In 1987, Robert Friedland founded Ivanhoe Capital, a corporation that specialises in providing venture capital, project financing and related financial services for a roster of international business enterprises.

Under the Ivanhoe Capital Group is Ivanhoe Mines, which Friedland started in 1993. He has turned the company into a leader in the mining and precious-metals industry since. The Singapore-based entrepreneur’s firm was behind the unearthing of the profitable gold and copper deposits in the South Gobi region, Mongolia, which led to the construction of the Oyu Tolgoi mining complex.

Among other initiatives, Ivanhoe Mines is currently developing large-scale mining projects involving gold, nickel, copper, platinum and palladium in the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Africa, with strategic investment in excess of US$1 billion.

Friedland was inducted into the Canadian Mining Hall of Fame in 2016, and lauded as “a dynamic, transformative force in the Canadian and international mining industries” and “one of the most recognised mining personalities and achievers in the world”.

Besides mining, the graduate of Reed College, USA, also funds Ivanhoe Capital Corporation, which invests in emerging markets. He is also co-founder of controlled-energy tech company I-Pulse, has a stake in Australia-listed CleanTeQ Holdings, which supplies cobalt and nickel to lithium-ion battery producers, and owns Ivanhoe Pictures, the production company behind the 2018 hit romantic comedy Crazy Rich Asians.