of Jeffrey Cheah Foundation, which owns and governs all entities in Sunway Education Group under a not-for-profit structure.
To-date, the Jeffrey Cheah Foundation has awarded more than MYR 670 million (about US$150 million) in scholarships to provide educational support to qualified students in need, and endowed a number of chairs and professorships at world-renowned universities including Cambridge and Oxford universities in the UK as well as Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the US, to facilitate knowledge transfer and bring world-class experts to Malaysia. Cheah aims to give out several billion Ringgit in scholarships in his lifetime.
Cheah has also deepened educational ties with the UK, forging successful affiliations with several other renowned institutions including Lancaster University, the Royal College of Physicians, Chevening Awards, Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) and the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW).
In terms of healthcare, a partnership between Sunway Group and the University of Cambridge saw the Sunway Medical Centre in Sunway City Kuala Lumpur become a Regional Site Partner of the Cambridge University Clinical Research Centre, and the recently named Jeffrey Cheah Biomedical Centre at the Cambridge University Biomedical Campus – the largest such facility outside the US – played a key role in the UK’s COVID-19 response strategy.
This honorary knighthood marks the culmination of a successful 2023 for Cheah. The Sunway founder and chairman was also recently announced as the winner of this year’s Ernst & Young (EY) ASEAN Entrepreneurial Excellence Award, which recognises successful Southeast Asian businesses that contribute to the economy and community in the region. Cheah’s stalwart leadership and entrepreneurial vision has lead Sunway from its inception in 1974 to a leading conglomerate in the ASEAN region today.
In 2008, Cheah was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) by the Prime Minister of Australia for deepening the educational link between Malaysian and Australia. The Order of Australia is one of Australia’s most prestigious and highly regarded awards conferred on citizens and non-citizens of Australia.
For his commitment to nation-building and full embrace of the sustainability agenda, Cheah has also been conferred 12 honorary doctorates by leading universities worldwide, including an honorary doctorate in education from Universiti Malaya, the highest-ranked and oldest university in Malaysia. Cheah is the first Malaysian, and second in Asia, to be named four times as Forbes Asia’s Hero of Philanthropy.
