Zaw Zaw

Zaw Zaw
300px U Zaw Zaw in the MFF Women's Committee Conferences.
Native name	ဇော်ဇော်
Born	(1967-08-22) 22 August 1967 Irrawaddy Division, Burma
Nationality	Burmese
Other names	Phoe Zaw Max Zaw Zaw
Occupation	Chairman Max Myanmar Group of Companies
Spouse(s)	Htay Htay Khaing
Children	One daughter and one son
Relatives	Kan Myint (father-in-law)

Zaw Zaw (Burmese: ဇော်ဇော်) is a Burmese business tycoon and chairman of Max Myanmar Group of Companies, a major conglomerate with former interests in gems and active interests in construction, mechanical engineering, transportation, hotel and tourism, rubber plantations, energy retail and banking industries. He also serves as the chairman of the Myanmar Football Federation. He is also an AFC Exco Member and the Chairman of AFC Organising Committee for Youth Competition.

He reportedly had close ties to key figures from the former ruling military junta, the State Peace and Development Council, including Maung Aye and Than Shwe's grandson Nay Shwe Thway Aung. Through his relationships, he is believed to have won concessions and import licenses, including most of the country's car and motorcycle import licenses, as well as import and distribution licenses for fuel.

His company won several bids to construct Naypyidaw, the country's new capital, including a stadium for the 2013 Southeast Asian Games. But his attempt to enter the Singaporean stock market as an international businessman by bidding over Aussino Group Ltd. was not successful. He is blacklisted by the United States, being one of around 200 individuals and companies that have had sanctions against doing business with them imposed, under a Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) List regulated by the U.S. Treasury. The sanctions remain in place despite Myanmar's military junta no longer being on power. Singaporean stock market regulators were concerned at this and rejected the bid in January 2013.

In the early 1990s, he lived in Japan, and returned in 1994. The following year, in 1995, he established Max Myanmar. Annual revenue of Max Myanmar Group was about US $500 million in early 2010s.

Recognition

His efforts for Myanmar football as the Chairman of Myanmar Football Federation starting from 2005, were recognized by the Asean Football Federation and was instrumental in the MFF picking up the AFF Association of the Year award at the AFF Awards 2013 in the first week of April.

On 30 April, 2013, he was presented the State Excellence Award of the President of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar for being one of the top taxpayers in the country.

In 2013 November, he led the MFF to obtain the AFC Dream Asia award, which is given in recognition of those who share the values of Dream Asia, the AFC’s social responsibility initiative, which promotes the culture of giving, and emphasizes the power of football in bringing about positive change in respective Asian societies.

He empowered Myanmar National Under-20 Football Team to reach FIFA U-20 World cup 2015 in New Zealand and the MFF was recognized by the AFF Association of the Year award at the AFF Awards 2015 in mid August, for the second time running.