Forbes Middle East - English Issue - March 2022

BILLIONAIRE HOLIDAY HOMES 5 BILLIONAIRE-BACKED HOSPITALITY INVESTMENTS

THE HIGHEST-PAID ENTERTAINERS

META’S FACEBOOK TURNS 18 THE MOST EXPENSIVE SINGLE NFTS SOLD IN 2021

MARCH 2022 ISSUE 114

NVER MKHITARYAN Founder and Chairman of the Emerald Palace Group

“WE HAVE SEEN REAL ESTATE PRICES RISING OVER THE PAST FEW YEARS DESPITE THE GLOBAL PANDEMIC.” THE MIDDLE EAST’S

TOP 50 TRAVEL & TOURISM MARCH 2022 ISSUE 114

LEADERS

AS VISITOR NUMBERS TO MENA START TO INCREASE, MEET THE LEADERS WELCOMING RECOVERY IN THE TRAVEL MARKETS.

UAE...................................................... AED 30 SAUDI ARABIA..................................SAR 30 BAHRAIN............................................. BHD 3 KUWAIT............................................ KWD 2.5 OMAN................................................... OMR 3 QATAR................................................. QAR 30 OTHERS........................................................$8

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Sidelines

Ready To Book

By Claudine Coletti LEADERBOARDS

8 I 5 Of The Most Expensive Single

NFTs Sold In 2021

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10 I 6 Mega Tourism Projects Being

Built In The Middle East

By Fouzia Azzab

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12 I 5 Billionaire-Backed Hospitality

Investments In 2021

By Cherry Aisne Trinidad

14 I Billionaire Holiday Homes

By Khadijah Khogeer

16 I

America’s Top Givers

18 I

Meta’s Facebook Turns 18

By Joyce Abano

20 I Numbers Of The Beast

By Abram Brown and Abigail Freeman

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The Highest-Paid Entertainers

STARTUPS

22 I Thirsty For Expansion

By Lisette Voytko and Steven Bertoni

Ali Al Ebrahim cornered the Middle East’s devotion to coffee when he launched COFE App in Kuwait four years ago. Now, with $13.2 million in total funding and a new acquisition fueling expansion, the founder and CEO has got his sights on a global goal.

By Hagar Omran

24 I Going All In Careem alumni Wahaj Ahmed, Talha Ansari, and Muhammad Nowkhaiz, cofounders of Retailo, used the pandemic incentive to quit their jobs and launch their own tech-based startup. With $45 million in funding raised in just 18 months, they’re looking to buy-nowpay-later for their next growth spurt. By Nermeen Abbas THE PROFILE

60 I Freight Expectations Flexport ceo ryan petersen became the self-appointed face of supply-chain solutions in 2021 by thinking outside the container. Now his $8 billion startup needs to prove it’s more than just silicon valley hype. By Alex Konrad HOTEL REVIEW

68 I Sheraton Maldives Full Moon Pamper your senses and rejuvenate your mind and body in the Maldives, a haven of sunny beaches, tranquility, and meditation.

By Fouzia Azzab

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76 I Thoughts On Turmoil MARCH 2022

CONTENTS

By Julian Nabil

THE MIDDLE EAST’S

CONTENTS

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TOP 50 TRAVEL & TOURISM LEADERS 32 I

Kicking Off

Fresh from signing a new deal with Boeing worth more than $27 billion, Akbar Al Baker, Group CEO of Qatar Airways, is now working on plans to transport over a million international football fans to the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022. As passenger numbers pick up, he’s feeling optimistic.

By Claudine Coletti

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Breaking Ground

Basmah Al-Mayman, Regional Director for the Middle East at UNWTO, is representing the region on a global stage for the worldwide tourism agency. As the sector recovers from the worst global crisis it has faced in recent history, she’s spearheading change from its first-ever office in Riyadh.

By Jamila Gandhi

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March 2022

Issue 114

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CONTENTS

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INSIDE

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COVER STORY

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Reinventing A Palace Founder and Chairman of the Emerald Palace Group Nver Mkhitaryan went all in building the $700 million Emerald Palace Kempinski in Dubai, only to see COVID19 interrupt operations. After some deft maneuvring, it’s back in business as the Middle East’s first Raffles resort.

By Samuel Wendel

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SIDELINES

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Ready To Book Of all the industries to be thrown into havoc by the global pandemic, travel and tourism is undoubtedly one of the hardest hit. According to data from the World Travel & Tourism Council, the sector contributed 10.4% to global GDP in 2019, but in 2020 this dropped to 5.5% after it suffered losses of almost $4.5 trillion worldwide. Around 62 million jobs were lost, and international visitor spending declined by 69.4%. So, as some countries make moves to wave goodbye to the last of their COVID-19 restrictions, leaders in travel must be collectively breathing a sigh of relief.

While it’s too early to claim we are in the post-pandemic stage—the WHO not yet giving any indication of down-grading the global status—we are now looking at recovery. Strategy& forecasts that it may take three to five years for countries with an established tourism sector to regain the numbers they saw in 2019, but the world’s busiest airport, Dubai International Airport, is already back to 100% operations, reporting 29.1 million in annual traffic in 2021. As someone that loves traveling and always heads to the airport over 3hrs early, I must say I’m very excited at the prospect of this vital element of life returning to normal.

For the Middle East, travel and tourism is about more than profit or lifestyle; it’s fundamental to economic diversification plans. Saudi Arabia arguably has some of the region’s most ambitious plans when it comes to international tourism, but then in many ways it had the most ground to make up, having only created an eVisa option for tourism in 2019. With its borders now open to foreign tourists, the kingdom is again working towards increasing its numbers of domestic and international tourists to 100 million a year by 2030, boosting the tourism sector’s contribution from 3% to 10% of GDP. It has a number of major developments underway to achieve this, including the Red Sea Project along its western coast and Diriyah Gate outside of Riyadh, but Saudi is far from the only Middle East country building tourist-tempting destinations. Other notable developments include Egypt’s Grand Egyptian Museum, which is set to be the world’s largest archaeological museum and is currently under construction in Giza. And the U.A.E. just opened its Museum of the Future, a stunning silver calligraphy-adorned structure in Dubai. In this issue, we take a look at some of the biggest tourism projects currently underway in the Middle East —you may find they inspire you to start planning a trip.

Against this context, this month we also rank the top regional leaders in the travel industry, looking across hotels and hospitality, aviation, and tourism-driven organizations.

These business heads have perfected the art of resilience over the last two years and, despite the odds, many are now reporting growth. Enjoy learning more about them, and I hope you’ll be heading to the airport soon.

—Claudine Coletti, Managing Editor

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MARCH 2022

INNOVATING SINCE 2010 MARCH 2022 ISSUE 114

Dr. Nasser Bin Aqeel Al Tayyar President & Publisher nasser@forbesmiddleeast.com

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Khuloud Al Omian khuloud@forbesmiddleeast.com

Editorial

Business Development

Claudine Coletti Managing Editor claudine@forbesmiddleeast.com

Ruth Pulkury Senior Vice President - Business Development

Laurice Constantine Digital Managing Editor laurice@forbesmiddleeast.com

ruth@forbesmiddleeast.com

Fouzia Azzab Senior Arabic Editor fouzia@forbesmiddleeast.com

Joseph Chidiac joe@forbesmiddleeast.com

Jamila Gandhi Senior Reporter jamila@forbesmiddleeast.com

Fiona Pereira fiona@forbesmiddleeast.com

Samar Khouri Online Editor samar@forbesmiddleeast.com

Karl Noujaim karl@forbesmiddleeast.com

Amany Zaher Quality Editor amany@forbesmiddleeast.com

Natalie Ghazaley natalie@forbesmiddleeast.com

Cherry Aisne Trinidad Online Editor aisne@forbesmiddleeast.com

Sarine Nemchehirlian sarine@forbesmiddleeast.com

Nermeen Abbas Senior Reporter nermeen@forbesmiddleeast.com

Upeksha Udayangani Client Relations Executive upeksha@forbesmiddleeast.com

Juweyria Hersi Editorial and Marketing Executive editorial@forbesmiddleeast.com

Tayyab Riaz Mohammed Financial Controller riaz@forbesmiddleeast.com

Research

Jason Lasrado Head of Research jason@forbesmiddleeast.com Elena Hayek Researcher elena@forbesmiddleeast.com Layan Abo Shkier Research Reporter layan@forbesmiddleeast.com Soumer Al Daas Head of Creative soumer@forbesmiddleeast.com Julie Gemini Marquez Brand & Creative Content Executive julie@forbesmiddleeast.com Kashif Baig Graphic Designer kashif@forbesmiddleeast.com Mohammed Ashkar Assistant IT Manager ashkar@forbesmiddleeast.com Muhammad Saim Aziz Web Developer saim@forbesmiddleeast.com Habibullah Qadir Senior Operations Manager habib@forbesmiddleeast.com Daniyal Baig Chief Operating Officer daniyal@forbesmiddleeast.com

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Money

5 Of The Most Expensive Single NFTs Sold In 2021

The still-nascent NFT market saw its popularity explode in 2021, generating over $23 billion in trading volume—far more than the $100 million announced a year earlier, according to data published by DappRadar.

The number of unique active wallets engaging with NFTs on a daily basis also jumped from 5,000 at the beginning of the year to around 140,000 at year-end, based on estimates by the Lithuaniabased blockchain analytics company.

Here are five of the most expensive single NFTs, which sold for multi-millions in crypto currency.

Pak: The Merge Sold for: $91.8 million “The Merge,” designed by digital artist Pak, was sold in December 2021 for $91.8 million via Nifty Gateway, setting the world record for an NFT sale. The NFT sale lasted two days between December 2 and 4, during which time 28,983 collectors spent $91,806,519 to purchase 312,686 total units of fractionalized pieces (mass) of The Merge. The NFT has a built-in scarcity mechanism that allows mass availability on the secondary market to consolidate, lowering the total number of unique NFTs over time while the total mass units remain constant.

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base that shows the viewer different angles.

Larva Labs: Cryptopunk #7523 Sold for: $11.8 million

Beeple: Everydays—The First 5,000 Days Sold for: $69.3 million American artist Mike Winkelmann, known as Beeple, made history in March 2021 when he sold “Everydays: The First 5,000 Days” for $69.3 million via a Christie’s auction.

Winkelmann started working on the collage of 5,000 images in 2007 and finished the piece in 2020. The digital artwork was bought by the founder of the large NFT fund Metapurse MetaKovan. It was the first completely digital NFT sold by Christie’s and the first time the centuries-old auction house agreed to accept payment in Ethereum, the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization. The price tag

vastly outstrips the previous record for a Beeple work, a 10-second video sold for $6.6 million.

Beeple: Human One Sold for: $29 million In November 2021, Beeple’s “Human One” fetched $29 million, including hammer fees. The buyer, an online bidder in Switzerland, placed the winning bid of $25 million at Christie’s—$10 million more than the auction estimate of $15 million. The Human One NFT is a life-sized 3D sculpture NFT made of LED screens playing a loop of footage of an individual in a silver-colored spacesuit, walking through extraterrestrial-inspired backdrops, with a rotating

“Cryptopunk #7523” was sold in June 2021 for $11.8 million at London’s Sotheby’s auction.

Aside from CryptoPunk 9998, which sold fraudulently for $532 million, Cryptopunk #7523 is considered the most expensive NFT from the Cryptopunks collection crafted by Larva Labs. It was bought by Shalom Meckenzie, the largest shareholder in Draftkings. Cryptopunk #7523 was minted in 2017 and is referred to as a “COVID alien.”

Larva Labs: Cryptopunk #4156 Sold for: $10.3 million “Cryptopunk #4156” was sold in December for 2,500 ether or $10.3 million, according to dappradar.com stats. The NFT is one of 24 ape-styled Cryptopunks, a set that includes 10,000 characters.

In February 2021, the seller, @punk4156, paid 650 ether ($1.25 million) for the NFT. The seller has owned six NFTs, the cheapest of which was purchased for 29.25 ether.

MARCH 2022

BY JULIAN NABIL; PHOTOS BY PAK: THE MERGE / SOCIAL MEDIA, BEEPLE: EVERYDAYS-THE FIRST 5,000 DAYS / WIKIPEDIA, BEEPLE: HUMAN ONE / HUMAN-ONE.XYZ, LARVA LABS: CRYPTOPUNK #7523 AND #4156 / LARVALABS.COM

LEADERBOARD

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Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are digital items that users can buy and sell across online marketplaces. Artists use the blockchain to tokenize their NFTs and keep a digital record of ownership in the same way that investors track cryptocurrency. 2021 saw a host of high-value NFT sales.

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F O R B E S M I D D L E E A S T.C O M

MARCH 2022

Travel

6 Mega Tourism Projects Being Built In The Middle East The tourism sector’s total contribution to the GDP of Middle Eastern countries could reach $486.1 billion by 2028, according to projections by Statista. As the same time, government spending on tourism in the region is expected to reach $17.7 billion. Here’s a look at some of the most important tourism projects currently under construction.

1. NEOM

2. Sulaibikhat Bay

Country: Saudi Arabia Investment value: $500 billion

Country: Kuwait Investment value: $5 billion

NEOM, meaning “new future,” is a 26,500 square kilometer project to create a new city in the northwestern region of Saudi Arabia on the Red Sea coast. It is one of Saudi’s Public Investment Fund’s major projects, with investments exceeding $500 billion in line with the kingdom’s Vision 2030. It aims to be the first city in the world to rely entirely on renewable energy and is expected to contribute $100 billion to Saudi’s GDP by 2030. In January 2021, the “The Line” city project was announced in NEOM, which will be a 170km belt of AI-enabled hyper-connected communities built around nature.

In December 2021, the kingdom launched the Jeddah Central Development Project to develop 5.7 million square meters, with a total investment of $20 billion.

F O R B E S M I D D L E E A S T.C O M

The 38-kilometer-long Sulaibikhat Bay stretches from the waterfront west of Kuwait City to Umm Al-Namel City.

The project covers 23 square kilometers, with investments of $5 billion.

Set for completion in 2023, it is developing the coast in Kuwait Bay, providing the area with recreational facilities, and adding a new tourist location in the country. The project is expected to improve the environment and provide 6,000 new housing units for Kuwaiti families, with more than 64,000 job opportunities in sectors related to innovation and up to 5,400 new hotel rooms.

MARCH 2022

BY FOUZIA AZZAB; PHOTOS BY NEOM/ NEOM.COM, SULAIBIKHAT BAY/MGPCITY.COM, YETTI/ OMRAN, THE GRAND EGYPTIAN MUSEUM/ ASHYCATINC COMMONS.WIKIMEDIA.ORG/ HATTA/ SHUTTERSTOCK, WEST BAY NORTH BEACH/ DISTANCE STUDIO CONSULTANTS (DSC) FACEBOOK

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3. Yetti Country: Oman Investment value: $1 billion The Yetti Integrated Development project extends over 11 square kilometers in the capital of Muscat, on the Arabian Sea. In January 2022, the Omran Group and Diamond Real Estate Development Company signed a partnership agreement for the first phase of the project, with an investment value of $1 billion. A joint venture, the Sustainable Development and Investment Company, has been established to carry out its execution. The first phase, covering 900,000 square meters, is expected to create 900 direct and indirect jobs. It will construct fully sustainable mixed-use facilities, such as green public spaces, residences, commercial and educational facilities, and lifestyle areas, including restaurants, cafés, and an equestrian center.

4. The Grand Egyptian Museum Country: Egypt Investment value: $1 billion The Grand Egyptian Museum is located west of Cairo, near the Giza Pyramids. When complete, it will be the largest archaeological museum in the world, covering an area of 500,000 meters. It will contain more than 100,000 artifacts from the Pharaonic, Greek, and Roman eras and is expected to welcome more than five million visitors annually.

The cost of building the museum is estimated to be $1 billion.

Construction began in May 2005. As of February 2022, more than 55,000 artifacts had been transferred and restored, all of the heavy pieces had been installed, and more than 80% of the Tutankhamun collection had been displayed, according to the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities’ website.

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5. Hatta Country: U.A.E. Investment value: Undisclosed The Hatta development plan was announced in 2016, and in August 2021, six new projects were approved within it. The plan includes a 504-kilometer network of chairlifts across the mountains with a summit station and panoramic viewing platform, sustainable waterfalls, a hotel, and hiking trails across Jebel Umm Al Nisour, the highest peak in Dubai.

The number of visitors to Hatta hit more than a million in 2020, up from 60,000 in 2016. As part of the development, Hatta residents will be allowed to build 200 holiday homes, providing an annual income of more than $27.2 million for the people of the region, according to the Government of Dubai’s media office.

6. West Bay North Beach Country: Qatar Investment value: Undisclosed Located in the business district of Doha, the West Bay North Beach project encompasses a public beach and 12 private beaches operated by a number of hotels, covering an area of 60,200 square meters and 1.5 kilometers of coastline.

The project began in August 2020 and is set to open for the public in August 2022. It includes a park for sports and a celebration area to be used as a fan zone during the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022.

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MARCH 2022

Billionaires

5 Billionaire-Backed Hospitality Investments In 2021 Here are five hospitality investments backed by billionaires in 2021. Net worths are as of February 8, 2022.

Last year, the hospitality sector remained resilient in the face of the ongoing pandemic—according to JLL’s Global Hotel Investment Outlook 2022 report—as investment transaction volumes in the global lodging industry skyrocketed by 131% to $66.8 billion in 2021 from a slump in 2020. Of the overall transaction, JLL revealed that $32.5 billion worth of hotel assets were acquired by private equity investors. Unsurprisingly, the ultra-rich made sure they got a piece of the pie.

Bill Gates Property: Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts

Deal value: $2.2 billion Net worth: $132.6 billion Gates’ investment vehicle, Cascade Investments, is now the largest shareholder of luxury hotel chain Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts after it agreed in September 2021 to purchase half of the stake held by Kingdom Holding Company (KHC), the Tadawul-listed investment firm chaired by Saudi Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal. The deal, which boosted Gates’ ownership from 47.5% to 71.25% and trimmed KHC’s stockholding to just 23.75%, was completed in January 2022 in an all-cash transaction worth $2.21 billion, valuing Four Seasons at a $10 billion enterprise value. Gates’ high-profile divorce to Melinda French Gates saw the billionaire philanthropist transfer some of his Cascade stocks worth $2.4 billion in August 2021 to his ex-wife as part of their asset settlement.

