Mr Goh Cheng Liang is the founder of Nippon Paint South- east Asia Group. He is the fifth-richest person in Singapore, according to a 2016 ranking by Forbes, with a current net worth of US$7.5 billion (S$10.4 billion).

According to Forbes, the 89-year-old gets the bulk of his wealth from a 39 per cent stake in Japan's Nippon Paint Holdings.

Born in 1928, Mr Goh spent the first 12 years of his life in a shophouse in River Valley Road, squeezing into a $3-a-month rented room with six others - his parents, three sisters and a brother.

When World War II broke out, his parents sent him to Muar in Malaya. There, he helped his brother-in-law sell fishing nets before returning to Singapore in 1943.

Mr Goh started making paints in a small factory in Singapore, before he went on to partner Japan's Nippon Paint in 1962.

Through his Goh Foundation, he has also championed philanthropic causes by donating tens of millions of dollars to charity and research.

In 2009, the foundation also donated $12 million to the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine to help improve the treatment of childhood cancer.