INNOVATOR
and Rehabilitation Hospital, as well as outlets of Thumbay Pharmacy and Thumbay Labs, in addition to leisure and hospitality amenities like Body & Soul Health Club and Spa, Thumbay Food Court, The Terrace Restaurant, Blends & Brews Coffee Shoppe, and more. In addition, there is also the Thumbay Housing Project at the site, which is set to accommodate 2,500 staff and students at Thumbay Medicity. The sheer scale of the project is enough to make one sit up and take notice of it, but Dr. Moideen points out that the offering that Thumbay Medicity brings to the UAE market also makes it very unique: “It is a combination of education, healthcare, and research, which is very rare in the country,” he notes. “There is no one else.” Thumbay Medicity is also a testament to the enterprising spirit of Dr. Moideen- remember that all of this started with him daring to dream big 21 years ago. Sure, he did have experience working in his family’s timber and real estate business in India before he came to the UAE, but Dr. Moideen readily admits that he had no experience in the healthcare sector when venturing into this arena in 1998. But what Dr. Moideen did have was courage and conviction, and lots of it tooand it’s safe to say that these qualities have driven him to where he stands today. Regardless of the hurdles he found along the way, Dr. Moideen kept finding ways around them, and moved on ahead with his career and business. “I stuck around,” he says, quite simply. “I love to do what I do. I love my job; that’s it… I enjoy what I am doing, and I look forward to
Dr. Thumbay Moideen (center) with sons Akbar Moideen Thumbay (left) and Akram Moideen Thumbay (right)
each day.” And that explains why Dr. Moideen continues to spearhead the business as Thumbay Group gets going on its next stage of growth. In terms of future plans, Dr. Moideen says that the company is quite keen on building up its global presencehe’s particularly hoping to launch more universities outside of the UAE; in fact, Dr. Moideen reveals that his enterprise is already looking into setting up campuses in Serbia, Egypt, and Ghana. On the healthcare side of things, there are two routes Dr. Moideen wants to make use of to grow Thumbay Group’s interests in that field. “One is building our own hospitals and running them as well,” he says. “The other is by creating our own healthcare management company- so, we are managing hospitals in India, Africa, etc., and that business is growing rapidly.” The company has already taken up hospital management contracts in India, Kenya and Tanzania; another in Oman
“IN ADDITION TO OUR NEW AND UPCOMING HEALTHCARE PROJECTS IN DIFFERENT PARTS OF THE WORLD, WE ARE ALSO KEEN TO ACQUIRE EXISTING HOSPITALS, EITHER ON LONG-TERM LEASES, OR ON A MANAGEMENT BASIS.”
is also on the cards. “In addition to our new and upcoming healthcare projects in different parts of the world, we are also keen to acquire existing hospitals, either on long-term leases, or on a management basis,” he adds. In the UAE, given the sectors Thumbay Group currently operates in, Dr. Moideen is quite confident that the business is only going to prosper in the years to come. >>>
Thumbay Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Hospital
March 2019 / E N T R E P R E N E U R . C O M / 27