Larry Ellison Property: Hyatt Regency Lake Tahoe Resort Deal value: $345 million Net worth: $110.7 billion Through Ellison’s investment firm, Lawrence Investments, the Oracle cofounder bought Hyatt Regency Lake Tahoe Resort, Spa and Casino in September 2021 for $345 million, according to a transaction recorded in the U.S. state of Nevada’s Washoe County and confirmed by Forbes. The tech billionaire is known for pouring his wealth into several properties, including his current residence in the Hawaiian island of Lanai, in which he owns 98% bought for $300 million in 2012. In April 2021, Ellison also added an $80 million mansion in North Palm Beach, Florida into his real estate collection, which Forbes calculates to be worth above $1 billion.

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MARCH 2022

BY CHERRY AISNE TRINIDAD; PHOTOS FOUR SEASONS HOTELS AND RESORTS/@FOURSEASONS FACEBOOK, HYATT REGENCY LAKE TAHOE RESORT/ @HYATTREGENCYLAKETAHOE FACEBOOK, STOKE PARK LTD./@STOKEPARK FACEBOOK,D2CM DUSIT-D2.

CHIANGMAIHOTELS365.COM, EXTENDED STAY AMERICA INC/@EXTENDEDSTAYAMERICA FACEBOOK

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Mukesh Ambani Property: Stoke Park Ltd. Deal value: $77.2 million Net worth: $90.3 billion Ambani’s retail-to-refining Reliance Industries Ltd. (RIL) empire snapped up the U.K.’s iconic Stoke Park in April 2021 for $77.2 million (£57 million) via its Reliance Industrial Investments and Holdings Ltd. (RIIHL) subsidiary. The Indian mogul’s marquee acquisition adds to RIL’s hospitality portfolio, which also has investments in India’s hotel chain operator Oberoi Group. Stoke Park, a country club and hotel in Buckinghamshire, England, has been featured in two James Bond movies and used as a backdrop for “The Crown” and “Bridget Jones’s Diary,” according to Bloomberg. In November 2021, Ambani dismissed speculations that his family was relocating to Stoke Park. The estate is temporarily shut for renovations, according to its website, as it enters “a transitional phase” under its new owner.

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Stephen Schwarzman and Barry Sternlicht Property: Extended Stay America Inc Deal value: $6 billion Net worths: $37.3 billion (Schwarzman), $4.3 billion (Sternlicht)

Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi

Funds managed by Schwarzman’s Blackstone Real Estate Partners and Sternlicht’s Starwood Capital Group completed the $6 billion acquisition of America’s mid-priced apartment hotel chain operator Extended Stay America (ESA) in June 2021.

Both billionaires currently chair their respective private equity powerhouses, with heavy investments in real estate. ESA, which provides lodging for guests on short and long leases, manages 652 hotels in 44 U.S. states and claims its ESH Hospitality subsidiary is North America’s largest lodging real estate investment trust (REIT) by unit and room count. Nearly two weeks after the completed deal, ESA launched a new brand Extended Stay America Premier Suites, offering guests with more elevated and premium lodging.

Property: dusitD2 Chiang Mai (D2CM) Deal value: $13.3 million Net worth: $12.1 billion Asset World Corp. (AWC), the property unit of Thailand’s third-richest person Sirivadhanabhakdi, received approval from its board in December 2021 to acquire the 130-room dusitD2 Chiang Mai hotel for $13.3 million (THB 435 million) from Dusit Thani Properties REIT Company Limited. In March 2021, AWC also teamed up with Hyatt Hotels Corporation to develop several hotels spread across the tourist-reliant Asian country, with over 1,000 new rooms expected from the agreement. This would make Sirivadhanabhakdi’s AWC the major owner of Hyatt-branded hotels in Thailand.

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MARCH 2022

Billionaires

Billionaire Holiday Homes LEADERBOARD

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The world’s wealthiest individuals have acquired vacation properties in some of the most luxurious destinations across the globe. Here’s a look at where these billionaires spend their holidays, from European mansions to tropical island-resorts. Net worths are as of February 14, 2022.

Location: Asni, Morocco Billionaire: Richard Branson Net worth: $5.3 billion While Branson says his private Caribbean home of Necker Island is his favorite hideaway, the British founder of the Virgin Group owns seven additional luxury retreats. He bought Kasbah Tamadot for $1.5 million in 1998, and now routinely shares his family’s holiday adventures on his blog, include drinking traditional Moroccan mint tea, kiting in Dakhla, cycling through the Atlas Mountains, and playing tennis on the luxury retreat.

The Berber-style estate can be rented out for up to $55,249 for a maximum of 56 guests, during high season in October and between March and April, while room rates for the 28-suite hotel range from $770 to $3,500 per night.

Hilltop Estate – Delana Residence Location: Laucala Island, Fiji Billionaire: Dietrich Mateschitz Net worth: $24.4 billion Austrian cofounder of energy drink Red Bull, Mateschitz bought Laucala Island from the Forbes family for an undisclosed amount in 2002. The billionaire turned the tropical outpost into a luxury resort in 2011.

Mateschitz reportedly holidays in the Delana hilltop residence, a 11,000 square-meter estate. The highest of the 25 residences on the island, the property provides panoramic views of turquoise lagoons, white-sand beaches, and rolling green mountains. The resort has its own charter aircrafts and a 1,141 -meter long landing strip for guest’s private planes. In 2013, Mateschitz bought a Super Falcon submarine for $1.7 million, which is stationed at his island.

Villa La Leopolda Location: Villefranche-sur-Mer, France Billionaire: Lily Safra Net worth: $1.3 billion Safra is the widow of billionaire banker Edmond Safra. A former royal estate owned by Leopold II of Belgium, the 18-acre Villa La Leopolda sits on a hill in the French fishing town of Villefranchesur-Mer. The property was last valued at 500 million euro ($750 million at the time) in 2008, when Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov offered to purchase it. He lost his 50 million euro deposit for the property when the deal fell through by 2010.

The estate was listed as one of the most expensive billionaire homes by Forbes in 2013. Safra, who lives in Geneva, Switzerland, previously lived with her husband over 10 kilometers away from the villa in a Monaco penthouse.

Ko’olau Ranch Location: Hawaii, U.S. Billionaire: Mark Zuckerberg Net worth: $78.4 billion Zuckerberg’s Hawaiian hideaway covers over 1,400 acres of land on the lush island of Kauai.

The billionaire’s known properties include the 357-acre Kahu’aina Plantation and an adjacent parcel near Pila’a Beach.

The Facebook cofounder reportedly paid between $100 million and $200 million to gradually acquire the estate between 2014 to 2021, according to media reports. In December 2021, the billionaire and his wife Priscilla Chan added 110 acres to their estate for $17 million, according to a report by The Guardian.

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While Meta’s CEO runs his tech empire from his Palo Alto, California home, the billionaire has been sighted surfing and riding jet skis on Hawaii’s fourth-largest island. Zuckerberg and Chan are also involved in sustainable

farming and environmental conservation work on the estate. As of 2021, the Ranch

operates organic farms, a cattle ranch, and wildlife conservation services, according to the Honolulu Star Adviser, citing a spokesperson statement.

MARCH 2022

BY KHADIJAH KHOGEER; PHOTOS KASBAH TAMADOT/ KASBAHTAMADOT.COM, HILLTOP ESTATE/ SOCIAL MEDIA, VILLA LA LEOPOLDA/MINIWARK/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS, KO’OLAU RANCH/ SHUTTERSTOCK, RICHARD BRANSON/MARINA-KRUGLYAKOVA, DIETRICH MATESCHITZ/JOAN CROS GARCIA/CORBIS VIA GETTY IMAGES, LILY SAFRA/JAMIE MCCARTHYGETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICAGETTY IMAGES VIA AFP, MARK ZUCKERBERG/ ABOUT.FACEBOOK.COM

Kasbah Tamadot

P e p s i C o G re e n h o u s e A c c e l e ra t o r : PeM p sEi C e lie t o r: No AG Sruesetn ah i noaubsiel i tAycEcd t iroan MENA Sustainability Edition 15

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MARCH 2022

Philanthropy

The nation’s 25 most generous philanthropists have donated a total of $169 billion over their lifetimes, according to Forbes’ estimates. That’s up from $149 billion last year, partly because we dug up new info—but mostly due to another 12 months of large gifts by these megadonors.

Of course, with fortunes up on average 18% over last year, it’s easier to dole out billions. The 25 philanthropists listed at right are a collective $150 billion richer than they were a year ago. Leading the list is Warren Buffett, whose annual donation of Berkshire Hathaway stock topped $4.1 billion last year. Most of it, as usual, went to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Net worth: $115.6 bil Lifetime giving: $46.1 bil

2. Bill Gates, Melinda French Gates $133.3 bil, $6.1 bil • $33.4 bil

3. George Soros $8.6 bil • $18.1 bil

4. Michael Bloomberg $70 bil • $12.7 bil

5. MacKenzie Scott $53.5 bil • $8.6 bil

6. Charles “Chuck” Feeney Under $2 million • $8 bil

7. Gordon and Betty Moore $11.1 bil • $5.5 bil

Ranked No. 5: MacKenzie Scott, whose shoestring operation—she has no foundation and no public website (yet)—has donated at least $8.6 billion since 2020 to more than 780 organizations; she wrote in December, without disclosing details, that she has given more. Scott’s ex-husband, Jeff Bezos, debuts at No. 16, having upped his philanthropy—announcing $1 billion in gifts in 2021—since stepping down as Amazon’s CEO last July.

8. Jim and Marilyn Simons

Seventeen of the 25 have signed the Giving Pledge, promising to donate at least half their fortune to charity over their lifetime or upon death. But nearly two-thirds of the 25, average age 66, have yet to give away even a quarter of their wealth. One notable billionaire who’s missing: Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who signed the Giving Pledge in 2012, when his fortune was $2 billion. Now worth more than $240 billion, he has given away just 0.1% of his wealth so far.

11. Edythe Broad and family

$24.4 bil • $3.3 bil

9. Phil Knight and family $54.8 bil • $3.1 bil

10. Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan $112.8 bil • $3 bil

$6.9 bil • $2.8 bil

12 (tie). Michael and Susan Dell $60.3 bil • $2.25 bil

12 (tie). T. Denny Sanford $3.4 bil • $2.25 bil

14. Lynn Schusterman $3.5 bil • $2.15 bil

15 (tie). Steve and Connie Ballmer $96.5 bil • $2.1 bil

15 (tie). Jeff Bezos $184.8 bil • $2.1 bil

17. Charles Koch $54.6 bil • $1.8 bil

18. Pierre and Pam Omidyar $17 bil • $1.65 bil

19. Donald Bren

$16.2 bil • $1.63 bil

20. George Kaiser $10.4 bil • $1.56 bil

21. John and Laura Arnold $3.3 bil • $1.46 bil

22. Dustin Moskovitz and Cari Tuna $18.9 bil • $1.44 bil

23 (tie). Leonard Lauder

BY MAX-0-MATIC FOR FORBES

LEADERBOARD

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America’s Top Givers

1. Warren Buffett

$26.5 bil • $1.4 bil Reporting by Kerry A. Dolan, Matt Durot, Chris Helman, John Hyatt, Chase Peterson-Withorn, Rachel Sandler, Michela Tindera and Giacomo Tognini. Note: Our estimates factor in total lifetime giving of American billionaires, measured in dollars given to charitable recipients; such figures do not include money parked in a foundation. Extended families such as the Waltons, controlling shareholders of Walmart, were not included. Net worths are as of January 18, 2022.

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23 (tie). Ted Turner $2.3 bil • $1.4 bil

25. Julian Robertson Jr. $4.8 bil • $1.39 bil

MARCH 2022

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F O R B E S M I D D L E E A S T.C O M

MARCH 2022

2018

LEADERBOARD

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Meta’s Facebook Turns 18 Social media giant Facebook—now a subsidiary of Meta—is under threat on multiple fronts as it turns 18.

Here’s a look at its biggest acquisitions and scandals over the last 10 years.

2012

In May 2012, eight years after Facebook was launched by Harvard sophomore Mark Zuckerberg and his college roommates, the company went public at $38 per share with an initial public offering that valued the social media firm at $104 billion. It also began changing its business model so the platform could support the rise of smartphones. A month before Facebook went public, the company bought photo-sharing app Instagram for $1 billion in a combination of cash and company shares, bringing its biggest potential competitor under its control.

2014

Meta bought the ad-free mobile messaging application WhatsApp, founded by two former Yahoo! executives Jan Koum and Brian Acton, in February 2014 for $19 billion. It also bought virtual reality (VR) technology firm Oculus VR for $2 billion, which was best known for its VR headset Oculus Rift product, designed for video gaming. Meta’s acquisition of Oculus VR—now known as Meta Quest—gave it an instant presence in the VR market at a time when developers were starting to show interest in the technology.

2015 Facebook-owned Oculus

then bought British VR startup Surreal Vision, which specializes in real-time 3D scene mapping, allowing users to interact with real-world objects from within VR.

2016 In 2016, things started to

unravel. In terms of profits, Facebook made big jumps in 2016, raking in almost $10.2 billion, up from $3.7 billion in 2015, an increase of 177%. However, as the year unfurled, Facebook had to deal with a wave of misinformation being spread on its platform as the Clinton vs Trump presidential election was fought. Fake news designed to influence the result of the vote garnered hundreds of thousands of hits on Facebook.

F O R B E S M I D D L E E A S T.C O M

2019 Facebook introduced stricter

privacy settings on its platforms. For businesses, the company launched advertising solutions for AR and Facebook stories. Facebook also paid a $5 billion fine to the FTC to resolve allegations that it violated its 2012 consent order.

2020

Another US election and more misinformation went viral on Facebook, despite the measures taken to prevent it.

As a result, Zuckerberg authorized changes to the news feed algorithm, which determines what users see.

2021 In September, Zuckerberg revealed that the

company would be investing $50 million into developing the digital “metaverse.” But in October, whistleblower Frances Haugen, former Facebook product manager, stole headlines by alleging that company executives including Zuckerberg had misled investors, that the platform had allowed hate and misinformation to go unchecked, that it had data showing that Instagram harms the mental health of teenagers and did not act on it, and that it put profits before users. Amid the controversy, Zuckerberg announced in the later part of October that the company had changed its name to Meta and shifted its focus to the metaverse, a virtual reality version of the internet. Facebook became one of Meta’s subsidiaries, alongside Instagram and WhatsApp, among others. In Q4 2021, the company generated profits of $10.28 billion—8% less than the $11.2 billion generated in the same period in 2020. Nonetheless, Facebook posted a 35% climb in profits for 2021 at $39.4 billion.

MARCH 2022

BY JOYCE ABANO; PHOTOS MARK ZUCKERBERG/ ABOUT.FACEBOOK.COM, SHUTTERSTOCK

Technology

In February, Facebook was threatened by a Belgian court with a fine of up to $125 million if it continued to break privacy laws by tracking people on third-party websites.

As Europe’s GDPR legislation came into effect, Facebook introduced a set of privacy principles explaining to users how they can take more control of their data. In March, it was revealed that data analytics company Cambridge Analytica had stolen data from millions of Facebook accounts and used it to influence the 2016 presidential campaign. It was alleged that Facebook had become aware of this in 2015 but did nothing to protect user privacy. In April 2018, Zuckerberg appeared before the US Congress to answer questions about the scandal.

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MARCH 2022

TOP-EARNING INFLUENCERS The five highest-paid stars on YouTube and TikTok last year scored millions from ads and merch—and a few landed mainstream TV and movie deals, too.

TIKTOK

YOUTUBE

1. Charli D’Amelio $17.5 million #

#

Followers: 134.4 million

LEADERBOARD

Subscribers: 88.8 million (See story, left.)

2. Jake Paul $45 million Q

Subscribers: 20.4 million Look who’s back: Paul returns to this list—he last made it in 2018, with $21.5 million—thanks to boxing matches. His three fights in 2021 accounted for 90% of his earnings.

3. Markiplier $38 million #

Subscribers: 31.7 million Few social media stars move merch like Markiplier, who saw strong sales from T-shirts, hoodies and other items tied to his Unus Annus label. He also filmed a TV adaptation of his postapocalyptic thriller podcast, the edge of sleep, which he hopes to sell to Netflix or another streamer.

Social Media

Numbers Of The Beast

No YouTuber has ever banked more in a year than MrBeast, a former Boy Scout from Kansas who specializes in elaborate stunts.

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ith a nom de web like MrBeast, maybe it was inevitable that Jimmy Donaldson would get this big: Just 23, MrBeast earned $54 million in 2021. His YouTube videos accumulated 10 billion views, double the tally from the previous year—which explains why his income more than doubled from $24 million in 2020. The online masses can’t get enough of his supersized stunts. Over the past year, MrBeast spent 50 hours buried alive, offered $10,000 to a costar willing to sit in a bathtub filled with snakes and hosted his own version of Netflix’s dystopian hit Squid Game. He can be generous: In one clip, the former Boy Scout gave $10,000 to the viewer who had earned the most Scout badges in real life. In addition to sponsorships from Coinbase and coupon app Honey, MrBeast also pulls in money from licensed merchandise (T-shirts, hats, hoodies). Then there’s his MrBeast Burger app, which debuted last year. He pushes the fast-food mainstays to his nearly 90 million subscribers; local eateries around the country fulfill the orders. So far, he says, he has partnered with 1,700 restaurants and sold 5 million burgers.

MARCH 2022

4. Rhett and Link $30 million #

Subscribers: 17.4 million What started as the duo hosting a nerdy daily talk show, Good Mythical Morning, has grown into an empire of spinoff s and brand extensions, which in turn has boosted their YouTube views. One of their most successful efforts: Mythical Kitchen, a cooking series.

5. Unspeakable $28.5 million +

Subscribers: 12.9 million Unspeakable can’t shut up about Minecraft, recording YouTube videos in which he explains and plays the ubiquitous pixelated video game. Last year he sold the rights to his YouTube videos to Los Angeles startup spotter, betting he can use the cash to build his business more quickly.

CHANGE IN WEALTH KEY: # UP $ DOWN

§¨

Along with sponsorships from Dunkin’ and others, she and older sister Dixie (No. 2) Have a joint venture, social tourist, with clothing company Hollister and a Hulu series, The D’Amelio Show, that was renewed in November.

