Press Release

Sunway Group Founder and Chairman, Tan Sri Dr. Jeffrey Cheah, received an honorary doctorate for his leadership in health education network and sustainability from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) in recognition of his commitment towards education and advancing the sustainability agenda.

The award was presented to him by the Chancellor of UKM, Duli Yang Maha Mulia Yang Dipertuan Besar of Negeri Sembilan Tuanku Muhriz Ibni Almarhum Tuanku Munawir in conjunction with the university’s 49th convocation ceremony.

“It is a great honour to receive the honorary doctorate from one of the oldest and highest-ranked universities in the country. Sunway University plays host to several international entities that are advancing the sustainability agenda in the region, and we are delighted that UKM is engaging us in the area of sustainable development,” said Tan Sri Dr. Jeffrey Cheah.

At the ceremony, UKM expressed its intention to form a strategic partnership with Sunway University to advance the sustainability agenda for the nation.

“We heartily congratulate Tan Sri Dr. Jeffrey Cheah for the conferment of this honorary doctorate for his leadership in health education network and sustainability. We look forward to the collaboration of our two institutions of higher learning in producing impactful sustainable solutions for the future,” said Professor Dr. Raja Affendi Raja Ali, Dean of Faculty of Medicine, UKM.

Prior to the award, Tan Sri Jeffrey Cheah had been conferred 11 honorary doctorates by leading universities worldwide, .

Under Tan Sri Dr. Jeffrey Cheah’s stewardship, Sunway Group has grown into one of Southeast-Asia’s leading conglomerates, operating in 50 locations across the region with 13 diverse business units encompassing core interests in real estate, construction, education, healthcare, retail and hospitality with a combined market capitalisation of close to RM 15 billion.

Tan Sri Dr. Jeffrey Cheah is also the Founder and Trustee of the Jeffrey Cheah Foundation, Malaysia’s largest education-focussed social enterprise. The Foundation has disbursed more then RM570 million in scholarships to date. It is Tan Sri Dr. Jeffrey Cheah’s personal goal to award more than RM1 billion worth of scholarships in his lifetime.

In his efforts to make world-class research and quality education accessible to Malaysian students, Tan Sri Dr. Jeffrey Cheah was instrumental in establishing ties between Sunway University and some of the world’s most eminent universities, including University of Cambridge, Harvard University, University of Oxford, MIT Boston and UC Berkeley.

The very birth of Sunway Group was founded on the concept of sustainable development. The flagship Sunway City Kuala Lumpur, transformed from a barren tin-mining land into Malaysia’s first integrated green township, is today living laboratory serving as a test bed for researchers, experts and academia to generate sustainable real-world solutions in the areas of smart cities, edutech, digital health tech, agri-food tech, e-commerce and fintech for the prosperity and progress of the people and the planet.

The latest initiative at Sunway is the establishment of the Sunway Centre for Planetary Health, one of just a handful of such entities in the world. Based at Sunway University, which aspires to become the first planetary health-oriented university in the world, this Centre will advance the sustainability agenda in a holistic manner throughout the region.

A champion for sustainability, Tan Sri Dr. Jeffrey Cheah has also committed US$20 million to the United Nations through the Jeffrey Cheah Foundation. A significant portion of these funds were used to set up the Jeffrey Sachs Center for Sustainable Development at Sunway University, and establish the Asia headquarters of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (UN-SDSN) at Sunway City Kuala Lumpur. The UN-SDSN at Sunway City Kuala Lumpur is one of three such global centres, alongside New York City and Paris, co-ordinating continent-wide sustainability initiatives.