Nehal Abhay Vakil and Family

The Vakil family has held its Asian Paints stake across four generations. The governance model the company built is partly why that has been worth doing.

The Vakil family's stake in Asian Paints traces to Arvind Vakil, one of the four co-founders who established the company in 1942. Like the other founding families, the Vakils have been long-term holders through Asian Paints' decades of market leadership, and the compounding of that ownership position has generated the wealth that places the family on this list. The governance model at Asian Paints, which has run as a professionally managed company for most of its history with founding families represented on the board but operational management in professional hands, means the family's influence is exercised through oversight rather than day-to-day direction.

The current family leadership includes Nehal Vakil and Amrita Vakil, with a fourth generation including Vivek, Bhairavi, Varun and Dipika Vakil participating in governance roles. The Colour Academy, a vocational training initiative for painters and applicators, reflects an investment in the skilled workforce that applies Asian Paints products, a practical form of social investment that also serves the company's commercial interest in ensuring its products are applied correctly.