2. Dixie D’Amelio $10 million #

Followers: 56.9 million Aside from deals she shares with sis Charli (No. 1), Dixie is carving out her own career as a pop singer. She released two singles last year and toured as part of the Jingle Ball concert series alongside Ed Sheeran and the Jonas Brothers.

3. Addison Rae $8.5 million #

Followers: 86.3 million Her Netflix film, He’s All That, premiered in august and did well enough for her to land a multimovie deal with the streamer. Hollister rival American Eagle sponsors her.

4 (Tie). Bella Poarch $5 million + Followers: 87.7 million

She got her start in August 2020, posting a silly lip-sync video of “M to the B” by British rapper Millie B. It became the most-viewed TikTok that year. In the past year she’s done ads for Google, Prada and Tinder.

4 (Tie). Josh Richards $5 million # Followers: 25.6 million

The Canadian starred in the Netflix movie Under the Stadium Lights while launching his energy-drink line, Ani, and cofounding VC firm Animal Capital, which has raised $15 million.

UNCHANGED + NEW TO LIST Q RETURNEE

BY ABRAM BROWN AND ABIGAIL FREEMAN

1. MrBeast $54 million

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2. Bruce Springsteen • $435M

The Boss sold his music catalog for nearly $500 million in December 2021 in one of the largest deals ever for a musician’s work.

3. Jay-Z • $340M

11. Red Hot Chili Peppers • $116M

Entertainment

The Lord of the Rings director became a billionaire in November when he sold part of his visual effects firm, Weta Digital, to Unity Software for $1.6 billion, about 40% of it in cash.

London music investment fund Hip gnosis snapped up the California rockers’ catalog last May.

The Highest-Paid Entertainers

12. Reese Witherspoon • $115M

There has never been a better time to be a sellout. All of 2021’s highest-paid musicians earned their way into the ranks by selling—often for nine figures—all or pieces of their music catalogs. Other top earners sold production studios, cashed in on vintage TV shows or hawked champagne, tequila or sneakers. Less than a third made the bulk of their income from fresh content.

The hip-hop mogul cashed out stakes in music streamer Tidal and the Armand de Brignac champagne brand.

4. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson • $270M

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15. Dick Wolf • $86M 44

BY LISETTE VOYTKO AND STEVEN BERTONI. EDITED BY ROB LAFRANCO. GETTY IMAGES (7); WITHERSPOON: NEWSCOM

He earns most of his money from a multiyear deal to design Yeezy sneakers for Adidas. A jacket and hoodie designed for the Gap arrived last year, quickly selling out. But the 52-year-old brand wants more and is reportedly frustrated by the slow rollout.

Radio’s shock-jock “king of all media” moved to satellite 15 years ago. SiriusXM signed him in 2020 for five more years.

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18. Shonda Rhimes • $81M 8

Last March Simon sold hundreds of compositions, including “The Sound of Silence,” to Sony Music Publishing for some $250 million.

The Bridgerton producer re-upped with Netflix in July and continues to receive hefty residuals from ABC for Grey’s Anatomy.

19. Neil Young • $80M

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9. Ryan Tedder • $160M

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17. Kevin Bright, Marta Kauffman, David Crane • $82M

Friends forever: The showrunners responsible for the quintessential ’90s sitcom continue to cash in, mostly recently with an HBO Max deal.

7. Paul Simon • $200M

In addition to the 500-plus songs he has written for his own band, the OneRepublic front man has penned hits for Beyoncé, Adele and Ed Sheeran. He sold a chunk of his catalog to KKR in January.

Dun-dun! Even after 32 years, Wolf’s Law & Order franchise continues to hook crime junkies with a combo of new shows (Organized Crime) and syndicated older ones (Special Victims Unit).

16. Howard Stern • $85M 16

6. Trey Parker and Matt Stone • $210M

The billionaire rakes in money from his television shows, a Georgia production studio and the Madea movie franchise.

The go-to guy at Warner Bros. TV still makes serious money from such hits as Two and a Half Men and The Big Bang Theory.

Most of his income last year came from his Ciroc vodka liquor brand.

5. Kanye West • $235M

8. Tyler Perry • $165M

13. Chuck Lorre • $100M

14. Sean “Diddy” Combs • $90M

About 25% of his earnings came from starring roles in films like Jungle Cruise and Red Notice; most of the rest came from his buzzy tequila brand, Teremana.

Shocking. Hilarious. And cheap to make. South Park and its offshoots have netted more than $80 million annually in recent years. In August, the duo signed a six-year, $900 million deal with Paramount+.

She sold a piece of her female focused production company, Hello Sunshine, at a $900 million valuation.

10. Bob Dylan • $130M

The 80-year-old Nobel laureate transferred his recorded music and a few future recordings to Sony last July for $150 million. That came after a reported $400 million megadeal in 2020 to sell his publishing catalog to Universal.

In January, a year after he sold his music rights to Hipgnosis, he told Spotify to pick between him and podcaster Joe Rogan, who allegedly spread Covid misinformation. The streaming service removed Young’s music.

20. Greg Berlanti • $75M

The showrunner is known for his bevy of CW hits like Riverdale, but most of his earnings come from a six-year production deal with Netflix for shows including the psychological thriller You. MARCH 2022

21 LEADERBOARD

1. Peter Jackson • $580M

• STARTUPS •

By Hagar Omran

Ali Al Ebrahim cornered the Middle East’s devotion to coffee when he launched COFE App in Kuwait four years ago. Now, with $13.2 million in total funding and a new acquisition fueling expansion, the founder and CEO has got his sights on a global goal.

I

If you’re a coffee-lover, you will recognize the joy that the sweet, warm aroma of your first cup brings as you reach for it in the morning—and you’re not alone. With deep roots in Middle Eastern culture, MEA’s coffee market was worth $10.5 billion in 2021, according to Ali Al Ebrahim, founder of Kuwaiti startup COFE App, making up 11% of the $95.4 billion global market. For him, when it comes to tuning into people’s need for coffee, the sky’s the limit.

COFE App’s user base has quadrupled in the last year, according to the founder.

“We had over two million downloads in the past six months,” says Al Ebrahim. “More than what we did over the last two years.”

Customers can order and pay for their coffee via the mobile app and choose from multiple delivery options, including fast delivery to their office or home, counter pick-up, or a car pick-up service.

Having officially launched in November 2018, the startup has since raised a total of $13.2 million from investors from two funding rounds: the first in February 2019, when it closed a $3.2 million Series A, and the second in April 2021, when it secured $10 million from the Kuwaiti Al Imtiaz F O R B E S M I D D L E E A S T.C O M

Investment Group in a Series B. Today, the app works with over 700 brands in more than 3,000 locations. COFE App currently operates in Saudi, the U.A.E., and Kuwait. It plans to launch in Egypt next.

At the end of January 2022, COFE App expanded further by acquiring U.A.E.-based Sippy Beans for an undisclosed amount.

Established in 2019 by cofounders Rafi Dikranian, Zouheir Fathallah, and Shehzeen

Ali Al Ebrahim “We are a marketplace for coffee, we’re not purely logistics or delivery.”

MARCH 2022

IMAGE FROM SOURCE

COFE APP

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Thirsty For Expansion

IMAGE FROM SOURCE

F O R B E S M I D D L E E A S T.C O M

Kuwait, it was the region’s only specialized coffee app. From day one, however, the goal was global expansion, with plans from the start to access international markets from the U.S. to Japan and the U.K. Al Ebrahim believes that the global coffee market will grow ten times in the next five years, creating even more investment opportunities. In terms of retail value, the global coffee market grew by 4.9% in 2021 to hit $95.4 billion, up from $90.9 billion in 2020, according to data from Euromonitor International.

Outside of his role as an entrepreneur, Al Ebrahim’s passion still comes from his love of the product. “We started the idea based on two matters: the first one that we recognized the potential, and the second is that we are coffee lovers,” he reveals.

However, expansion is at the forefront of the founder’s mind. In November 2021, COFE App announced a partnership with the MBC Group that will see the Saudi media conglomerate support COFE App in achieving its growth strategy through its channels, digital platforms, and events via marketing. The deal also gives MBC priority for investments in any future funding rounds for the startup.

Then, in February 2022, COFE App was one of three startups to join the Innovation Programme launched by the Abu Dhabi Investment Office (ADIO), which has an incentive pool totaling $545 million. By joining the program, COFE App will receive financial support from ADIO, although Al Ebrahim declines to reveal how much.

COFE App will also relocate its global headquarters to Abu Dhabi.

Al Ebrahim says that the partnership, combined with the startup’s total funding raised, will help him to focus on market growth in the coming years, with two trends driving his plans: the boom of the super-app concept, and a more specialized business focus. “These trends are clear in the global market, and they will move to the region soon,” Al Ebrahim muses. “If people like something, they want a more specialized marketplace for it.”

MARCH 2022

23 COFE APP

Jamil, Sippy Beans’ marketplace connected coffee drinkers and independent cafes to over 75 specialty roasters from the U.A.E. and around the world. With more than 500 types of coffee from 138 different farms across Africa, South America, and Asia, the business was serving customers across the Middle East, the U.K., and the U.S. It is now fully incorporated into COFE App, with Jamil leading on a COFEstore e-commerce feature. “The acquisition combined the expertise of Sippy Beans’ specialty knowledge and network with COFE App’s regional and global reach, high tech and an already existing large customer base of coffee drinkers,” says Jamil.

The acquisition supports Al Ebrahim’s plans to expand across the coffee supply chain by offering innovative features and customizable solutions to all kinds of coffee providers and lovers. “We are a marketplace for coffee, we’re not purely logistics or delivery,” he explains. “COFE App offers several services like pick-up, virtual drive-thru, and the e-commerce feature that offers services based on subscriptions for capsules and beans. It’s all about helping people spend less time waiting for their coffee and more time enjoying it.”

COFE App is now the dominant player in MENA, but it’s following a global trend. The global coffee market has witnessed several deals in recent years. In May 2018, Nestle agreed to pay $7.15 billion to market Starbucks’ consumer and foodservice products globally, outside of the company’s coffee shops. In the following August, the Coca-Cola Company announced that it had reached a definitive agreement to acquire Costa Limited for $5.1 billion. More locally, Kuwait’s Alshaya Group is reportedly currently seeking to sell a 30% stake in its Starbucks franchise, valuing the business at $15 billion.

The COFE App founder expects this prospective deal to further drive up the coffee industry this year.

Conceptualized in Kuwait and developed in Silicon Valley, when COFE App first launched operations in

• STARTUPS •

By Nermeen Abbas

Going All In Careem alumni Wahaj Ahmed, Talha Ansari, and Muhammad Nowkhaiz, cofounders of Retailo, used the pandemic incentive to quit their jobs and launch their own tech-based startup. With $45 million in funding raised in just 18 months, they’re looking to buy-now-pay-later for their next growth spurt.

I

In July 2020, as the pandemic swept across the global supply chain and everyone went online, undeterred innovators began looking for opportunities in areas that technology had not yet fully saturated. Three former Careem employees, Wahaj Ahmed, Talha Ansari, and Muhammad Nowkhaiz were so convinced of the potential F O R B E S M I D D L E E A S T.C O M

they saw in business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce they quit their jobs to launch their own startup. Just 18 months later, in February 2022, they raised $36 million in a Series A funding round. “COVID-19 was such a big catalyst”, says Ansari, cofounder of Retailo. “We saw SME retailers struggling because of lack of technology while all the tech companies were thriving, and we wanted to enable community stores.”

Retailo allows community stores to buy day-to-day inventory through a mobile app and have it delivered within 24 hours. Since it was established, it has attracted total funding of $45 million from investors, including Graphene

Wahaj Ahmed, Talha Ansari, and Muhammad Nowkhaiz quit their jobs during the pandemic to start their own business.

MARCH 2022

IMAGE FROM SOURCE

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IMAGE FROM SOURCE

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However, as it makes plans for expansion, Retailo faces fierce competition in the region overall and in Saudi Arabia particularly.

Many other players are also bagging huge investments. Saudi’s Sary has raised $112 million since it was established in 2018, backed by the Public Investment Fund’s fully-owned subsidiary Sanabil Investments, the Wafra International Investment Company, and Endeavor Catalyst. In Egypt, MaxAB and Capiter bagged $55 million and $33.4 million, respectively, in 2021 alone.

And Morocco’s Chari closed a bridge round in January 2022 at a valuation of $100 million.

“It’s normal to see this vertical flourishing, since at its core, and in time, companies have similar consumer behaviors as individuals,” says Adrian Garcia-Aranyos, President of Endeavor Global. “A digital platform that solves marketplace frictions is an obvious evolution of the dysfunctionalities taking place in the physical world, in the same way that behavior shifted from consumer side with B2C marketplaces.

This is a trend we’ve seen in other regions around the world too.” Garcia also believes that there are a couple of particularly promising markets regionally, “If I had to put the spotlight on two markets, I would definitely say Egypt and Saudi Arabia,” he adds.

According to a study by Wamda published in January 2022, B2B startups in MENA raised $1.5 billion in 2021, accounting for 52% of the total $2.9 billion raised by startups overall. But the Retailo cofounders don’t seem too worried about the competition. “It’s always good to have more players, especially in this space. I think there is still room for more,” says Ansari. “The retail market of MENAP is worth half a trillion dollars. It serves 700 million people and involves over 10 million retailers with many more million people in the connected space.”

When it comes to its 2022 targets, the startup is focusing on deepening its coverage within its existing markets, along with scaling its BNPL offering. Its internal targets are 30X growth on transaction value for BNPL, and 6X more for the e-commerce side of the business. However, while growth is on the radar, thoughts of an IPO currently are not. According to Ansari, it is too early to think of going public. “As long as we are able to raise money in the private market, we would like to keep it that way because the private market allows you to grow faster,” he highlights. It also gives them more control to focus on serving people in underserved markets. “It’s an amazing thing when you aspire to create value by providing technology to someone who has not been introduced to technology,” adds the cofounder.

MARCH 2022

25 R E TA I LO

Ventures, 500 Global, Agility Venture Partners, Aujan Group, Tech Invest Com, Mentor’s Fund, IMM Investment Global, Shorooq Partners, Abercross Holdings, Arzan VC, and AgFunder, alongside individual investors. Having initially launched simultaneously in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, today more than 50,000 retailers have used the platform across 12 cities in Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and the U.A.E. The cofounders now plan to use their latest capital injection to accelerate Retailo’s entry into the buy-now-paylater (BNPL) space and further expand into existing markets.

“SME retailers have not progressed because of inaccessibility to the main-stream financial system. By providing easy access we want to add more value to their business,” stresses Ansari.

Currently, Retailo’s home market of Saudi Arabia is still its largest market, followed by Pakistan and the U.A.E. The cofounders decided to launch in Saudi Arabia due in part to the overall regulatory and government push to transform the economy, particularly in terms of digitization. “The aspiration was to build the regional business with Riyadh as the headquarters, as KSA is a growing tech and economic hub,” says Ansari.

Before launching Retailo, the cofounders were already enjoying successful careers in Pakistan. The three friends worked for startups with VC company Rocket Internet— Ansari at Foodpanda and Wahaj at a fashion apparel e-commerce company now owned by Alibaba, while Nowkhaiz founded a B2C grocery and B2B retail startup.

Wahaj went on to serve as an assistant general manager at Careem in 2016 before joining McKinsey as a fellow in May 2017. Meanwhile, Nowkhaiz became head of strategy for Careem and worked closely on the super-app’s evolution before it was acquired by Uber. In his last position at Careem, Ansari managed last-mile delivery and supplier side for MENAP as a senior director.

While they don’t think their Careem experience is the only reason for their success as entrepreneurs, Ansari does concede that it played a role. “For some of the investors, it gives them additional comfort that the founders have past experience in building a similar product,” he admits. “I think all of us experienced the kind of impact that we created firsthand, so that gives you a boost and confidence.”

The cofounders are currently confident that Retailo can reach 10 million SMEs by 2030, as they eye other MENA countries.

“The idea is to make services available to the community stores and suppliers in a region of 700 million people and market that stretches from Morocco to Pakistan,” says Ansari, though he declines to name specific markets at this time.

• COVER STORY •

N V E R M K H I TA RYA N

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REINVENTING A PALACE

Founder and Chairman of the Emerald Palace Group, Nver Mkhitaryan, went all in building the $700 million Emerald Palace Kempinski in Dubai, only to see COVID-19 interrupt operations. After some deft maneuvring, it’s back in business as the Middle East’s first Raffles resort.

BY SAMUEL WENDEL F O R B E S M I D D L E E A S T.C O M

MARCH 2022

Nver Mkhitaryan, Founder and Chairman of the Emerald Palace Group

IMAGE BY FORBES MIDDLE EAST

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F O R B E S M I D D L E E A S T.C O M

MARCH 2022

N V E R M K H I TA RYA N

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For much of the pandemic, one of Dubai’s most opulent new hotels sat largely empty. The Emerald Palace Kempinski Dubai, which opened to fanfare in late 2018 and cost around $700 million to develop, was the creation of real estate developer Nver Mkhitaryan. He envisioned it as a European palace fit for royalty: occupying a prime waterfront plot on the glitzy Palm Jumeirah, the hotel features over 6,000 Swarovski chandeliers and columns of pink Portuguese marble, with manicured gardens and swanky villas overlooking a private beach with sand imported from the Maldives.

But less than two years after opening, the property’s future was thrown into doubt, as the resort shut down after COVID-19 began to spread globally in early 2020. Even as Dubai orchestrated one of the world’s fastest vaccine rollouts and local tourism began to recover, the palatial property stayed closed.

Then came the news in May 2021 that Kempinski was no longer going to manage the property.

Yet, behind the scenes, people worked to keep the regal hotel ready for business. Engineers, cleaners, security, and in-house interior specialists focused on maintenance and upkeep, while air conditioning was kept running to ensure the empty five-star hotel and its 391 rooms and suites stayed in perfect condition.

And the property wasn’t entirely without guests: social media posts from Conor McGregor in early 2021 revealed that the MMA fighter was using one of its private villas.

