KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 30 — There was no denying that the 2,000-strong audience at Dr Jane Goodall’s talk this morning were inspired by her story of her life and work. 

But perhaps nobody was more inspired than Tan Sri Vincent Tan, the founder of Berjaya Corporation Berhad, who declared he was thinking of becoming a vegetarian because of her.

Earlier in her talk, she had spoken about the impact on the environment from something as simple as eating red meat. 

After Goodall concluded her talk to a standing ovation from the audience, Tan decided to pay tribute to her in a spontaneous speech.

He had everybody in stitches when he said he was not very familiar with her work and had to Google her.

Tan also noted that Goodall was “not going to be very popular with oil palm plantation owners and timber tycoons.”

“Fortunately,” Tan said, “I am neither.”

“They are not going to like me a lot if I help you a lot. But we will do what is right, who cares what they think!” he said, to loud applause.

“But this is just my personal opinion,” he added, when the applause subsided. “This is not the opinion of Berjaya Corporation — Berjaya Corporation has to do business with them.”

Goodall’s talk was presented by Roots & Shoots and supported by the Better Malaysia Foundation.

Tan Sri Vincent Tan had earlier donated RM500,000 to Roots & Shoots through the Better Malaysia Foundation.