Kuok scion picks music over palm oil

Singapore

KUOK Meng Ru didn't spend much time with his billionaire father when he was growing up.

As the third child of an agri-business tycoon, he was sent off to a British boarding school at 10; he graduated later from Cambridge University with a degree in mathematics.

His father, Kuok Khoon Hong, was busy building Wilmar International Ltd into the world's largest palm-oil business, having started it from scratch in 1991.

Busy as the tycoon was, he found time to introduce his son to the music of Eric Clapton, which led to Mr Kuok's obsession with BB King and a love affair with the blues guitar.

He said of the giant of blues guitar: "I always felt like I had a personal relationship with him."

It's no surprise then that Mr Kuok chose to go into music instead of the family business. The 28-year-old and his partner, Steve Skillings, are working to turn their startup BandLab into a global cloud-based community for people to create, collaborate and share mus…