“No one looking at the hotel from the outside would have noticed that the hotel was in fact closed,” says Mkhitaryan, founder of the Emerald Palace Group, which owns the hotel. The Armenian-born entrepreneur launched the holding company in 2005 to develop luxury projects in the U.A.E. and beyond— but none attracted the level of international attention garnered by the flagship hotel. So, with the future of his marquee property in flux, Mkhitaryan stayed busy F O R B E S M I D D L E E A S T.C O M

too. Following Kempinski’s exit, he quickly inked a partnership with the hospitality group Accor to rebrand the hotel as Raffles The Palm Dubai. That saw the property finally reopen in September 2021 and become the first Raffles resort in the Middle East. The rates match the royal surroundings: rooms usually start at roughly $600 per night in peak season and run up to more than $11,000 per person for a villa.

The move from Accor comes as the French company is expanding in the Middle East and the Emerald Palace Group’s idle hotel offered an opportunity it couldn’t resist. There are few beach resort plots left in Dubai and none on the Palm Jumeirah, according to Mark Willis, Accor’s regional CEO. Already, the exec likes what he’s seeing from the property. “The launch of Raffles The Palm Dubai a short few months ago has already exceeded all expectations,” says Willis.

“Our goal is to position Raffles The Palm as the leading luxury resort in the Middle East.”

Mkhitaryan seems pleased with the partnership too. He believes the Raffles brand provides the market penetration and awareness that he’s looking for and he reports the hotel has already hosted dignitaries, celebrities, and some of the most exclusive weddings in the Middle East. “Our goal is to position Raffles The Palm as the leading luxury resort in the Middle East,” says Mkhitaryan.

That’s quite a goal in a market known for worldclass hotels (not to mention the Burj Al Arab, which is sometimes described as a seven-star resort). But Mkhitaryan’s ambitions don’t end there. A Dubai transplant who rose to prominence as a real estate developer in Ukraine, Mkhitaryan still wants to raise the stakes even higher. “Sometimes I catch myself thinking, why didn’t I build the Burj Khalifa?” he says. “However, I’m sure that the Burj Khalifa of my life is still ahead.”

Still, his plans have had to contend with COVID19, which hit the tourism and hospitality space hard globally. Emerald Palace Group carefully managed costs during the pandemic, while also realigning and restructuring its business. Yet, Mkhitaryan remained bullish on Dubai’s potential despite the challenges MARCH 2022

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F O R B E S M I D D L E E A S T.C O M

architecture and construction. After graduating from Armenia’s Yerevan Polytechnic Institute in 1982, Mkhitaryan was assigned a role working on the construction of a new sports facility in the country’s capital.

Not long after that, at age 26, he was put in charge of a construction materials factory.

From there, he moved to Ukraine in the 1990s and earned his PhD from the Kyiv National University of Building and Architecture.

There he also became a Ukrainian citizen and soon spotted an opportunity to make a name for himself. Seeing a lack of affordable new housing in the newly independent Ukraine, in 1996 Mkhitaryan invested $10,000 to launch the private real estate development company Poznyakizhilstroy. He began building apartments; by the early 2000s the company employed over 25,000 people. As the company grew, his eldest son Artur Mkhitaryan joined the firm, starting out as an advertising manager before rising to become its business manager. Artur reports his father brought something new to the market in Ukraine. “You could say he was a pioneer,” says Artur, pointing to how Poznyakizhilstroy was the first company to use monolithic frame technology in highrise construction in the country, helping change the industry landscape.

But Mkhitaryan was also starting to look beyond Ukraine for business opportunities, leading to the formation of the Emerald Palace Group in 2005.

Dubai was on his radar, particularly the recently developed Palm Jumeirah. Mkhitaryan began looking at plots on the man-made island and forged a strategic partnership with Kempinski. Emerald Palace Group completed its first project in Dubai by 2010, when it launched the Kempinski Hotel and Residences on the Palm Jumeriah.

A busy man, Mkhitaryan had also been making his mark outside of real estate, which included authoring scientific publications, becoming a professor, and briefly entering politics, but in 2014 he relocated to Dubai to focus on the Emerald Palace Group. Artur had by then taken the reins at Poznyakizhilstroy, which he folded into a new company called Taryan Group in 2015. Meanwhile, Mkhitaryan started an MARCH 2022

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and continued developing projects. In late 2021 that saw the group deliver another new five-star hotel in Dubai’s Business Bay, launched in conjunction with Accor under its Hyde hotel brand, making it the first international location for the brand outside the U.S. Going forward, Mkhitaryan sees ample promise in Dubai’s future as a hub for travel and business after the emirate served as a safe haven during the pandemic. As evidence, he cites Expo 2020 as positioning the city as a key destination for tourists, while moves like the U.A.E.’s Golden Visa are making it an attractive location for new investments. “We have seen real estate prices rising over the past few years despite the global pandemic,” he says. “Once again, it shows confidence in Dubai.”

So, when will we see his next headline-grabbing project in Dubai? Mkhitaryan reports the group is planning significant projects on property it owns on the Palm Jebel Ali and Dubai Waterfront, although he doesn’t provide specifics. The developer emphasizes that Dubai is a focus area for his group, but he’s also actively working on a luxury resort in France’s Courchevel and another in the Maldives.

Whatever comes next, expect him to take a handson approach; Mkhitaryan has garnered a reputation as an owner who stays closely involved in projects.

For instance, he reports having personally approved every element used in the construction of the Emerald Palace hotel. “There can be points within the construction stages that many people would not notice and can be costly to implement,” explains Mkhitaryan. “If I can see that such improvements will deliver a better product I will always commit the extra funds.” That has caught some by surprise— the former hotel manager of the Emerald Palace Kempinski Dubai was once quoted in a news report as saying Mkhitaryan’s personal involvement and attention to detail was partly responsible for project delays. Either way, the developer certainly brings a wealth of experience and knowledge to his craft.

His path to Dubai began in Soviet Armenia, where Mkhitaryan was born in 1960. The son of a famous writer, he grew up surrounded by thousands of books.

But rather than take up the pen too, he chose to study

“We have seen real estate prices rising over the past few years despite the global pandemic.”

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ambitious new project on a plot of land next to the Kempinski Hotel and Residences. To finance development, a subsidiary of his group secured roughly $140 million in financing from Emirates NBD and Doha Bank in 2015.

The developer held little back for his new hotel, sourcing materials and accessories from high-end European manufacturers, including over 30,000 pieces of furniture from Italy alone. Mkhitaryan even traveled to Portugal and went down into a mine to hand-select marble himself. Housed on a 100,000 square meter plot, the hotel was set to include a range of facilities, from a cinema to a spa created in partnership with France’s Cinq Mondes. On the dining front, the hotel brought in Michelin-starred chef Alain Ducasse to open a restaurant called Mix. The Emerald Palace project took over three years to complete and its arrival was hotly anticipated. By then Mkhitaryan was already preparing to launch his next hotel in Dubai, dubbed the Kempinski Business Bay. Located in the emirate’s central business district, it was expected to open in 2020—but then came COVID-19. The group would eventually complete the project alongside Accor instead and launch it as a Hyde hotel. While navigating that delay, the group also dealt with the Emerald Palace Kempinski Dubai’s closure and management turnover. It F O R B E S M I D D L E E A S T.C O M

helped that the Kempinski Hotel and Residences continued to run successfully, thanks to high demand for rentals during the pandemic, says Mkhitaryan.

Now, after a turbulent saga, it’s Raffles The Palm Dubai’s turn to deliver results. The property’s reopening came with certain changes to reflect the Raffles brand—such as a writer’s lounge and library—but Mkhitaryan’s original vision for the palatial property remains plain to see.

With his prized hotel once again giving guests the royal treatment, Mkhitaryan can now continue expanding his real estate empire.

Not to be overlooked is a more personal project: dynasty building.

Under Artur, Taryan Group has become a key firm in Ukraine’s luxury real estate market. “Trust me the buildings he’s currently building are the best in Europe,” says his father.

Meanwhile, his middle son, Ivan, is also pursuing a career in construction after graduating from the American University in Dubai. In the future, Mkhitaryan expects his children to continue what he’s started, even as the developer still dreams of creating a Burj Khalifa of his own. “Even if I cannot do it, my kids can,” says Mkhitaryan.

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ULTIMATE LUXURY

Forbes Travel Guide featured 19 properties in Dubai in 2021.

Here are the five that were awarded five stars.

Bulgari Resort and Residences Dubai Located on: Jumeirah Bay Island This 1.4-million-square-foot resort takes inspiration from the ocean for its design. The resort is attached to a yacht club and 46-boat harbour.

Burj Al Arab Jumeirah Located on: Its own island off Jumeirah Beach Dubai’s most iconic sail-shaped hotel would set you back more than $3,500 per night for a deluxe one-bedroom palm suite according to February 2022 prices on booking.com.

Four Seasons Hotel DIFC Located at: Dubai’s International Finance Centre, Gate Village This boutique-stye hotel at the heart of Dubai’s business district has 78 rooms and 28 suites.

Four Seasons Resort Dubai at Jumeirah Beach Located at: Jumeirah Beach Road A low-rise hotel away from the bustle of the city, with 188 rooms and 49 suites, set along 288 meters of private beachfront .

Mandarin Oriental Jumeira, Dubai Located: Jumeirah Beach Road The lobby of this 251-room beachfront resort features 14 trees, each glittering with 900 lights.

MARCH 2022

PRO M OTI O N Scan this QR code to open the website

Multi-billion-dollar OPay Group Is Delivering Innovative Fintech Solutions To MENA

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ounded in 2018, fast-growing fintech company, OPay Group, has quickly risen to become a top financial services provider, operating in Nigeria, Egypt, and Pakistan.

The company’s early success is credited to its dedication to making financial services accessible to everyone, and now the group is eyeing expansion across the rest of the Middle East and North Africa this year.

OPay provides a suite of bespoke, customercentric financial solutions that include offline and online payment options and a digital wallet service using the power of AI. Notably, OPay’s online gateway (OPay checkout) hosts a set of high-quality services, integrated solutions, and an excellent commission scheme, which enable small- and mediumsized businesses to achieve profit growth. For customers, OPay delivers an easier way to pay bills and other expenses through an app available on iOS as well as Google Play. The app also enables users to send money free of charge to other banks or to friends and family, with recipients receiving the money instantly.

Key to the company’s success is the inclusivity and accessibility of its services–to open an OPay account, users only need a phone number. In fact, OPay has become a key driver of financial inclusion in Africa, managing to fast track

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the adoption of digital services through cashless and contactless payments while also improving financial and information security. In particular, OPay’s

mobile payment service provides a convenient financial solution to the unbanked population in Africa, with 160 million active users currently generating around $3 billion in monthly transactions.

OPay Group’s continued success follows a $400 million funding round last August, which increased the company’s valuation to $2 billion. The successful round motivated OPay to venture towards territories in North Africa—particularly Egypt, where the group has achieved monumental success in less than a year, delivering the best possible financial solutions for customers, merchants, and small and medium businesses.

After its launch in Egypt at the start of 2021, OPay Group quickly gained the confidence of thousands of merchants that utilize its points of sale (POS) to

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collect bills and other payments.

The successful launch is attributed to the support of the local government and is in line with the vision of Egyptian President, Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, as the country embraces digital transformation and cashless transactions.

Support from Tarek Amer, Governor of the Central Bank of Egypt, has paved the way for the faster digital transformation of the Egyptian banking sector.

Under Amer’s leadership, the central bank has made the transition to cashless transactions easier, reduced the reliance on cash, and expanded the provision of mechanized services. A number of initiatives have also provided opportunities for many electronic payment companies to enter the Egyptian market and offer customers an array of digital services.

Looking ahead, OPay plans to expand to more territories by the end of the year, including the U.A.E. It also aims to enhance its current suite of financial services and adapt to new security standards to keep customer data safe and secure.

www.opayeg.com MARCH 2022

• TOP 50 TRAVEL & TOURISM LEADERS •

AKBAR AL BAKER

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KICKING OFF

Fresh from signing a new deal with Boeing worth more than $27 billion, Akbar Al Baker, Group CEO of Qatar Airways, is now working on plans to transport over a million international football fans to the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022. As passenger numbers pick up, he’s feeling optimistic.

BY CLAUDINE COLETTI F O R B E S M I D D L E E A S T.C O M

MARCH 2022

Akbar Al Baker, Group CEO of Qatar Airways.

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The last few years may have felt like a bit of a rollercoaster for the aviation industry. In 2019, record numbers of tourists were travelling around the world, with international arrivals globally hitting nearly 1.5 billion according to UNWTO. Travel had become quicker, easier, and cheaper.

Airplanes were full, airports were buzzing, and destinations were thriving. And then, the unthinkable happened. As the pandemic hit, runways became empty and airports muted. Across the world, passenger aircraft worth billions sat side-by-side, parked motionless for months as the industry ground to a halt. By 2021, global tourist arrivals had slumped by over 73% to less than 415 million across the year. But, as we entered 2022, things were once again looking up. After a cautious start to recovery in 2021, tourist numbers are now rising more steadily, and for one of the world’s biggest international airlines, it’s time to get back to work.

“Thankfully for us it has been always a roller, not a coaster,” says Akbar Al Baker, Group CEO and Executive Board Member at Qatar Airways. “We have always rolled ahead; we never stopped.” Qatar Airways saw its revenues drop from $14 billion in the 2020 financial year (which ended March 31, 2020) to $8.1 billion the following year, and saw its losses more than double from $1.9 billion to $4.1 billion in the same period. In the 2021 financial year, Doha’s Hamad International Airport served 6.9 million passengers—an 81% decrease on the year before. But it will take more than a rocky patch to faze the CEO; this is far from the first challenge he’s faced.

The industry stalwart and qualified pilot has been at the helm of Qatar’s national carrier since 1997.

When he started, the plan was to build a fleet of 35 aircraft to serve 35 destinations. Today, Qatar Airways has 234 aircraft and 16 corporate jets, F O R B E S M I D D L E E A S T.C O M

serving more than 140 locations around the world, with assets worth $38.9 billion. These numbers are not enough to make it the biggest airline in the Middle East—it is still second to the U.A.E.’s Emirates Group, with its fleet of 259 and assets of $45.2 billion as of March 2021—but Qatar Airways is making moves to grow.

In January 2022, Qatar Airways signed a deal with Boeing worth more than $20 billion for up to 50 of Boeing’s new 777-8 freighters, making it the launch customer for the jets. It also placed an order worth more than $6.8 billion with GE for engines for 34 of its new freighters, and it signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Boeing for a firm order of 25 of its 737-10 passenger aircraft and purchase rights for an additional 25 in a deal that could be worth up to $7 billion. “The new 777-8 Freighter offers the highest payload and the lowest fuel use, emissions and operating cost per tonne of any large freighter,” says Omar Arekat, Vice President for the Middle East and Africa at Boeing Commercial Airplanes. “[Qatar Airways’ order is] the largest freighter commitment in Boeing history by value.” The freighters have been purchased to replace Qatar Airways’ current all-Boeing cargo fleet as it comes to the end of its lifecycle, and they will start to be delivered from 2027. Of the 50, 34 are replacing the airline’s owned and leased freighters, with 16 additional jets earmarked to allow for growth in its cargo business.

“We don’t want 20 million tourists. We want quality tourists.”

The deal with Boeing comes at a time when Qatar Airways’ relationship with Airbus is experiencing some turbulence. In January 2022, Airbus sought to cancel an order of 50 A321neos for Qatar Airways as part of an ongoing dispute. The airline had been declining to receive deliveries since June 2021, citing faster-than-expected deterioration of the surface below the paint on some of its fleet of 21 A350s. In August 2021, the Qatar Civil Aviation Authority reportedly ordered Qatar Airways to ground 13 of the aircraft, and in December, the airline issued legal proceedings against Airbus citing safety concerns. The national carrier is reportedly seeking $618 million in contractual

MARCH 2022

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Disputes aside, it’s an exciting time for the CEO and for Qatar. The country is deep into preparations to host the biggest football tournament in the world from late November to mid-December when the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 kicks off in Doha. It will be the first time the competition has ever been played in the Middle East. When it was last held in 2018 in Russia, more than 7.7 million local and international fans watched the matches on site from the FIFA Fan Fest venue, up from 5.2 million in Brazil in 2014, according to FIFA data. A global audience of more than three billion worldwide tuned in to watch it on TV. These are big numbers for Qatar to consider—the small peninsula has a F O R B E S M I D D L E E A S T.C O M

population of less than three million people.

“Organizers estimate to welcome over one million visitors during the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022,” reveals a FIFA spokesperson. “From a fan perspective, this is a once in a lifetime experience.

We are now less than a year away from the first FIFA World Cup in the Middle East and the Arab World, and having sponsors based in the region, such as Qatar Airways, creates exciting synergies.”

Al Baker is unsurprisingly expecting Qatar to attract a lot of attention. “There is a huge interest, a lot more interest than was shown in other World Cups, for people to come to Qatar because they have heard so much about our country over the last 10 years,” he enthuses. As an official sponsor, an official partner, and the official airline for the event, Qatar Airways is currently making plans to accommodate hordes of additional passengers entering the country over the course of its expected 28-day run.

This includes expanding infrastructure at Hamad International Airport and increasing load capacity by partnering with other airlines from neighbouring countries where necessary. The CEO admits, however, that it’s a tough thing to plan for. “Our operation will have to be very dynamic. We will have to shift capacity and frequencies to places depending on the results,” he explains. “In the first half of the period there will be a lot of stress, and then in the other half the teams will reduce as they go out.”

Beyond the World Cup, Qatar—as with many of its Middle Eastern neighbours—is also more generally increasing investment into its tourism industry to help diversify its oil-dependent economy. It hopes to welcome six million visitors per year by 2030, nearly three times more than the 2.1 million it welcomed in 2019, according to Qatar Tourism. As well as his position at Qatar Airways, in 2019 Al Baker was appointed Secretary-General of Qatar’s National Tourism Council, which became Qatar Tourism in 2021, where he now serves as chairman. He has been very involved in kickstarting the country’s new tourism ambitions. Once the exuberance of the World Cup dies down, Qatar is hoping to attract people for its culture. “We don’t want 20 million

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compensation from Airbus. Meanwhile, the European manufacturer responded by launching its own independent legal assessment. In February 2022, Airbus reportedly cancelled a further order of two A350-1000 jets for Qatar Airways as the battle rolled on, and by the end of the month it had launched its own $220 million claim over two undelivered airliners, according to Reuters. “Airbus restates there is no airworthiness issue, which has been confirmed by EASA. All other A350 customers are continuing to operate their A350 aircraft,” says an Airbus spokesperson. Al Baker declines to discuss the matter, but does say that Airbus did not have the opportunity to bid for Qatar Airways’ freighter replacement contract. In a statement in February, Qatar Airways said, "It is important to clarify that neither Qatar Airways nor its legal team is aware of any efforts by Airbus to try to resolve the situation in an amicable way; in fact, the actual situation is to the contrary," according to an AFP report.

