RHB group founder Tan Sri Abdul Rashid Hussain is one of the most successful entrepreneurs in Malaysia. In less than a decade, he built a financial services conglomerate comprising a stockbroking firm, a commercial bank, a finance company and a merchant bank-RHB Bank. He began his financial services career in 1971 with Strauss Turnbull in Britain and returned to Malaysia in 1975 to work in Bumiputra Merchant Bankers Bhd. He then left Bumiputra Merchant Bankers in 1983 to start Rashid Hussain Securities. Under his stewardship, RHB Securities became one of the leading stockbrokers in Malaysia.
Rashid Hussain was the Chairman of Putrajaya Holdings Sdn Bhd from 1995 to 2000 and served as a board member and Chairman of the Executive Committee of Khazanah Nasional Berhad from 1994 to 1998.
He was married to a daughter of magnate Tan Sri Robert Kuok. Rashid Hussain is the youngest son of Mohammed Hussain, who hailed from Penang and who later moved to Singapore and developed a successful business there. His mother is of Malay and Arab descent.