BIO-BRIEF

OF

SAMUEL (SAM) MARSHALL

EDITED BY

NISSIM MOSES

HISTORIAN-INDIAN JEWISH HERITAGE & BENE ISRAEL GENEALOGY RESEARCH

PRESIDENT INDIAN JEWISH HERITAGE CENTER

After reviewing the draft material forwarded by Mr. Sam Marshall and Ruth Solomon it was decided to

keep the narrative as far as possible in the words of Mr. Sam Marshall and Mr. Vijay Iyengar’s own

words.

Samuel Marshall was born to Joseph Nissim Shmuel Zadka and Madeline (nee Zilka) Marshall in

Mumbai, India in 1935. He is brother to Grace, Nissim and Morris. Both his brothers and sister and

their children have distinguished themselves as intellectuals and in their various professional fields.

Unfortunately Grace his sister had three serious tragedies in her life she lost her first husband, then her

first son Joseph (Joe) a Sand Hurst Military Academy qualified pilot with the rank of Squadron Leader

was killed in an air crash and her second son Mark a brilliant actor, was killed in a traffic accident.

Grace’s second Hans Salzer Levi was a leader in the International Commodity Market in his own Rights.

Sam’s Brother Nissim is an author, artist and a personality with multiple talents. Sam’s youngest brother

Morris, passed away many years ago. He was a very talented sculptor, a wonderful-one month in the year

keeping vigil at Auschwitz.

Sam’s father passed away when Sam was only twenty years of age. He completed his tertiary education at

the Cathedral School in Mumbai, and later attended Sydenham College Mumbai. His main interests

during his formative years included sports, history, archaeology and political science. He was the

Cathedral School’s Badminton champion; Hockey center half blue at both school level and at University

also played Football and represented school and college as a mean Boxer. He always believed that a keen

sportsman has the qualities of resourcefulness, resilience and the will to succeed. These facets of his

character have held him in good stead throughout his life. In academia, he was above average but his

passion was History and he was awarded the Open House Barham Prize for History in his final year.

Mr. Marshall’s entrepreneurial skills emerged at a very young age as he was already organizing

Badminton tournaments in Mumbai, in which multinational corporations including Hindustan Levers,

ESSO, Caltex and the Tata Group of Companies participated. His involvement in these sports and the

organization of such events imparted a competitive edge along with a versatile and resourceful will to

endeavor, especially given the fact that his father Joe Marshall, a human dynamo passed away suddenly

when Samuel was just 20 participating in an Olympics in Israel. At the time of writing this article Sam’s

Mother has reached the ripe young age of 103 and has been congratulated in a personal letter from the

Queen Elizabeth II.

See Picture of The Grand Lady Madeline with Grandchildren & Queen’s Letter at the

end of the article.

He was very adept at applying his leadership talents and facets to the commodity business. He is

considered the doyen of the commodity trading business in India, and his success has been illustrated by

the fact that more than 500 of his former trainees are now successfully running their own companies

around the world in countries such as Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Japan, Philippines, Brazil,

Argentina, United States and Europe.

He has received Awards, both from the Grain and Pulses International Association, recognizing his

services rendered to the Industry and again from the Global Edible Oil Industry for services rendered by

him. “He has been declared as the Father of the Indian Oil, Fats and Pulse trade and at one time his

Company were the No.1 worldwide Brokers in Edible Oils”.

Sam. Marshall Being Honored and Awarded Recognition for his Contribution to the

Grain and Pulse and Edible Oil Industry

He setup a brokerage company in Mumbai called Marshall Produce, and then he immigrated to London

in 1965, where he setup Marpro Limited with offices in over 25 countries and became the market leaders

and No.1 in the world in Edible Oils. They were pioneer brokers in exports of Canadian, Australian,

Turkish and Myanmar pulses to India establishing a good market share. Sam has been married twice

and though divorced maintains excellent relations with both his wives and he has three very talented

children, Joseph, Maria and Veronica. Joseph (Yosi) is a leading musician. Maria is a renowned film

maker, achieving fame at the Sundance Film Festival where she exhibited 14 of her boutique films and

Robert Redford took her under his wings. His third daughter Veronica is an English Teacher and has

twins. In spite of a quadruple heart bypass surgery Sam is very much active and a recognized dynamic

force.

Sam’s Children from Left to Right Maria, Joseph and Veronica Marshall

Whether playing Tennis or clinching a trade, he never gave up and persistence was his virtues and the

will to win.

He overcame a quadruple by-pass and a surgery for cancer of the esophagus where he lost half his

stomach but he remained daunting. “Impossible” and “tired” are words that do not exist in his

vocabulary.

He also never gave up learning. In the past 10 years since taking a back seat in the commodities business

he has moved successfully into Construction, Security and Event Management Business. His Group was

involved in training of Force-1 Pune Commandos.

His passion has always been Sports and he has led 6 teams (4 from India and 2 from Singapore) to the

Olympics which takes place every 4 years in Israel which is now rated as the 5th

largest of such gathering

of world Athletes from over 70 countries. He earned himself a Silver medal in Veteran Squash and his

Indian team secured a Silver medal in Cricket.