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“When you have the fire in your belly to take on whatever challenge you have, then any difficulty will always be short lived.” tourists,” Al Baker reveals. “We want quality tourists. We want education tourism. We want cultural tourism. We want people who want to come and be secluded and be left in peace.” He paints a serene picture of a calm and luxurious destination. And as someone who has spent his career in aviation, he knows how to get people there.

Al Baker held several roles at Qatar’s Civil Aviation Directorate before taking on the role at Qatar Airways. “I never imagined that I would be catapulted into running an airline,” he remembers. At the time, Qatar had spent years serving as a stop-off for other international airlines. It decided it was time to create its own.

“We were cut off in the 90s by new technology in airplanes,” Al Baker explains. “With the advent of the 747s and the long range 767s, airlines stopped coming to us and were flying directly from the west over us to the east. It was imperative that we launch an airline to serve our interests.”

Qatar Airways was initially launched as a small regional carrier in 1994, but it was re-launched in 1997 with an international mandate when Al Baker came on board. At that time it still only had four aircraft; by 2006 it had 50. By 2011, Qatar Airways was serving 100 routes.

Then in 2014, Qatar began operations at its new Hamad International Airport, which was developed at a cost of $15.5 billion. With an initial capacity F O R B E S M I D D L E E A S T.C O M

of 30 million passengers a year, its check-in and retail areas are roughly 12 times the size of that at Doha International Airport.

Current expansion plans are to increase capacity at the airport to over 50 million passengers in time for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022.

Al Baker admits that when he was first appointed he felt there were many in the industry that doubted he could pull off the task at hand. Nearly 25 years’ later, he’s happy to have proved them wrong. However, it has also been a journey permeated with challenges. The CEO points out previous outbreaks to hit the Middle East, including SARS in the early 2000s and MERS in 2012, which had an impact on travel to the region, although none so catastrophic as the COVID-19 pandemic.

As he faces arguably one of his biggest challenges yet—preparing Qatar and its national carrier for a daunting influx of passionate football fans—Al Baker today seems pretty relaxed. “I’ve learnt a lot and I still keep learning things as a CEO,” he reasons. “When you have the fire in your belly to take on whatever challenge you have, then any difficulty will always be short lived.”

TOP 5 UNLISTED COMPANIES IN QATAR Here’s a reminder of the top 5 from Forbes Middle East’s list of the “Top 10 Unlisted Companies In Qatar” ranking, which was released in December 2021.

Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) Sector: Investments CEO: Mansoor Bin Ebrahim Al-Mahmoud

Date of establishment: 2005

With $354 billion in total assets as of November 2021, QIA is the tenth-largest sovereign wealth fund in the world, according to the Sovereign Wealth Fund Institute.

QatarEnergy Sector: Oil & Gas Deputy Chairman, President, and CEO: Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi

Date of establishment: 1974 Formerly known as Qatar Petroleum, QatarEnergy was rebranded in October 2021.

Qatar Airways Sector: Aviation Group CEO: Akbar Al Baker Date of establishment: 1997 Qatar Airways is the official sponsor of FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022.

Qatari Diar Sector: Real Estate CEO: Abdullah bin Hamad Al Attiyah

Date of establishment: 2005

Qatari Diar was founded by the Qatar Investment Authority sovereign wealth fund.

Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) Sector: Healthcare Managing Director: Hanan Mohamed Al Kuwari

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Date of establishment: 1979

HMC manages 12 hospitals, as well as the National Ambulance Service and home and residential care services.

MARCH 2022

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The Future of Programming Is Here

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U.A.E.-based IT firm, Tahaluf, is investing in the next generation of computer programming and empowering organizations through its specialized platform, Maestro.

n the last 20 years, computer programming has evolved from a secondary skill into an essential capability that touches almost all areas of life and business.

Looking ahead, the future will entail even more IT based applications, with the next 20 years bringing computer programming to the top of industry agendas.

However, the full software development life cycle is lengthy, time consuming, and sometimes difficult to manage. It requires special skills, time, and resources to produce real, successful, and operating applications.

To support organizations on their digital journeys, U.A.E.based IT company, Tahaluf, has invested in next generation computer programming. The result is Maestro: a low-code/ no-code platform specialized in streamlining the process of application development to make it simpler, easier, and more costeffective. To deliver outstanding results, Tahaluf supports Maestro with more than 100 engineers dedicated to the creation of product roadmaps and product development.

The key aims of Maestro are to allow non-programmers to create applications and reduce the time and cost of programming by up to 90%. The cloud version of Maestro, in particular, is easy to use, enabling users to start building

Yahia Alhami, CEO of Tahaluf Al Emarat

their applications after only two hours of simple online training.

With Maestro, companies can engage more businesspeople to act as citizen developers to build business applications instead of hiring big IT programming teams.

What’s more, the platform can run on any database engine on the market, including Oracle, MSSQL, MySql, Postgres, and more. This Mahmoud Akrin means it can really optimize the Founder & CEO of GoBazzar cost of operations for any business.

Maestro contains multiple components: Maestro Flow, Maestro CMS, Maestro Business Rule Engine, Maestro IOT, Maestro BI, and Maestro Form Builder.

With Maestro Flow and Maestro Rule Engine, business users can fully manage all business and processes with no or minimal programming interferences. These two Maestro components are dedicated to solving problems to help with automations through simple and straight forward steps.

Meanwhile, using Maestro Form

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Builder, users can create, manage, and maintain the forms related to their business and package them into applications before making them available as web portals or mobile applications.

With Maestro, Tahaluf looks forward to changing the world of application development, making it smoother, easier, and more accessible. Already, the platform is used by many governmental entities and businesses, and it is gaining significant traction across the GCC. Maestro is a great tool that empowers novice developers to build and manage their own applications. Adding to the benefits, Maestro helps deliver capabilities and features with improved security and sensitive rule engines, which can be maintained by business users, reducing the need to rely on technical teams.

For organizations of all shapes and sizes, Maestro is an invaluable tool for digital success. What’s more, with its powerful toolsets, development techniques, and ease of use, Maestro’s creators believe it is on course to become a world-leader in its field.

www.tahaluf.ae MARCH 2022

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• TOP 50 TRAVEL & TOURISM LEADERS •

B A S M A H A L M AY M A N

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BREAKING GROUND

Basmah Al-Mayman, Regional Director for the Middle East at UNWTO, is representing the region on a global stage for the worldwide tourism agency.

As the sector recovers from the worst global crisis it has faced in recent history, she’s spearheading change from its first-ever office in Riyadh.

BY JAMILA GANDHI F O R B E S M I D D L E E A S T.C O M

MARCH 2022

Basmah Al-Mayman, Regional Director for the Middle East at UNWTO

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F O R B E S M I D D L E E A S T.C O M

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B A S M A H A L M AY M A N

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On May 26, 2021, the Spain-headquartered United Nations World Travel Organization (UNWTO) opened its first regional office in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The Middle East’s first representative branch was established to serve as a hub for the global travel agency to coordinate policy and initiatives across its 13 member states in the region.

A series of international projects have since been introduced from the Middle East, including the Best Tourism Villages by UNWTO and the UNWTO International Tourism Academy, both of which were launched in December 2021. “Our region may not be the largest, but to be involved in launching such crucial global initiatives is a big achievement and sends a message to the world about the Middle East’s significance,” says Basmah Al-Mayman, Regional Director for the Middle East at UNWTO. In Riyadh, UNWTO has also collaborated with the World Bank Group and the Saudi Ministry of Tourism to activate a Tourism Community Initiative and work towards establishing a global Multi-Donor Trust Fund exclusively devoted to tourism. Al-Mayman is also optimistic about the role of technology adding value and is now working to increase efficiency for travelers. “We’re working to implement a common digital health solution to facilitate travelers’ experiences through interoperability and blockchain as technologies to develop a standard framework,” she explains.

“From our mountains to the seas, the Middle East presents a huge opportunity for tourism investments.”

For UNWTO Secretary-General Zurab Pololikashvili, the regional office for the F O R B E S M I D D L E E A S T.C O M

Middle East is also a step towards bringing the organization closer to its members. “From here, we will guide the growth of tourism for development across the whole region,” he reveals. “It will also deliver on two of my main priorities: innovation and youth empowerment.” Since 2018, UNWTO has collaborated with over 100 startups from the region, and in 2022 it created a startup competition with Saudi’s NEOM to foster solutions focused on deep technologies and sustainable growth.

The flow of investments into the sector is an encouraging sign. In 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, capital investment into tourism represented $65.8 billion in the Middle East, according to data from the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC). The region saw a growth of 2.6% in capital investment in travel and tourism between 2010 and 2019, compared to a 1.5% increase in Europe.

“It was nice to be the first, but it was better to do the job right.”

In 2019, the Middle East was the secondfastest growing region, behind Asia-Pacific, with travel and tourism GDP growing by 3.2%. This growth was largely driven by Saudi Arabia, the region’s largest country in terms of travel and tourism GDP, with growth reaching 11.7% in 2019. In the same year, Saudi was the fastest growing country not only in the Middle East but amongst all G20 economies.

“The Middle East does a good job at creating the right environment for investment,” says Julia Simpson, WTTC President and CEO. “Governments who are successful consider overarching incentives including smart taxation, travel facilitation policies, diversification, innovation, and the use of digital technology, integration of health and hygiene protocols, effective communication, and skilled and trained workforce, among others.”

With almost all countries opening their borders for air travel in 2021, the industry’s losses around the world hit $51.8 billion in MARCH 2022

IMAGE BY SAUDI EMBASSY IN MADRID

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becoming the first 2021, an improvement GCC national to hold of 62.38% from the a leadership role at $137.7 billion in losses UNWTO and the first recorded in 2020, woman to spearhead according to a statement the region in the by the International Air organization’s history.

Transport Association “Breaking the glass (IATA) published ceiling was not easy, in early October last but I learned from my year. As to the Middle father to never give the East specifically, IATA impression that I’m expects carriers to see the only woman in the an improvement from room,” she recalls. “It a $6.8 billion loss in was nice to be the first, 2021 to a $4.6 billion Al-Mayman with H.H. Prince Mansour bin Khalid Al Farhan Al-Saud, former but it was better to do loss in 2022. “We are Saudi ambassador to Spain. the job right.” well past the deepest Now, she’s working to support others. Given the point of the crisis. While serious issues remain, the pandemic’s hard-hitting impact on the region’s path to recovery is coming into view. Aviation is tourism jobs, Al-Mayman spearheaded the launch demonstrating its resilience yet again,” said Willie of a “Regional Report on Women in Tourism in the Walsh, IATA’s Director-General, in a statement.

Middle East” in 2020. Data indicates that women The 2022 losses are expected to reduce $11.6 billion make up 8% of people employed in tourism in the further, pushing aviation a step closer towards region, compared to 16% in the region’s overall recovery levels. economy. At a global level, 54% of people employed As a response to the pandemic, UNWTO in tourism are women compared to 39% in the established a Global Tourism Crisis Committee broader global economy. in March 2020 to guide the sector to address the crisis and build the foundations for future resilience Still, the public sector is leading the way for and sustainable growth. “With each wave of the women in leadership roles. According to 2019 pandemic, the restrictions change, but in the region UNWTO figures, 21% of regional tourism minister we still try to harmonize our procedures,” says positions were filled by women, compared to 23% Al-Mayman. “Tourists now are more demanding for worldwide. “Tourism has historically provided better services, health protocols, and seamless travel abundant opportunities for women’s empowerment planning, and that didn’t exist before.” all over the world,” Secretary-General Pololikashvili Al-Mayman would know—she began her career said in a statement. “In the Middle East, while there in tourism two decades ago, at a time when the is much progress to be made, our member states sector had no formal regional governance nor global are leading the charge. As tourism restarts, we will representation. work with them to ensure gender equality remains The daughter of a retired general and former center stage in their recovery plans, empowering diplomat, Al-Mayman was born and raised in the women to become financially independent, challenge U.S. with her three brothers. As her father worked in stereotypes, and start their own businesses.” the military, she briefly lived and studied in Jordan A raft of newly-introduced policy level initiatives and Pakistan before moving to Saudi with her such as Saudi’s Vision 2030, Egypt’s Tourism family and continuing her high school education in Reform Programme, and the U.A.E.’s Gender Riyadh. “Studying at international schools and being Balance Council further highlight the priorities a participant at the Model United Nations spurred to push for equality in workplace opportunities, my interest to pursue a job in this field,” she says. “I something UNWTO’s regional head believes will always considered myself a citizen of the world.” take law reforms, vocational training, and changing Al-Mayman joined the Saudi Supreme Commission cultural and social perspectives. “I’m proud of for Tourism as a founding member. When Saudi what we have achieved, but I’m not proud of the joined UNWTO in 2002, she was the key liaison for numbers,” says Al-Mayman. “There is a lot of work the country. In 2018, Al-Mayman created history, that has to be done.”

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he travel and tourism industry experienced a revival in 2021, following one of the worst years the sector has ever seen. As countries and people continue to emerge from the cloud of the pandemic, their increasing desire to reconnect with the world is expected to become the driving force of growth in travel throughout 2022.

Though the industry has not yet returned to pre-pandemic levels, its recovery so far has been significant. For example, Jordan’s Queen Alia International Airport welcomed 122% more passengers in 2021 than it did in 2020. And the hotel sector is also poised for growth, with Marriott International expected to open around 25 new properties in the region this year.

Some new trends have also had an impact. Working remotely has today become commonplace for many employees, with big tech companies like Twitter, Meta, and Amazon leading the way. This means that hospitality venues are being used as make-shift offices for travelers, as well as residents seeking a change in their working environment.

On the financial side, most travel companies are now favoring an asset-light approach.

The separation between the management of operations and real-estate assets now allows hospitality companies to focus on their core business.

This month we release our first ranking of the Middle East’s Top 50 Travel & Tourism Leaders. The U.A.E. dominates, with 24 leaders featured based in the emirates, followed by 11 in Saudi Arabia, and four in Egypt. The hotels and hospitality sector is the most dominant with 26 entries, followed by aviation with 17, and tourism with seven entries.

Methodology For this ranking, we included leaders that span across the entire travel ecosystem, including aviation, hotels, and destinations. All individuals had to be based in the Middle East. We ranked them based on: • Size of the business, including revenue, values of investments, and asset value.

• Ownership of assets.

• Designation of the business leader.

• Experience of the business leader.

• Degree of influence of the business leader.

• Other achievements of the business leader.

To nominate yourself or someone else for our lists, email: info@forbesmiddleeast.com

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MARCH 2022

THE MIDDLE EAST’S

Group CEO and Executive Board Member Company: Qatar Airways Group

Country: Qatar Nationality: Qatari Sector: Aviation Al Baker has been the CEO of Qatar Airways since 1997. The company recorded assets of $38.9 billion and revenues of $8.1 billion for the 2021 fiscal year, which ended March 2021. It has 36,707 employees and a fleet of 234 aircraft. In early 2022, the company announced a deal with Boeing worth over $27 billion in orders for its 777X freighter and 737-10 passenger aircraft. Al Baker has a private pilot’s license and is also the chairman of Qatar Tourism. He was also appointed chairman of the Oneworld airline alliance’s governing board in May 2021.

1. Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum Chairman and Chief Executive Company: The Emirates Group

Country: U.A.E. Nationality: Emirati Sector: Aviation Al Maktoum became the chairman of Emirates Airlines in 1985. Today, he has over 35 years of experience and oversees more than 75,145 employees. The Emirates Group recorded revenues of $6.7 billion in the first half of the 2021/22 financial year. As of March 2021, the airline was flying to 157 destinations around the world and operating a fleet of 259 aircraft. Al Maktoum is also the chairman of the boards for the Expo 2020 Dubai Higher Committee, Dubai Airports, Emirates NBD, Dubai Aerospace Enterprise, the Alliance Insurance Company, and the Dubai Supreme Council for Energy.

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2. Akbar Al Baker

MARCH 2022

3. Paul Griffiths CEO

Company: Dubai Airports

Country: U.A.E. Nationality: British Sector: Aviation Griffiths has been overseeing Dubai International Airport (DXB) since October 2007 and Dubai World Central (DWC) since 2010. DXB welcomed 29.1 million passengers in 2021 and handled 2.3 million tonnes of cargo. DXB supports over 84 airlines and 198 destinations worldwide. Before joining Dubai Airports, Griffiths was a board member for Virgin Travel Group for 14 years. He was previously the managing director of Gatwick Airport in London for more than three years.

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4. Ibrahim Koshy CEO

Company: SAUDIA

Country: Saudi Arabia Nationality: Saudi Sector: Aviation Saudi Airlines has a fleet of 144 aircraft. It aims to be flying to 200 destinations by 2030, compared to 90 in 2019, and increase passenger capacity to 85 million in 2030, compared to 35 million in 2019. Koshy has 30 years of experience in the aviation industry and also serves as a board member for regional and international aviation safety bodies.

5. Faisal Al Thani Chairman

Company: Al Rayyan Tourism Investment Company (ARTIC) Country: Qatar Nationality: Qatari

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Sector: Hotels & Hospitality Al Thani established ARTIC in 2003 as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Al Faisal Holding to manage the hospitality interests of its parent group. The company has 29 hotels in MENA, Europe, and North America, including St. Regis Washington D.C., the W Miami Hotel, and the W London Hotel. Al Thani had a net worth of $1.9 billion as of February 24, 2022.

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6. Tony Douglas Group CEO

Company: Etihad Aviation Group Country: U.A.E. Nationality: British Sector: Aviation Douglas was appointed CEO of the Etihad Aviation Group in January 2018. The U.A.E.’s national carrier has 64 operating aircraft and carried a million passengers in the first half of 2021. In October 2021, Etihad Airways announced that it had raised $1.2 billion through a sustainability-linked loan. Douglas has over 20 years of experience. Previously, he served as CEO of the Defence Equipment and Support Department at the U.K.’s Ministry of Defense, and as CEO of Abu Dhabi Airports and Abu Dhabi Ports Company.

