BOH Plantations Chairman Has Made Into Forbes 2020 Asia’s Power Businesswomen List

BOH Plantations Sdn Bhd chairman, Caroline Russell the third generation to lead Malaysia’s largest tea producer enters Forbes 2020 Asia’s Power Businesswomen list. Caroline Russell takes the helm as chief executive officer in 2003 and has expanded BOH’s range of teas and international sales. She was named executive chairman after her father retired in 2019.

BOH Plantations has four plantations in Sungei Palas, Habu, Fairlie and one in Bukit Cheeding, Selangor

The family-owned business has four plantations over 1,200 hectares and produce approximately 4.5 million kilogrammes of tea annually – which is about 70% of Malaysia’s tea output. The BOH Plantations was founded by her grandfather John ‘Archie’ Archibald (JA Russell) in 1929.

The story of the BOH legacy dates back to when her grandfather arrived in Malaya during the 1890s. JA Russell began his career in the mining industry then started a few businesses in many areas including a rubber company and colliery before he decided to venture into the tea plantation business with his partner who was from Sri Lanka.

Malaysia’s largest tea producer produces 4.5 million kg of tea which is about 70% of Malaysia’s tea output.

He bought a land in Habu and transformed it into the first highlands tea garden in the country. Today, BOH Plantations owns four tea gardens – Sungei Palas, Habu, Fairlie and one in Bukit Cheeding, Selangor.

Caroline enters the Forbes 2020 Asia’s Power Businesswomen List together with other 24 outstanding female leaders in the Asia-Pacific region

Rana Wehbe Watson, editor of the 2020 Asia’s Power Businesswomen list said this year’s list recognised 25 women at the helm of companies and institutions across a wide range of industries such as education, biotech, logistics and law.

Besides Caroline Russell, HCL Technologies’s Roshni Nadar Malhotra also made the list. She is the first woman to chair a listed tech firm in India. Three other businesswomen from India who made the list are Ameera Shah of Metropolis Healthcare, Divya Gokulnath of Byju and Vinati Saraf Mutreja of Vinati Organics.

The youngest to make to the list is 29-year-old Lucy Yueting Liu of Hong Kong’s Airwallex – an alum of the 2017 Forbes 30 under 30 Asia list.

The full list can be found at www.forbes.com/asia-power-businesswomen.