Born into a farming Merina family in Imerinkasinina, near the capital city of Antananarivo, Ravalomanana first rose to prominence as the founder and CEO of the vast dairy conglomerate TIKO, later launching successful wholesaler MAGRO and several additional companies.

In addition, the benefits of the country's growth were not evenly spread, leading to increased wealth inequality, inflation and a decline in purchasing power for the lower and middle classes.

In 2008 a controversial land lease agreement with Korean agricultural firm Daewoo, the purchase of a costly presidential jet and the closure of media channels owned by opposition leader and mayor of Antananarivo, Andry Rajoelina, strengthened popular disapproval of his policies.

From 2009 to 2012 Ravalomanana lived in exile in South Africa, where he was engaged in active negotiations with Rajoelina and former heads of state Albert Zafy and Didier Ratsiraka to organize national elections.

Upon attempting to return to Madagascar in October 2014 he was arrested, having been sentenced in absentia to lifelong hard labour for abuses of power by the Rajoelina administration.

After his sentence was lifted and he was freed from house arrest in May 2015, Ravalomanana announced the re-opening of the Tiko business group and was re-elected the president of TIM.

Upon completing his studies, Ravalomanana returned to Manjakandriana District, where he and his family began making and selling homemade yogurts, a common artisanal product in the highlands region.

Ravalomanana solicited a loan from the Agence Française de Développement to further expand his business, but this request was denied, souring his view of France.

[1] The representative of the World Bank to Madagascar at the time, Jose Bronfman,[4] secured the loan with exceptionally favorable reimbursement conditions that enabled Ravalomanana to sell his products at a lower cost than other small dairy producers, which gradually put his most significant competitors out of business.

Ravalomanana cultivated political relationships to facilitate the continued growth of Tiko in spite of an economic climate non-conducive to free enterprise under the Socialist administration of Ratsiraka.

By the mid-1980s, the profitability of his Tiko enterprise enabled Ravalomanana to purchase a costly villa formerly owned by French colonial governor Leon Reallon in the central Faravohitra neighborhood of Antananarivo.

[7] A number of lawsuits have been filed over Ravalomanana's business practices,[5] including a court judgment on the eve of the 2001 presidential election requiring the payment of between 200 and 363 billion Malagasy francs in Tiko back taxes,[7] but all were either dismissed or ended in an out-of-court settlement; none resulted in a criminal conviction.

In the mandatory self-disclosure of wealth submitted to the High Constitutional Court in 2000 by all presidential candidates, Ravalomanana declared ownership of 27 properties valued at over two billion Malagasy francs.

During his time as mayor, he balanced the city's budget and improved its water quality and waste management, and drew criticism for an urban-restoration project that demolished houses that were still being lived in.

These attacks were denounced by spokesmen for Ravalomanana's campaign, Tiako iMadagasikara (TIM), and in speeches the candidate delivered in urban and rural areas across the island, by his considerable personal wealth[1] and the airplane and seven helicopters registered to Tiko.

[13] The benefits of economic growth during the Ravalomanana administration were not evenly distributed, leading to higher costs of living for all Malagasy and a deepening poverty among much of the population with fewer able to increase their wealth.

[15][18] Ravalomanana's critics remarked that the greatest beneficiary of his reforms and policies was the president himself, giving the example of road construction projects that enabled Tiko to distribute more efficiently as well as the farmers and other small businesspeople targeted by the initiative.

[13] On 18 November 2006, Ravalomanana's jet was forced to divert from Madagascar's capital during a return trip from Europe following reports of a coup underway in Antananarivo and shooting near the airport.

Renamed the Madagascar Action Plan (MAP), this new strategy was intended to build on the successes of his first term to accelerate and expand national development.

[13] This move catalyzed the political opposition and a public already dissatisfied with other recent actions undertaken by Ravalomanana, including a July 2008 deal with Daewoo Logistics to lease half the island's arable land for South Korean cultivation of corn and palm oil,[24] and the November 2008 purchase of a second presidential jet at a cost of 60 million U.S. dollars.

Within a week, Rajoelina met with twenty of Madagascar's most prominent opposition leaders (referred in the press as the "Club of 20"), to develop a joint statement demanding that the Ravalomanana administration improves its adherence to democratic principles.

The demand was broadcast at a press conference, where Rajoelina promised to dedicate a politically open public space in the capital, which he would call Place de la democratie ("Democracy Square").

Popular disapproval of Ravalomanana intensified, conflicts between pro-Rajoelina demonstrators and security forces continued over the following weeks, resulting in several additional deaths.

[33] However, Vice Admiral Hyppolite Ramaroson announced on 18 March that the council would transfer power directly to Rajoelina, making him president of the opposition-dominated High Transitional Authority (HAT) that he had appointed weeks earlier.

With the military's backing Rajoelina was sworn in as president on 21 March at Mahamasina Municipal Stadium before a crowd of 40,000 supporters,[34] a transfer of power that was considered illegitimate and unconstitutional by the international community and described as a coup d'état.

[41] Ravalomanana's Tiko Group faced heavy pressure from the transitional government, which in April 2009 demanded that the company pay 35 million US dollars in back taxes or risk being shut down.

[17] Both Ravalomanana and Rajoelina were requested by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) to renounce participation in the 2013 Malagasy presidential elections in order to end the ongoing political crisis.