8. Hesham Al Qassim CEO

Company: wasl Asset Management Group Country: U.A.E. Nationality: Emirati Sector: Hotels & Hospitality Founded by the Dubai Real Estate Corporation, wasl Asset Management Group holds wasl properties, wasl hospitality & leisure, and Dubai Golf as its subsidiaries. It owns and manages over 31 hotels and serviced apartments as well as five golf and yacht clubs through Dubai Golf. wasl hospitality & leisure has partnerships with Mandarin Oriental, the Hyatt Group, the Marriott Group, the Hilton Group, and Dusit Thani. Al Qassim also chairs Emirates Islamic Bank and is vice chairman and managing director of Emirates NBD. He sits on the boards of Etisalat, International Humanitarian City, and DIFC.

7. Jerry Inzerillo Group CEO

Company: Diriyah Gate Development Authority (DGDA) Country: Saudi Arabia Nationality: American Sector: Tourism Inzerillo was appointed to his current role in 2018, leading a $50.6 billion development project. In December 2021, DGDA announced 14 global hotel brands that will be opened in Diriyah, out of a planned 38. These include Address Hotels & Resorts, the Hyatt Hotels Corporation, Ritz-Carlton, Raffles, the Rosewood Hotel Group, and Oberoi Hotels & Resorts.

Inzerillo is also the vice chairman of the Forbes Travel Guide, having previously been its CEO for four years. He has nearly 50 years of industry experience and has worked with brands including One&Only Resorts, Ian Schrager Hotels, Four Seasons, and Hilton.

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9. John Pagano

Company: Red Sea Development Company

11. Mohammed Almowkley

Country: Saudi Arabia

Country: Saudi Arabia Nationality: Saudi Sector: Aviation

CEO

Company: Matarat Holding

Nationality: Canadian Sector: Tourism

Owned by Saudi’s General Authority of Civil Aviation, Matarat Holding was established in 2013 to develop and transform Saudi’s airports.

With over 24 years of experience in strategic transformation, chemical engineer Almowkley was appointed to his role as CEO in January 2022.

He was previously the CEO of Saudi’s National Water Company. In 2020, Almowkley was awarded a Best Director General Prize for a government department or institution by the Arab Government Excellence Award.

John Pagano joined the Red Sea Development as CEO in January 2018. The project is being developed over 28,000 square kilometers along Saudi Arabia’s west coast and includes an archipelago of more than 90 islands. The first phase of development is due for completion by the end of 2023, with a total of 16 hotels set to offer 3,000 hotel rooms across five islands and two inland sites. Over 700 contracts have been signed to date, worth over $5 billion.

Before joining TRSDC, Pagano headed his own company, Old Fort Capital Investments Ltd, which offered advice and services to the real estate sector.

12. Amr Abuelenein Chairman and CEO

Company: EGYPTAIR Holding Company Country: Egypt Nationality: Egyptian Sector: Aviation EGYPTAIR Holding Company has eight subsidiaries and over 29,000 employees. In 2021, EGYPTAIR signed an agreement with OEMServices for spare parts units for its fleet, and the EGYPTAIR Training Academy signed a training contract with Mazaya Consulting, Training, and Aviation Sciences Company.

10. Khalaf Ahmad Al Habtoor Founding Chairman

Company: Al Habtoor Group

Country: U.A.E. Nationality: Emirati

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Sector: Hotels & Hospitality Al Habtoor established the Al Habtoor Company in 1970 and founded Habtoor Hospitality in 1979. The company—also known as Habtoor Hotels—has a partnership with both Hilton Hotels & Resorts and Marriott International. It has over 2,844 rooms in the Middle East across the Habtoor Grand Resort, Metropolitan Hotel Dubai, Waldorf Astoria Dubai Palm Jumeirah, Habtoor Palace Dubai, V Hotel Dubai (A Curio Collection by Hilton), Hilton Dubai Al Habtoor City, and the Al Habtoor Polo Resort.

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CEO

13. Guy Hutchinson President and CEO

Company: Rotana Hotel Management Corporation (Rotana) Country: U.A.E. Nationality: British Sector: Hotels & Hospitality Hutchinson was appointed to his current role in 2020.

He has 32 years of experience and today leads 12,000 employees. The company has over 68 properties across the Middle East, Africa, Eastern Europe, and Turkey. In 2021, it announced that it was extending its footprint in Egypt by signing a management agreement with Al Marasem Development and Marina Way Lagoon. The company has 46 upcoming projects, including 10 that will deliver more than 3,000 keys to the market across Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, the U.A.E., and Turkey.

14. José Silva CEO

Company: Jumeirah Group Country: U.A.E. Nationality: Portuguese Sector: Hotels & Hospitality With more than 35 years of experience, Silva has been working as the CEO of the Jumeirah Group since March 2018. The group operates nearly 7,000 keys in nine countries with more than 10,000 employees. The Burj Al Arab is the most well-known of the group’s 25 properties. The Jumeirah Group added Jumeirah Maldives to its portfolio in 2021. It plans to also expand to Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and Bali.

15. Shareef Al Hashmi CEO

Company: Abu Dhabi Airports

Country: U.A.E. Nationality: Emirati Sector: Aviation Al Hashmi has been in his current role since 2020.

Abu Dhabi International Airport supports 103 destinations and welcomed 5.26 million passengers in 2021. It is currently building a midfield terminal building that will increase Abu Dhabi Airport’s overall capacity from 23 million passengers per year to 45 million. Al Hashmi has more than 20 years of aviation experience and has previously held roles at the Tawazun Economic Council, Presidential Flight, and Royal Jet.

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16. Mark Willis CEO Middle East & Africa, India, Pakistan, and Turkey Company: Accor Group Country: U.A.E. Nationality: British Sector: Hotels & Hospitality

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17. Kamil H. Al-Awadhi

18. Amr AlMadani

Company: International Air Transport Association (IATA)

Country: Saudi Arabia

Country : Jordan Nationality: Kuwaiti

AlMadani has been CEO of RCU since its establishment in 2017. The archaeological and cultural destination has over 5,000 hospitality keys across five heritage sites: AlUla Old Town, Dadan, Jabal Ikmah, Nabataean Horizon, and Hegra Historical City.

AlMadani is a board member for the newly established Boutique Group and is the president of the Saudi Arabian Ballooning Federation.

Previously, he was the founding CEO of the General Entertainment Authority in Saudi Arabia. He also cofounded TalentS, a Saudi-based creative learning startup.

Regional Vice President for the Middle East and Africa

Sector: Aviation

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Willis joined the Accor Group in September 2018. The company runs over 405 hotels and 87,900 rooms in the Middle East, Africa, and India, with brands including Fairmont, Orient Express, Raffles, Mantis, Movenpick, Peppers, and Hyde.

It recorded $929.3 million in global revenues in the first half of 2021. Willis was previously president of Asia for Movenpick Hotels & Resorts, which was acquired by the Accor Group in 2018. He has 30 years of global and regional experience leading hospitality companies.

Al-Awadhi has been in his current role since March 2021, reporting directly to IATA’s Director General and CEO. IATA is the trade association for the world’s airlines, representing around 290 airlines, or 83% of total air traffic. Al-Awadhi is working with governments, their agencies, and the International Civil Aviation Organization Middle East to revive the region’s aviation sector. Before joining IATA, Al-Awadhi was with Kuwait Airways for 31 years, where he held roles including COO, Deputy CEO, and CEO. F O R B E S M I D D L E E A S T.C O M

CEO

Company: The Royal Commission for AlUla (RCU) Nationality: Saudi Sector: Tourism

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19. Haitham Mattar

Managing Director of India, Middle East & Africa Company: IHG Hotels & Resorts Country: U.A.E. Nationality: Lebanese-American Sector: Hotels & Hospitality

21. Jochem-Jan Sleiffer President, Middle East, Africa & Turkey Company: Hilton

Country: U.A.E. Nationality: Dutch Sector: Hotels & Hospitality

20. Basmah Al Mayman

Regional Director for the Middle East Company: United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) Country: Saudi Arabia Nationality: Saudi Sector: Tourism Al Mayman has been leading the Middle East department for the UNWTO since 2018. The organization aims to implement the UN’s sustainable development goals across the global tourism industry. In May 2021, the UNWTO opened its first regional office in the Middle East in Riyadh. Al Mayman previously spent 17 years working at the Saudi Commission for Tourism and National Heritage.

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Sleiffer was appointed to his current role in early 2020 and has 35 years of experience. Today, he oversees 27,000 employees. Hilton has 105 properties across the Middle East and Africa, with over 31,000 rooms in total as of September 2021. It plans to more than double its portfolio in the region within three to five years, with close to 150 hotels in its Middle East & Africa pipeline, equating to over 35,000 rooms. Sleiffer previously served as senior vice president of operations for continental Europe after joining Hilton as a chief steward at Hilton Amsterdam in 1990.

22. Amine Debaghine Mesroua CEO

Company: Air Algérie Country: Algeria Nationality: Algerian Sector: Aviation

Mesroua became CEO of Air Algérie in January 2021. Founded in 1962, the airline operates a fleet of 56 aircraft, which travel to 75 destinations and carry 6.1 million passengers annually. Before becoming CEO in January 2021, Mesroua was an advisor to the former CEO.

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Mattar was appointed to his current role in April 2021. IHG Hotels & Resorts operates 167 hotels and has 112 properties in the pipeline, including 37 hotels in Saudi Arabia and five hotels in Egypt across eight brands, including InterContinental, Holiday Inn, and Staybridge Suites. In December 2021, IHG signed two management agreements: one with the Dallah Real Estate Company for a Hotel Indigo Resort in Jeddah; and one with the Pyramids Group for Urban Development for 300 rooms to open in early 2026. Mattar has over 25 years of experience and was also a senior advisor and a member of the Executive Leadership Committee for the Saudi Ministry of Tourism.

MARCH 2022

Managing Director

Company: Abdul Mohsen Al Hokair Group for Tourism and Development Country: Saudi Arabia Nationality: Saudi Sector: Hotels & Hospitality

The Abdul Mohsen Al Hokair Group for Tourism and Development manages and operates 35 hotels across Saudi Arabia and the U.A.E. with over 5,122 rooms.

It recorded $137 million in revenues for the first nine months of 2021 and had $615.6 million in total assets as of September 2021. Notable projects include Almalaz Entertainment City and Alrabwa Entertainment City. The group also owns the Ataa Center, a philanthropic channel that supports education, rehabilitation, training, and employment for Saudi youth. Sami Al Hokair is a board member for the Alhokair Group, which was founded by his father in 1978. He is also vice chairman of Saudi Airlines Catering Company and chairman of Tanami Arabia.

25. Sandeep Walia COO Middle East

Company: Marriott International

Country: U.A.E. Nationality: Indian Sector: Hotels & Hospitality Walia heads the operations of 190 functional properties. In 2021, Marriott International added 20 new properties to the region’s portfolio and is expected to open around 25 new properties in 2022. Marriott International announced more than 20 new deals in the Middle East in 2021, including one with the Red Sea Development Company to bring the St. Regis and EDITION brands to Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea Project. Walia joined the company in 2005 as area vice president for the U.A.E. before taking his current role in July 2021.

He is also a member of the Young Presidents Organization.

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23. Sami Bin Abdulmohsen AlHokair

26. Philippe Zuber CEO

Company: Kerzner International

Country: U.A.E. Nationality: French

24. Nicolas Claude CEO

Company: Airport International Group (AIG) Country: Jordan Nationality: French Sector: Aviation

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Jordan’s AIG has managed the operations of the Queen Alia International Airport (QAIA) since 2007. The airport welcomed more than 4.5 million passengers in 2021. QAIA’s contribution to Jordan’s GDP is expected to reach $5.5 billion in 2032 compared to $3.5 billion in 2019. Before becoming CEO in 2020, Claude was the COO of AIG for five years. In 2018, QAIA became the first carbon-neutral airport in the Middle East.

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Sector: Hotels & Hospitality Zuber is the current CEO and previous COO of Kerzner International, which has 13 luxury resorts across four continents, more than 4,600 hotel rooms, and over 140 restaurants.

Kerzner owns the Atlantis and One&Only brands as well as the Mazagan Beach & Golf Resort in Morocco. Projects currently under development include Atlantis Ko Olina Hawaii and the Royal Resort and Residences Dubai. Based in the U.A.E with over 20 years of experience in hospitality, Zuber was previously Emaar Hospitality’s Chief Operating Officer and Acting CEO. He joined Kerzner in 2015.

MARCH 2022

27. Hisham Talaat Moustafa CEO and Managing Director

Company: Talaat Moustafa Group Holding Country: Egypt Nationality: Egyptian Sector: Hotels & Hospitality TMG Holding owns the Four Seasons Sharm El Sheikh Resort, the Four Seasons Nile Plaza Cairo, the Four Seasons San Stefano Grand Plaza Alexandria, and the Kempinski Nile Hotel Cairo, which together have over 1,000 units.

The group is also among the biggest real estate developers in the region.

CEO

Company: Seera Group Holding

Country: Saudi Arabia Nationality: Saudi Sector: Tourism The Seera Group is a travel services provider with 42 subsidiaries across Saudi Arabia, the U.A.E., the U.K., Egypt, Kuwait, Lebanon, and Spain. It recorded over $2 billion in total assets as of December 2020, with revenues of $241 million. The group’s brands include Almosafer, Mawasim, elaa, Discover Saudi, Lumi, and tajawal.

It plans to own and operate 30 hotels by 2025. Alnefaie is also chairman of the board at the Mawasim Investment Group. He previously served as vice president of the revenue department at Makkah Construction and Development Co. and as director of Makkah Hilton Towers.

30. Adel Amin Wali Executive Managing Director

Company: Holding Company for Tourism and Hotels (HOTAC) Country: Egypt Nationality: Egyptian Sector: Hotels & Hospitality

28. Hussain Ibrahim Alfardan Chairman

Company: Alfardan Group Country: Qatar Nationality: Qatari

HOTAC is owned by the government of Egypt and has nine subsidiaries. It owns 28 hotels and resorts throughout Egypt. These include five historical hotels, such as the Winter Palace Hotel-Luxor, which was built in 1895, and the Marriott Mena House Cairo Hotel, which was built in 1869. The company recorded $178 million in revenues in the 2019/2020 financial year.

31. Mark Kirby Head of Hospitality

Company: Emaar Hospitality Group

Sector: Hotels & Hospitality

Country: U.A.E. Nationality: British Sector: Hotels & Hospitality

Alfardan established the Alfardan Group in 1954.

It expanded to include Alfardan Hospitality in 2006. Its hotels include the Marsa Malaz Kempinski, the Pearl-Doha, Kempinski Residences & Suites Doha, the St. Regis Doha, and the St. Regis Al Mouj Muscat. Alfardan also founded the Commercial Bank of Qatar, where he is the vice chairman, and he is the first deputy to the chairman at the Qatar Businessmen Association.

Kirby has been in his current role since January 2021. Emaar Hospitality Group runs 19 hotels, 14 of them in the U.A.E. Its brands include Address Hotels & Resorts, Vida Hotels and Resorts, and the Al Alamein Hotel in Egypt, as well as various leisure clubs. Kirby has 25 years of industry experience. He previously served as the general manager for the Address Hotel Downtown and the Armani Hotel Dubai.

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29. Majed Bin Ayed Alnefaie

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32. Abdulaziz Al Raisi Company: Oman Air

34. Mohamed Al Zaabi

Country: Oman Nationality: Omani

Nationality: Emirati Sector: Tourism

Sector: Aviation

Al Zaabi has been heading Miral since 2015. The company operates the DoubleTree by Hilton in Abu Dhabi, the Hilton Abu Dhabi Yas Island, and the WB Abu Dhabi, with a total of more than 1,000 rooms. Miral’s projects also cover residential, retail, and entertainment venues, including the Warner Bros Amusement Park World Abu Dhabi, Ferrari World Park, and Yas Waterworld. Al Zaabi is also on the board of directors for Farah Experiences LLC, which manages and operates entertainment experiences on Yas Island.

Al Raisi joined Oman Air in 2007 and was appointed to his current role in 2017. Oman Air travels to 48 destinations across Africa, Asia, and Europe with a fleet of 40 aircraft. In 2021 the company announced that it was expanding by adding 10 new routes to the U.S., including to New York, Los Angeles, and Washington D.C. In the same year, the company signed an agreement with EGYPTAIR. Al Raisi was previously chairman of Muscat Duty-Free.

CEO

Company: Miral Country: U.A.E.

35. Nader Ahmed Al Hammadi

Chairman Company: Abu Dhabi Aviation (ADA)

Country: U.A.E. Nationality: Emirati Sector: Aviation

33. Abdelhamid Addou Chairman and CEO

Company: Royal Air Maroc Country: Morocco

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Nationality: Moroccan Sector: Aviation Addou was appointed to his current role in February 2016.

As of 2019, the Royal Air Maroc airline traveled to 99 destinations across five continents with a fleet of 52 aircraft. In December 2020, the company announced that it was co-creating a Digital Innovation Lab with the Mohammed VI Polytechnic University in Morocco. Addou became a board member for the International Air Transport Association in 2021.

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Al Hammadi has been the chairman for ADA since 2011. The company operates and owns 58 aircraft, including 51 helicopters.

ADA recorded $1.4 billion in total assets as of September 2021 and $315.3 million in revenues for the first nine months of 2021. Al Hammadi is also chairman of Decovision and Tamouh Investments, vice chairman of the International Holdings Company, and a board member for Royal Jet, Maximus Air, Waha Capital, and other private companies. In 2017, he became a member of the Aviation Sector Development Committee.

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CEO

36. Talal Jassim Al-Bahar Chairman

Company: IFA Hotels and Resorts (IFA) Country: Kuwait Nationality: Kuwaiti Sector: Hotels & Hospitality

37. Nver Mkhitaryan Founder and Chairman

Company: Emerald Palace Group (EPG) Country: U.A.E. Nationality: Ukrainian Sector: Hotels & Hospitality F O R B E S M I D D L E E A S T.C O M

Mkhitaryan founded EPG in 2005 to design and develop the Emerald Palace Kempinski Dubai and the Kempinski Hotel & Residences Palm Jumeirah.

