The for­mer chief ex­ec­u­tive of­fi­cer of Sacha Cos­met­ics Dr Utam Ma­haraj, who died on Tues­day, will be giv­en his fi­nal rites to­day at Bel­grove’s Cre­ma­to­ri­um in San Fer­nan­do.

Ma­haraj was the broth­er of the Sacha Cos­met­ics founder, Ka­ma Ma­haraj.

In mem­o­ry of his youngest broth­er, George Ma­haraj said his broth­er “lived a very fruit­ful life” and added that he is very proud of his achieve­ments.

Ma­haraj was a renowned sci­en­tist and was a PhD grad­u­ate of the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to in Cana­da.

He was a soc­cer play­er with Arawaks CC in Toron­to and South Doc­tors SC in Trinidad, a crick­eter with Arawaks and Caribbean Limers CC in Toron­to, a crick­eter with Un­touch­ables CC in Trinidad, a mas­ter chef, All Fours play­er, cu­a­tro play­er, parang play­er, ta­ble ten­nis champ at Pre­sen­ta­tion Col­lege in Trinidad and at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to. Ma­haraj was al­so the South J’Ou­vert King in 1969.

Ka­ma in his ac­knowl­edge­ments said: “Utam was a bril­liant sci­en­tist whose ground-break­ing re­search lives on, in the count­less sci­en­tif­ic pub­li­ca­tions he left be­hind. Among the many port­fo­lios he held was that of the CEO of Sacha Cos­met­ics, where his ge­nius and kind­ness left an in­deli­ble mark on all those whom he touched. We mourn his loss, but his lega­cy con­tin­ues to in­spire. May he rest in eter­nal peace.”

Guardian Me­dia was told that Ma­haraj passed away af­ter ail­ing for some time.

Sacha Cos­met­ics, a Trinidad and To­ba­go-based cos­met­ics man­u­fac­tur­er, was found­ed in 1979.

Sacha Cos­met­ics is dis­trib­uted in over 20 coun­tries. It is one of the old­est brands made for peo­ple of colour and by peo­ple of colour.