Getting to Know Manu Chandaria, the First Carnegie Medal Recipient From Africa

Manu Chandaria

Over the years, the Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy has been awarded to well-known names like Gates, Rockefeller and Annenberg. With the exception of the beloved singer-songwriter Dolly Parton, this year’s recipients may be lesser known outside of the world of giving: Lyda Hill from Lyda Hill Philanthropies, and Lynn Schusterman and Stacey Shusterman of the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Philanthropies.

And then there’s Manu Chandaria, chair of the Chandaria Foundation and the first medalist to represent Africa. Chandaria is a Kenyan businessman of Indian descent, and head of the family that founded the multinational industrial conglomerate the Comcraft Group. Born in Nairobi, he has spent years funding education, healthcare and other issues on the continent.

All were recognized for their extraordinary contributions toward meeting today’s challenges, and a vision that aligns with the ideals of the man the medal celebrates, Andrew Carnegie, a pioneer in the field whose philanthropy is credited with everything from the discovery of insulin to dismantling nukes.

Chandaria’s life draws many parallels with Carnegie’s. He came from humble beginnings, is part of the immigrant experience, and is investing wealth earned in business to promote the welfare of others. Chandaria spoke with IP about his life, his work, and his family’s philanthropy, which began long before their fortunes grew. Here are five things to know about him, and how his philanthropic impact lives up to the medal’s goal of “inspiring a culture of giving.”

Humble beginnings

“We were poor people,” Chandaria said of his humble start in life, and his father’s early struggles to support the family.

Back in India, his father, a merchant, had tried to earn 4,000 rupees to get the family established. After working six months, he asked his boss about earnings, and learned that they totaled only 120 rupees, or roughly $1.50 in today’s dollars. As a result, he pulled up stakes in 1915, and moved his family to Nairobi, Kenya. Manu Chandaria was born there in 1929.

Building the business

Chandaria’s father opened a single provisions shop along Nairobi’s Biashara Street, a business that “got bigger and bigger” over time. While not wealthy, the family was eventually able to support itself. If gold spoons symbolize a rich family, Chandaria said his family’s weren’t gold or silver, “but at least we had spoons.”

After school in India and Africa, Chandaria’s father sent his sons to America to complete their education. His brother attended Berkeley. Manu Chandaria spent three years studying in the American heartland, earning his master’s degree at the University of Oklahoma. 

The brothers returned to dire circumstances. “When we came back, we had lost quite a bit of our wealth during the war,” Chandaria said. The next generation recommitted to the small family business that then employed 40 people, six of whom were family members. 

Their efforts paid off. By 2019, the Comcraft Group had become one of the largest conglomerates in Africa, a multibillion-dollar manufacturer of steel, plastics and aluminum products, with businesses in more than 40 countries and more than 30,000 employees.

A desire to help

That success story was far from assured when Chandaria first tried to act on a desire to help. “It’s only when we don’t have the wealth that we can decide to help,” said Chandaria, “rather than preserve the wealth.”

In the early 1950s, when the company was still growing, Manu Chandaria and his brothers asked their parents to set up a foundation. They weren’t having it: “You people have been in America for too long,” they said, “We are not the Rockefellers.”

But by 1956, his father had warmed to the idea, and endowed the Chandaria Foundation with proceeds from the family business.

Beginning with education

Education has always been the foundation’s top priority, a mindset that started with Chandaria’s father, Premchandbhai Chandaria.

Though an immigrant from a former English colony, “My father could not speak or read English. My mother was still illiterate at age 53.” The senior Chandaria thought, “If my children’s life will be different than mine, they must be educated.” The family’s clear bet on the future, said Manu Chandaria, was “education, education, education.”

Education was also the family’s first bet on philanthropy. The foundation started with one scholarship so it could continually check progress. Today, Chandaria said it funds 130 students annually, mainly for four-year secondary education. To help achieve equity, 60% of scholarships went to women and 40% to men. 

From there, the foundation “grew a lot of small things” with investments in health, education and disability. They worked on it slowly and “did whatever was possible to do.”

In addition to funding academic scholarships, the foundation has since endowed the Chandaria School of Business at United States International University-Africa, and the Chandaria Center for Performing Arts at the University of Nairobi.

Its work strengthening Kenyan healthcare infrastructure includes the Chandaria Accident and Emergency Centre at Nairobi Hospital, and the Chandaria Medical Center at Gertrude’s Children’s Hospital in Nairobi.

Its geographical focus is on Kenya, but Chandaria said the company funds in 11 other countries where it has a business presence, including India. The family still sits on the foundation’s board, and provides leadership.

Guiding lights

Beyond his parents, Chandaria spoke of the great influence Mahatma Gandhi had on him as a student, and how he was profoundly touched by both the independence movement and the ideas of making sacrifices for the common good.

Those lessons of self-determination are evident in the foundation’s funding approach — it mostly provides financial resources alone, though it has been known to step in and take a larger role when necessary.

For example, Chandari discussed the first foray into health funding, which started with a dozen small clinics built for women in Kenya. Before work began, local women were asked “to own a commitment” on their side, and pledge to look after it. “You build a foundation of three to four feet,” Chandaria said, “and we will complete it and turn it over to you.”

The foundation also stipulates that scholarship students sacrifice for the common good by devoting three months to community service. “When a student spends three months working in the slums of Nairobi,” he says, “then he begins to understand what life is all about.”

Chandaria also attributes his passion for philanthropy to his religious beliefs as a follower of Jainism, a religion of self-help that he also credits for guiding his company’s ethical business practices.

Inspiring others

Each of the Carnegie medal winners was chosen for their ability to inspire a culture of giving. For Chandaria, that means using his business networks to encourage other “captains of business and industry to do something for people who cannot help themselves.” 

“A lot of wealth has been created in the last 30 to 40 years,” Chandaria said, “but is not being spent on the people.”

Chandaria Foundation’s projects are intended to create a legacy of healthier and better-educated Kenyans, but also to form a “new generation of business leaders with the motivation and skills to meet societal challenges.”

He thinks that lending the family name to foundation commitments — a practice he became familiar with while in America — will help make African philanthropy more transparent, and spur engagement. Now, it’s a name that’s recognized alongside Rockefeller, Schusterman, Parton and Hill for its philanthropy — an honor that surely would’ve made Premchandbhai Chandaria glad he listened to his children.