The Emerald Palace hotel alone has 391 rooms. In 2021, the Accor Group announced that it would be taking over the operations of the Emerald Palace Kempinski Dubai, replacing Kempinski to create Raffles The Palm Dubai, the first Raffles resort in the Middle East. Accor has also collaborated with EPG to construct the Hyde Dubai Business Bay, which is the first Hyde branded hotel outside the U.S. Mkhitaryan started his career in 1996 when he launched a private real estate development company, Poznyakizhilstroy, in Ukraine.

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Founded in 1995, IFA has 12 properties across Dubai, South Africa, and Tanzania, including the Movenpick Hotel in Jumeirah Lake Towers, the Fairmont Zimbali Resort, and Zanzibar Beach Hotel. The listed company recorded $762 million in assets and $95 million in revenues as of September 2021. Al-Bahar has over 17 years of experience in investments and real-estate development. He is also vice chairman and CEO for the Kuwait Real-Estate Company, chairman at United Investments (Portugal), and a board member for the Commercial Real-Estate Company Kuwait, Boursa Kuwait, KingdomBeirut, Miami International Holding, and the Miami Securities Exchange-MIAX.

38. Bander Almohanna

CEO and Managing Director Company: flynas

Country: Saudi Arabia

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Sector: Aviation Almohanna has over 20 years of experience and has been in his current role since 2015. He was previously CFO at the flynas Group and became the Executive Vice President of the company in 2008. Almohanna is also the chairman of the Middle East Financial Investment Company Bank and JAZL Investments.

40. Marwan Marzouk Boodai Chairman

Company: Jazeera Airways

Country: Kuwait Nationality: Kuwaiti Sector: Aviation Boodai has been with Kuwait’s Boodai Corporation since 1995.

Jazeera Airways was established by the Boodai Corporation in 2005.

It owned $677 million worth of assets as of September 2021 and recorded $156.3 million in revenues during the first nine months of 2021. The publicly-traded airline owns and operates its own terminal in Kuwait International Airport and carried over 208,000 passengers in the first half of 2021. Other Boodai brands include Al Rai TV, Al Rai newspaper, Hilal Cement, CityBus, GTC Logistics, and Boodai Trading.

39. Khalid Anib CEO

Company: Abu Dhabi National Hotels (ADNH) Country: U.A.E. Nationality: Finnish citizen of Moroccan origin

IMAGES FROM SOURCE

Sector: Hotels & Hospitality Anib was appointed to his current position in November 2016. Today, he oversees around 25,000 employees.

ADNH had $2.6 billion worth of assets as of September 2021 and a market cap of over $1 billion as of February 2022. The company added five luxury hotels to its portfolio in 2019. It owns 12 hotels in the U.A.E., including The Address Boulevard, The Address Dubai Mall, The Address Dubai Marina, Vida Downtown, the Radisson Blu Hotel & Resort Al Ain and Abu Dhabi, the Sofitel Dubai Jumeirah Beach, Le Meridien Abu Dhabi, and The Ritz-Carlton Abu Dhabi Grand Canal.

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41. Hashil Al Mahrouqi CEO

Company: OMRAN Group

Country: Oman Nationality: Omani Sector: Tourism

43. Joachim Schmitt CEO

Company: Orascom Hotels Management Country: Egypt Nationality: German Sector: Hotels & Hospitality Schmitt has been in his current role since July 2018. Orascom Hotels Management today has more than 5,235 employees across 35 operating hotels in Egypt, Oman, Switzerland, and the U.A.E. The company also has 29 hotels under development in Montenegro, Morocco, Egypt, Switzerland, and Oman. ODH, the parent company of Orascom Hotels Management reported revenues of $245.2 million in the first half of 2021. Schmitt previously worked with Kempinski, the Intercontinental, Oberoi, and Four Seasons.

42. Sultan Al-Otaibi CEO

Company: Dur Hospitality

Country: Saudi Arabia Nationality: Saudi Sector: Hotels & Hospitality Al-Otaibi has been CEO at Dur Hospitality since July 2019. The company owns Makarem Hotels Group and Shada Hotels and is in an ongoing partnership with Marriott and IHG Hotels. It owns and operates 32 properties, in addition to 15 new properties under development. Dur Hospitality recorded $920.8 million in assets as of Q3 2021 and $88.2 million in revenues for the first nine months of 2021. Al-Otaibi has been with Dur Hospitality for over 21 years, holding financial and managerial positions. He is also a member of the Joint Committee on Housing for the Saudi Commission for Tourism & National Heritage and chairman of Shada Hospitality.

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Al Mahrouqi was appointed to his current role in early 2021. The OMRAN Group has over 4,251 employees across various sectors, including five master developments, 27 hotels and resorts, and four subsidiaries. In early 2022, the group announced that it will be investing $62.3 million in opening a dusitD2 Naseem Resort. It also signed a partnership agreement with Diamond Developers in a joint venture for the development of the first phase of the Yiti Integrated Tourism Development.

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44. Nadia Zaal Co-Founder and CEO

Company: Zaya Country: U.A.E. Nationality: Emirati Sector: Hotels & Hospitality Zaya’s portfolio of projects is worth over $5 billion. It includes Zaya Nurai Private Island and the $2 billion Zaya Hotel Living Al Barari, which focuses on sustainability and conservation. Before founding Zaya, Zaal worked at the Abu Dhabi National Energy Company and was a board member for the Taweelah Asia Power Company. She is also a member of Young Arab Leaders and the Young Presidents Organization.

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46. Mohamed Awadalla CEO

Company: TIME Hotels Management

Country: U.A.E. Nationality: Egyptian-Belgian Sector: Hotels & Hospitality

45. Alison Grinnell CEO

Company: RAK Hospitality Holding Country: U.A.E. Nationality: British

IMAGES FROM SOURCE

Sector: Hotels & Hospitality Grinnell was appointed CEO of RAK Hospitality Holding in August 2019, having previously served as its CFO. The company owns four hotels and resorts in Ras Al Khaimah, including The Ritz-Carlton, the Hilton Resort and Spa, Rixos Bab Al Bahr, and the Hilton Garden Inn. It also runs several subsidiaries, including Stirling Hospitality Advisors, RAK Hospitality Logistics, RAK Leisure, and Safarak Tours. Grinnell has 25 years of experience, during which time she has worked in over 30 countries.

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Awadalla was appointed to his current role in 2012, when TIME Hotels Management was established, making him one of the co-founders. The company today operates 14 properties and 1,465 keys. In early 2021, the company announced that it would be opening its first two hotels in Egypt: a 130-room TIME Marina Hotel & Conference Centre; and a 203-key TIME Coral Resort Nuweiba. It also announced eight new properties across the Middle East and a 120-key TIME Phoenix Hill in Mauritius. Awadalla has over 38 years of experience. He previously held roles for Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts, Hilton International, Rotana Hotels, and Layia Hospitality Management.

47. Khalifa Bin Braik

Hotels Managing Director

Company: Majid Al Futtaim Properties Country: U.A.E. Nationality: Emirati Sector: Hotels & Hospitality

Braik has been with Majid Al Futtaim since 2010 and has over 15 years of experience in real estate and hospitality. He assumed his current role in February 2019. He’s also a board member for Enova by Veolia.

MARCH 2022

48. Alexander Suski Acting CEO

Company: Ishraq Hospitality

Country: U.A.E. Nationality: Belgian Sector: Hotels & Hospitality Suski was named acting CEO of Ishraq Hospitality in June 2021.

The company is the hospitality arm of the Mohamad and Obaid Almulla Group, which owns seven hotels and over 2,000 hotel rooms under the Crown Plaza, Holiday Inn, and Staybridge Suites brands. Suski was previously associate vice president of sales and marketing for Millennium Hotels and Resorts in MEA.

49. Adel Mardini

Company: Jetex Country: U.A.E.

50. Ali Abdullah Al-Selham

Nationality: Turkish

Country: Saudi Arabia Nationality: Saudi

Sector: Aviation

Sector: Hotels & Hospitality

Mardini founded Jetex in 2005. The company offers jet services, including terminals and fuel, concierge services, trip planning and support, and ground handling.

It has 34 private jet terminals around the world. Mardini began his career working at Damascus International Airport. Today, he oversees 750 people.

Al-Selham was appointed to his current role in April 2021. The Tourism Enterprise Company recorded $19.5 million in assets and $3.3 million in revenues in the first nine months of 2021. It had a market cap of $237.9 million as of February 2022. Al-Selham has over 19 years of experience in banking services, operations, financial control, investment, and internal auditing. He is also a member of the Saudi Organization for Certified Public Accountants.

Founder and CEO

F O R B E S M I D D L E E A S T.C O M

CEO

Company: The Tourism Enterprise Company - Shams

MARCH 2022

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PRO M OTI O N Scan this QR code to open the website

Banking: The Digital Dimension Olivier Crespin, Co-founder and CEO of Zand, explains what it takes to build a successful digital bank.

What are the core only be fulfilled by foundations when it having a digitally comes to creating native bank that can and operating a connect with the digital bank? ecosystem, facilitate The core focus financial transactions, should be on the and scale and mindset shift, where leverage analytics. we don’t treat the Also, customers digital bank as a now want things to bank but instead as be more accessible a digital platform—so and simpler, and essentially a platform the pandemic has with a banking accelerated their license. This mindset adoption of all things shift is enabled digital. They want to Ashar Nazim, Group CEO of Aion Olivier Crespin, CEO of Zand by a fine balance be recognized by the between the DNA of banking bank serving them too, and to be many opportunities that present and the DNA of digital. It’s enabled with the best products themselves with time. In the case important to blend financial tailored to their needs. of Zand, if we cannot provide a expertise, risk management, fully digital version of the product, With many traditional banks compliance, regulation, and we simply don’t do it. trying to transform into digital security, with customer-centricity, banks, how is Zand going to the latest technologies, native What are the right things to maintain its advantages? data platforms, and advanced consider when choosing a fintech We understand the ecosystem and analytics. Finally, people who partner like Aion? have built innovative products have banking experience but First, you must decide what will be serving individuals and SMEs. who are eager to challenge the entirely owned by you and what Zand was created as a platform, status quo as well as people with a will be outsourced. It makes sense so we’re ready to connect to the technology background can be a to partner with people who have ecosystem and be there for our valuable asset. already taken their time to build clients when they need us. Our and optimize a solution, and that’s front-to-back digital products, As the co-founder and CEO of when we usually look for fintechs. scalability, and uninterrupted digital banking platform, Zand, It’s about business integration and customer experience set us what are the main challenges that having a shared vision of success apart. We also understand the you face? and growth. Also, it’s important importance of the human element; The first significant challenge to feel you can go to the partner our clients will still be able to is to avoid building a legacy, as team directly for support. With contact us even though we’re legacy structures hinder scale and large organizations, you don’t digital. evolution. Here, it is important always have that access. to make sure that the structure and technology used are always How do you see the future of reversible. the digital banking industry, The second challenge is to especially in the Middle East?

Countries in the Middle East have remain true to your strategy, a potent digital agenda that can mission, and vision despite the www.zand.ae The expressed inOthis F O Rthoughts BESMIDD L E E A S T.C M advertorial are those of the client.

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FREIGHT EXPECTA F O R B E S M I D D L E E A S T.C O M

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FLEXPORT CEO RYAN PETERSEN BECAME THE SELF-APPOINTED FACE OF SUPPLY-CHAIN SOLUTIONS IN 2021

BY THINKING OUTSIDE THE CONTAINER. NOW HIS $8 BILLION STARTUP NEEDS TO PROVE IT’S MORE THAN JUST SILICON VALLEY HYPE.

TIONS

BY ALEX KONRAD

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PHOTOGRAPHY BY JAMEL TOPPIN FOR FORBES MARCH 2022

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As

THE FERRY TO SAN FRANCISCO EXITS OAKLAND'S HARBOR, FLEXPORT'S FOUNDER AND CEO, RYAN PETERSEN, TURNS TO WATCH A TOWERING 370-FOOT CRANE HOOK SHIPPING CONTAINERS, ONE BY ONE, ONTO THE DECK OF A CARGO SHIP.

Fund, Yuri Milner and Masayoshi Son, Flexport was founded in 2013 to automate paper customs forms. It now does much more, helping customers like Georgia-Pacific (Brawny paper towels, Angel Soft toilet paper), baby food giant Gerber and speaker maker Sonos handle all the headaches of shipping inventory from factory to warehouse to store. Flexport’s software analyzes and optimizes a customer’s supply chain, then automates it, often coming up with ways to shave days off delivery and save customers millions in late fees. Flexport’s centralized tracking and messaging cut out thousands of emails, saving clients an average of four work hours per week. For a price, Flexport will even offset their carbon footprint.

Shipping is a huge pond. Global spending on logistics reached $9 trillion in 2020, about 11% of the world’s gross domestic product, according to consultancy Armstrong & Associates. Third-party logistics, of which freight forwarding is a big part, amounts to nearly $1 trillion.

In the U.S., it’s a $230 billion business, good for 14% of national GDP. Demand is at a record high—global trade volumes rose 8.3% in 2021, according to Allianz subsidiary Euler Hermes. Americans spent 20% more on goods last fall than in February 2020.

Supply can’t keep up. Goods from China to the U.S.

Petersen admires the neat rows of rectangles colored blue, rust red and an occasional teal, stacked on the postPanamax-class ship bound for Yokohama, Japan.

“I wish I could look inside with a HoloLens to see which containers are Flexport’s,” he says, imagining that Microsoft’s augmented-reality glasses had an X-ray feature.

“Any container ship on the West Coast, I guarantee we are on there.” It sounds like bravado, but for Petersen, 41, it’s simple math. Flexport owns no trains, planes or ships of its own. But as one of the fastest-growing players in a space called digital freight forwarding, Petersen’s eight-year-old company is already the world’s seventh-biggest buyer of cargo room on such trans- Pacific routes. Pretty much any Asia-bound ship will have at least a container or two filled with California almonds or auto parts put there by Flexport’s software.

Backed by some of Silicon Valley’s most prominent VCs and tech billionaires, including Peter Thiel’s Founders F O R B E S M I D D L E E A S T.C O M

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he’d already be there, worth just over $1.1 billion.)

But Petersen doesn’t want to be seen as a pandemic profiteer, getting rich as his customers pay unprecedented prices. He’d rather be seen as shipping’s Mr. Fix-It. Flexport is combing through customer data trying to fill each precious container more completely (most ship only 70% full). It’s rerouting lighter, highervalue products like Everlane’s popular sweaters from sea to air. It helped set up a private rail ramp in Iowa for goods coming from the West Coast to avoid Chicago congestion. For businesses facing inventory crunches, it built an app for truckers to tap into and learn where they’ll be needed 10 days in advance.

Petersen also hasn’t been shy about building his public image. Early in lockdown, he sent hundreds of thousands of units of personal protective equipment to Wuhan, China—then set his team to routing much more back when the virus reached U.S. shores, booking special planes to ship masks by the millions while rallying the public to donate funds. When a ship ran aground in the Suez Canal last March, Petersen demystified the situation on social media and in interviews, even publishing a supply chain explainer picture book for kids. And when the backup of ships waiting to unload at major ports reached a breaking point last fall, it was Petersen who showed up at the Port of Long Beach in California to charter a boat and tweet what he saw,

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now take more than a month longer to arrive than they did in 2019, while the cost of shipping a container has soared from under $2,000 pre-pandemic to more than $20,000 last summer (the current price is around $15,000). Average folks who never gave a thought to the global supply chain are paying attention now. An Oracle survey of 1,000 U.S. adults found that 87% reported being negatively affected by shipping struggles; half said they’d canceled an order in recent months.

For Flexport, it all means business is booming. Sales reached $3.3 billion in 2021, up from $1.3 billion in 2020 and $670 million the year before (Flexport passes about 80% of its revenue directly to its shipping partners). Last year, the San Francisco–based rm generated its first profit, posting net income of $37 million.

No surprise, then, that powerful investors keep piling in.

The newest: Andreessen Horowitz, the prominent venture capital rm that joined Founders Fund, e-commerce standout Shopify and others in arming Petersen with a fresh $900 million war chest at an $8 billion valuation in January. Forbes estimates Petersen’s 9% stake in Flexport is worth $650 million, after our standard 10% privatecompany discount. Add in a prolific angel investment portfolio and part ownership of a pro table side business, and he’s closer to $750 million, knocking on the door of billionaire status. (If Forbes valued Petersen’s stake using the price of Flexport shares on the secondary markets,

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prompting a viral response including a call from Governor Gavin Newsom and an overnight policy change to stack containers higher in local yards. To insiders in the famously quiet logistics industry, each interview and TV appearance is more testament to Petersen’s opportunism than market leadership.

One vocal critic frequently refers to Petersen in dismissive LinkedIn posts as “Private Ryan.” “[Flexport has] made a lot of enemies in the space,” says a veteran industry exec who didn’t want to be named for fear of losing business with Petersen.

But no one can dispute Petersen’s efficacy. “Every crisis needs a hero, and Ryan Petersen positioned himself as the face of this,” concedes Craig Fuller, who runs an industry data-and-news site called Freight Waves. “He engages where a lot of executives won’t. It’s what the public wanted to see.” As Petersen positions Flexport to go on offense when the shipping world returns (soon, one hopes) to some semblance of normalcy, he’s eager to silence the doubters. “If we can fix problems for Flexport, we can fix problems for the wider world,” he says. “We have a chip on our shoulders. People should believe in us.”

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ETERSEN GREW UP surrounded by entrepreneurs in Bethesda, Maryland, just inside D.C.’s Capital Beltway. His mother, a biochemist, rana business helping companies manage food safety regulations. His father was a government economist, using 1970s-era computers to crunch numbers on Soviet defense spending and running a coding business on the side. Petersen’s older brother David stayed up all night building and managing an early online video-game community. Ryan preferred studying abroad in Spain and volunteering in El Salvador.

Graduating trilingual (English, Spanish and Portuguese) with an economics degree from the University of California, Berkeley, in 2002, Petersen initially pursued a global microlending career without success. So, he went to work for David, buying trinkets from China to resell, such as gag driver’s licenses made out to “Elvis Presley.” After flipping a container of scooters for a pro t on eBay, they moved upmarket to motorsports bikes and parts. Petersen moved to China in 2005 for two years to source the product firsthand.