He was one of the lucky ones to have left the Taj Mahal & Palace Hotel just 15 minutes before the

terrorists started their massacre – 26.11.2008. Rabbi Gaby & his wife and Moishe were very close to me.

I do remain in very close contact with the Rabbi’s family and in particular with the growth of Moishe the

child.

From commodities he has now taken on a new challenge, the world of Entertainment where he has

brought Lior Suchard the World’s declared No.1 Super Mentalist to India and S.E. Asia having had over

70 shows during a 2 year period with the likes of the Tata Group, Birla, Bajaj, Nita Ambani, GQ Man of

the Year Award, Several shows at NCPA, Workshops with Kingdom of Dreams and remain in constant

demand.

Sam Marshall’s Family Pictures

Sam Marshall as a Sportsman and Sponsor of Sports

OUR EVOLUTION OF THE MARSHALL GROUP OF COMPANIES OVER HALF A CENTURY

Marshall Produce Brokers Company Private Limited was founded by Samuel Marshall in 1959 to handle

International Agri commodities. This has resulted in Mr. Marshall gaining the distinction of being the

doyen of the Indian soft commodity International Trade and Number One brokers in India.

Sam’s Famous Statement-I am not Just a Broker I am a Catalyzer

Marshall Produce branch at New Delhi, recognized as one of the top three tanker brokers, are actively

involved in fixing tankers for Indian Government Charterers since 1976 and with its recognized team,

respected worldwide, the fixtures are now exceeding 5 million tons every year both with Indian

Government Oil Companies and the private sector.

Countercorp International, Singapore owed its existence to a company called Marpro London, which was

established in 1965 as an extension of Marshall Produce India. Marpro subsequently became the world’s

No.1 brokers in edible oils with overseas offices which were the pioneers of agricultural resourcing in

countries and offices in Brazil, Argentina, United States, Germany, Switzerland, Myanmar, Malaysia,

Singapore, Vietnam, Philippines, Hong Kong, Japan and Sri Lanka. We were handling over 2 million

tons a year during which time Marpro Oils and Grains Sdn Bhd a fully owned company of Samuel

Marshall was incorporated in Malaysia in 1974 to undertake large scale broking operations in Malaysia

in Palm oil and products which continues till date to be rated among the top 3 / 4 brokers in Malaysia.

Marpro maintained its headquarters in London from 1965 until 1986 and the Group started to switch

priorities from West to East when the company was invited by the Singapore Government to promote

Singapore as a hub for Barter and Countertrade activities. Samuel Marshall then moved to Singapore

and founded Marpro Singapore which later was re-named as Countercorp in 1986. Countercorp stood

amongst the first few to be granted Pioneer Status by the Government of Singapore as part of its drive to

enhance Countertrade services in the Asia Region and became the flag ship of the Group(in which with

the blessings of Marshall’s, Agrocorp International Pte Ltd, Singapore was sown, formed, nurtured and

established) to become a major force today.

As a result, Marpro London was disbanded and pieced out amongst the Senior Managers operating the

South American and Japanese offices that have done very well coming from the Marpro School.

Meanwhile emphasis was shifted fully to Asia, including India where Marshall Produce continued to

maintain their offices in Mumbai and New Delhi since inception in 1959. Marshall’s offices continue

operations to this day with associates all over South East Asia in countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia,

Singapore, Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand, Sri Lanka and China.

Since its establishment in 1986, Countercorp Singapore continued to prosper currently having its office

at 51, Anson Road, 305-55 Anson Centre, Singapore 079904, though Samuel Marshall decided to move

his center of operations back to Mumbai in December 2003 to contribute to a constantly improving

Indian infrastructure as India is now the second fastest growing economy in the world. Countercorp

Singapore continues its role as an International Commodity Group, as well as a Shipping and Finance

facilitator.

Agrocorp Singapore which was created in Countercorp Singapore and is a separate entity all together

have done us proud with their expansion around the world with offices in India, Canada, Australia,

Bangladesh and Latin America and has a strong base in Myanmar are among the top 3-4 grain and

pulses trading groups in Singapore. The Heads of Agrocorp Mr. Vijay Iyenger, Mr. Ravi Raghavan are

the alumni of Marshalls Mumbai, Marpro London and Countercorp Singapore.

With India “shining” Sam Marshall returned to INDIA in 2003 at the helm of Marshall Produce Brokers

which evolved into Marshall Integrated Services. Today the Marshall Group of Companies is not only

focused on Agri Commodities but also in Security issues having:

Trained Force One commandos in Pune,

Provided security concepts for Amitabh Bachchan,

Secured Wipro Campus, Bangalore

Projects for the Agri-Sector Greenhouse here in India and abroad

Road surfacing / Pothole repairing representing a top Israeli group and other successful

technologies from Israel which is the home of R&D.

Sam Marshall A Person To Be Reckoned with as a

Personality in his Own Rights

Sam Marshall with his Excellency Sam Marshall with Rt. Hon. Prime Minister

Shimon Peres the President of Israel of India Mr. Narendra Modi

Left To Right Sam Marshall with Sachin Tendulkar, Amir Khan, Ranbirv Kapoor

On Left and on Right-Sam with Mukesh Ambani and Azim Premji. Center Signatories to

the Asian African Bandung Panchsheela Conference