That work helped inspire the brothers’ next business, a search engine of global shipping manifests they built with David’s college roommate while Ryan was attending Columbia Business School. Bootstrapped and pro table within a couple years, ImportGenius.com still generates millions in cash to this day. But the duo had bigger ambitions. And when David was accepted into Y Combinator in 2013 for a construction industry–focused startup, Ryan grabbed an air mattress and tagged along.

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“EVERY CRISIS NEEDS A H E R O , A N D R YA N P E T E R S E N POSITIONED HIMSELF AS T H E FA C E O F T H I S .

HE ENGAGES WHERE A LO T O F E X E C U T I V E S W O N ’ T. I T ’ S W H AT T H E P U B L I C WA N T E D T O S E E.” The gate-crashing younger Petersen made a lasting impression on Paul Graham, the accelerator’s cofounder, who had an interest in global trade. For years, Petersen had tinkered with another idea, a “TurboTax for customs paperwork,” but he needed to clear a rigorous background check (smuggling is one concern) to move goods across the U.S. border. Finally approved in March 2013, he pitched his startup idea, Flexport, onstage to Graham at a 2,000-person event that October. Petersen was accepted into YC’s 2014 batch as one of the last founders under Graham’s direct mentorship. He quickly stood out. With a seemingly massive market opportunity and an obvious passion for what seemed a sleepy category, Flexport quickly raised $4 million from a gaggle of name-brand firms. Reddit cofounder Alexis Ohanian, then a YC partner, invested alongside Forbes Midas List star Garry Tan. “It was such a valuable industry and so very undesirable for product builders,” Ohanian says. “No 21-year-old in college is lying awake at night saying, ‘I need to build the next Flexport.’”

Petersen suddenly needed to deliver Silicon Valley– style hypergrowth. Customs had high margins, but at $99 per transaction wouldn’t amount to enough.

What customers wanted, Petersen realized, was an online destination that handled customs and their bigger concern: freight forwarding. Incumbents still relied heavily on sending faxes or PDFs back and forth, or “freight email forwarding.” Within a few months, Flexport had stitched together a working cloud-based version of its software. By the time Thiel and Founders Fund led a $20 million Series A investment in Petersen in 2015, Flexport was billing itself as a new-look digital freight forwarder. Shipping underwent one of its periodic global crises not long after, when the world’s seventh-largest shipping line declared bankruptcy and

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PORT OF OAKLAND BY NOAH BERGER/AP

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had ships seized in Chinese ports amid a pricing crash.

The turmoil was good for Flexport—it won business simply by reliably showing up. But it was also a warning: Disruption to trade with China could devastate Flexport’s core business.

So when Thiel announced his public support for Donald Trump, who was championing big new China tari s during his presidential campaign, Petersen committed a startup sin.

Asked onstage at a June 2016 conference if he would still take Thiel’s money knowing he’d support a politician tough on China trade, Petersen spoke from the hip.

“Probably not, actually. It depends how desperate we were.” Soon he was on the phone with Thiel to explain himself. The damage control worked. A few months later, Thiel stepped up to invest again—at a more generous price.

By that point, it was clear to Petersen that while Flexport was growing fast, the logistics market wasn’t one where a hard-charging newcomer could sweep the board. “It’s not one of those things where you have a product or you don’t,” says Founders Fund’s Trae Stephens. “It’s death by 1,000 cuts.”

But as Flexport’s revenue doubled past $200 million, then $400 million, and Petersen kept spending to launch offices in ports from Hamburg to Shenzhen, he caught the eye of the world’s leading expert on bruteforcing one’s way to dominant market share: SoftBank.

In January 2019, Petersen sat down to close a deal with Masayoshi Son; 45 minutes later, he walked away with a F O R B E S M I D D L E E A S T.C O M

$1 billion commitment.

“That year, any team’s request for headcount, they got whatever they asked,” Petersen says. But three days after the second half of the money was wired, SoftBankbacked WeWork released its ill-fated public offering prospectus. WeWork’s larger-than-life cofounder Adam Neumann was out in matter of weeks. Son’s $10 billion investment was on life support.

For Petersen, the ground shifted fast. Having already spent the First of SoftBank’s $500 million, he realized he needed to shift course. The chartered planes stopped.

Flexport would try to become a pro table business now.

Much damage had already been done. Flexport’s aggressive fundraising—it has secured more than $2 billion to date—meant dilution for Petersen personally, who today owns just 9% of his company despite having no cofounders. And in February 2020, when Covid-19 shutdowns in China started to reverberate through the supply chain, Petersen panicked.

He let go of 50 staffers, about 3% of Flexport’s work force. Reporters looking for a wider trend among SoftBank companies pounced. The cuts were also ineffective, crushing employee morale for minimal savings. Petersen calls it his biggest mistake as a CEO so far.

As the pandemic widened, though, Flexport’s bruised leader and workforce quickly found purpose. Petersen had launched the project of which he’s proudest, the nonprofit arm Flexport.org, back in 2017 to provide discounted freight to nongovernmental organizations

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and help nonprofits ship donated inventory. Early on, the unit shipped 350,000 masks from the U.S. to Wuhan. When the virus reached Flexport’s backyard, it scrounged up tens of thousands more to reroute to local hospitals. Soon a team of 25 staff in China was sourcing PPE for Flexport’s relief e orts full-time.

Petersen started chartering planes again, this time for a good cause. “I don’t think we took a deep breath for three months,” he says.

F

LEXPORT AND ITS MARKET looked very different this past October when Petersen had dinner with Stripe cofounder and CEO Patrick Collison. Over 2021, Flexport blew away its own projections, turning a surprise pro t as revenue doubled. (The company doesn’t expect to stay in the black as it invests in growth.) But with the source of that money coming from customers paying through the nose and still facing shipping delays, Petersen wasn’t celebrating. Collison was curious how the backup at California’s ports compared to mysterious bottlenecks in his world of online payments. Petersen realized he didn’t really know. So he flew down to Los Angeles to see for himself. The day after his chartered boat tour of the Long Beach harbor, Petersen shared his findings on Twitter.

He outlined some quick fixes, including stacking containers higher and building a new railhead.

Petersen’s thread was quickly retweeted more than 15,000 times, including by Coinbase billionaire CEO Brian Armstrong. Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia sent the list to his staff; the city eased restrictions on stacking containers the next day. Petersen’s phone lit up with calls from policymakers like Gavin Newsom.

Crews from Axios on HBO and 60 Minutes asked him to guide them on their own harbor tours.

For Flexport, it was a marketing masterstroke, though Petersen swears that wasn’t his intent.

For most everyone else in the logistics business, it was exasperating. “When Ryan Petersen does his interviews, people in the industry typically get upset because he tends to simplify things a lot. He appears sometimes uninformed,” says Rob-ert Khachatryan, who founded the 55-person freight forwarder Freight Right Global Logistics in greater Los Angeles in 2007.

Container stacking had limited impact, Khachatryan says. Petersen’s bolder proposals, such as the creation of a government-sponsored railhead depot, remain untouched. “There isn’t a silver bullet for this.” The notion that Petersen hasn’t earned his stripes runs deeper than all the good press he gets. For years, skeptics have argued that Flexport’s software does little that you can’t nd today in competitors’ o erings F O R B E S M I D D L E E A S T.C O M

big and small. Walk into the of- ces of Flexport and Expeditors, a 40-year-old publicly traded freight forwarder with a market cap of about $19 billion, then strip away all the corporate logos and branding, and you’d see that the operations look exactly the same, they claim. Six years ago, they were mostly right. “That’s just the reality of being a new company in such a big, complicated business,” says Ben Braverman, a longtime Flexport executive and Petersen con dant. Customers choose Flexport not because Petersen reinvented the wheel but because its one-stop software suite simpli es their lives. Take San Francisco–based shoemaker Rothy’s, a Flexport customer since 2017. Flexport manages the shipping of 25 products from a factory in China to two hubs in California and Kentucky and o sets their carbon footprint. But it’s Flexport’s visibility tools that allow marketers and store managers to know when to expect new shipments that’s really valuable, says Rothy’s COO, Heather Skidmore Howard.

“I would give both of us an A+ in terms of delivery in a really challenging year,” she says.

Flexport is currently testing a new freemium service it will launch this year, one that provides free visibility, carbon tracking and messaging to users even if they don’t run freight with Flexport. Petersen also plans to build out a fulfillment product that can identify highpriority goods—say, for direct-to-consumer brands— and ship them faster through a virtual “HOV lane.”

“Flexport is the definitive next-gen winner in the space, full stop,” says David George, a growth-stage investor who co-led Flexport’s latest round on behalf of Andreessen Horowitz. “They have all these ways to win,” he adds. Petersen agrees: “I call our sales process like playing Battleship. You don’t sink the battleship with one pin.” Of course, the doubters still doubt.

“Visibility is a solution to a problem that shouldn’t exist,” says Adam Banks, the former chief technology and information o cer for Maersk, the world’s secondlargest ocean carrier, with $40 billion in annual revenue. To hear him tell it, Maersk and its peers own the containers; they’ll want to own the data too, not give it up to Petersen. Others question whether it’ll be Flexport that will win. One challenger with momentum is Chicago-based project44, a pure logistics data play which raised $420 million in January at a $2.6 billion valuation. Lots of people would rather work with project44’s “Switzerland” rather than a brash competitor like Flexport, CEO Jett McCandless argues.

Petersen is used to the sniping by now. “Our industry thinks I’m a clown, which I don’t mind,” he says. “I need to continue to convince them that I’m crazy so they don’t get their act together and compete with us.”

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• HOTEL REVIEW •

By Fouzia Azzab

Sheraton Maldives Full Moon

Pamper your senses and rejuvenate your mind and body in the Maldives, a haven of sunny beaches, tranquility, and meditation.

I

I’ve always dreamt of spending a honeymoon in a romantic and magical place like the Maldives, but I would never have thought that I would go there with one of my friends instead. We set off on a journey to discover the enchanting beauty of these islands located in the southwest of India, with their F O R B E S M I D D L E E A S T.C O M

natural sceneries and marine gateways. Excited for an adventure to escape the stress of work and the ongoing fears of COVID-19, we chose the Sheraton Maldives Full Moon Resort & Spa, the third largest resort in the Maldives.

Journey Our flight took about three and a half hours before we arrived at Velana International Airport in Malé, the capital of the Maldives. It was crowded with travelers from all over the world, but we got through easily and found one of the resort staff waiting for us to accompany us the rest of the way.

The weather was beautiful at around 28 degrees, and MARCH 2022

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the sky was like a painting decorated with scattered clouds, unlike anything we had seen before. We also found that booking a resort near the airport was a good idea, as we avoided the seaplane and instead had a comfortable 20-minute boat trip, which we spent taking selfies.

IMAGE BY SHERATON MALDIVES

Accommodation The joy of breathing in the ocean air surrounded by the blue waters was only the beginning of our unforgettable trip to the luxury resort, which sits on a private island in an atoll north of Malé, surrounded by a turquoise lagoon, sandy beaches, and swaying palm trees. As soon as we arrived, we received a warm welcome. The resort staff served us a delicious tropical drink and explained the various activities that the Sheraton Maldives has to offer.

The resort is the third eldest in the Maldives, dating back to 1973, although it has undergone major renovations since then. The staff took us on tour around the resort, which offers 176 guest rooms, including beach cottages and water villas, most of which are equipped with private plunge pools. We chose two water villas overlooking the ocean, each with a king-size bed, wooden rooftops, outdoor deck, private pool, and a large bathroom.

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This is all you need to relax, far away from the hustle and bustle of the nearest city. Waking up to the sound of the waves crashing into the lower pillars of the villa was an indescribable feeling. It’s as if you are on a ship cruising the Indian Ocean. Every morning I would sit for a while, admiring the sea view in front of me as I lay on the bed. Although we each had our own villa, my friend and I were neighbors throughout our stay at the resort, sharing music and relaxing together.

Activities As soon as we arrived, we took a dip in the turquoise water of the ocean under the warm sunlight. The weather was so nice, we later took a walk around the island to see more of its wonderful charm, but I spotted one of the island’s large lizards strutting by the side of the road, and I was so terrified we finished our little tour. However, the resort offers a lot more activities than just gentle walking. It underwent a $20 million renovation in 2018, with facilities upgraded to include seven restaurants and bars, two swimming pools, and a tennis court. During our stay, we exercised in the fitness club and enjoyed a personal yoga session, as well as a swim in the resort’s tropical pool. The weather was beautiful throughout our stay, which made it possible F O R B E S M I D D L E E A S T.C O M

for us to try all the offered activities within our program.

And when we didn’t have any scheduled activities, my friend and I would spend our time meditating, reading, and listening to music.

The ocean and its marine life are vital to the Maldivian ecosystem and the islands. The North Male Atoll is home to over 40 world-class diving points, all of which are easily accessible from the Sheraton Maldives resort. One afternoon we had an educational session at the resort on how it’s regrowing parts of its coral reef with Emily, a member of the marine biologists’ team, Reefscapers. The resort’s coral plans are a milestone in the island’s coral propagation initiative, which started in February 2020. It has succeeded in transplanting over 5,619 coral fragments from 15 different species of corals to date. When we were done, we took a snorkeling tour and explored the vibrant coral reefs, seeing different types of marine life, including blacktip reef sharks, spotted eagle rays, and batfish. Later that day, we set out on a sunset cruise, seeing dolphins and baby sharks swimming around the neighboring islands.

When we needed to relax and rejuvenate, we headed to Shine Spa. The spa room was open to the sea, giving you the feeling of being on the beach. We chose a back and neck massage, but the sounds of the crashing waves MARCH 2022

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The Sheraton Maldives Full Moon Resort & Spa has succeeded in transplanting over 5,619 coral fragments from 15 different species of corals to date.

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nearly lulled us to sleep.

One night the resort decided to throw a local beachside party with a performance by a Maldivian group dressed in traditional Indian attire. We all enjoyed the fast rhythms of the music, and some of the audience danced along in groups or with their children.

IMAGE BY SHERATON MALDIVES

Dining The resort offers a range of cuisines across its seven restaurants and bars. We had breakfast at the Feast restaurant, which had a modern tropical design and a Cajun thatch coconut roof, in a lively setting with livecooking stations.

The Anchorage Bar on the edge of Anchorage Beach was perfect for a snack as we watched the mesmerizing sunsets and enjoyed the fascinating magical colors while lying on comfortable day beds. We drank juices and enjoyed delicacies such as traditional pizzas and pasta from its Mediterranean menu. We also had the opportunity to dine with some Latin music rhythms by one of the local bands while we tried the signature cocktails and delicious juices.

For dinner, the Sea Salt restaurant offers a romantic candlelit setting, where we had the Seafood Furanafushi—a classic seafood dish. One night we F O R B E S M I D D L E E A S T.C O M

dined at the Masala Hut, which serves a traditional blend of North and South Indian cuisine, in the open air by the beautiful lake. Besides a number of vegetarian options, it also serves classic dishes like chicken tikka with a delicious array of flavors. Another evening we decided to try the Baan Thai restaurant, which serves local seafood and vegetables from the island, mixed with Thai ingredients, such as coconut, pandan, and lemongrass.

One afternoon, the resort prepared us a special lagoon lunch experience in the water, a few steps from the beach, with a variety of dishes, including fish tacos and chocolate jalapeno ice cream. Then, on our last day, we tried the ChopstiX restaurant, which was the perfect place for a late lunch or early dinner as our flight back was in the evening. We tried dumplings, noodles, and other delicious Asian dishes near the pool.

Final thoughts At last, we left the Sheraton Maldives Resort, and the smiles of the staff did not leave their faces as we said our goodbyes. But we took with us unforgettable memories of this dream holiday, giving us the energy needed to face the challenges of the coming days with hope and optimism.

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Building The Future Summit 2022

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Tariq Chauhan

Chris Wan

Mazen Issam Hawwa

Group Chief Executive

Head, Design Management

Vice-Chairman and Group CEO

EFS Facilities Services

Masdar City

United Real Estate Company K.S.C.P (URC)

Kez Taylor

Ramia Farrage

Chief Executive Officer

Senior Producer and Presenter

ALEC Engineering & Contracting

Forbes Middle East

The Post Covid Future Of The Real Estate & Construction Sector In The Middle East

Forbes Middle East’s Building The Future Summit 2022 The real estate and construction sector in the Middle East was going through a transformation phase before the outbreak of the pandemic two years ago. However, the pandemic presented an opportunity for the sector to accelerate digitalization for healthier and safer buildings.

S

ustainability and digitalization are at the core of a major shift currently underway in the real estate and construction sector as the focus on renewable energy, net-zero economies, and infrastructure gains momentum.

Forbes Middle East held its second annual Building the Future Summit in January, bringing together industry leaders from across the region to discuss the opportunities and the way forward for the Middle East’s real estate sector.

F O R B E S M I D D L E E A S T.C O M

The real estate and construction sector postpandemic The first panel, moderated

by Ramia Farrage, Senior Producer and Presenter, Forbes Middle East, centered on the unprecedented impact of the pandemic on the real estate sector and the emerging need for sustainability. Speakers were: Mazen Issam Hawwa, Vice-Chairman and Group CEO at the United Real Estate Company; Kez Taylor,

CEO of ALEC Engineering & Contracting; Tariq Chauhan, Group CEO of EFS Facilities Services; and Chris Wan, Head of Design Management for Masdar City.

Hawwa started by noting that real estate is a continuously learning industry. “There is no doubt that 2021 was one of the most challenging years for the real estate and construction sector,” he said while adding that the impact of the pandemic on the real estate sector in the MARCH 2022

Virtual Event Coverage region presented challenges that were multifaceted, from financial to operations as well as supply chain disruptions. Hawwa also explained how operational costs in the construction sector had increased by as much as 6% in 2021 alone, a situation that has prompted property developers and other industry players to find ways to address these challenges.

Taylor spoke broadly on how sustainable buildings, which used to be a novelty 10 years ago, are becoming the norm.

“Going into the future, I think property developers need to fully align with the objectives of the sustainable development goals (SDGs),” he said. Collectively, real estate and construction players in the Middle East are trying to reduce their carbon emissions footprint by 50% over the next five years. Property developers in the region are seeking ways to measure carbon emissions as the first step to achieve their net-zero carbon emissions target, but “I don’t think it is a standardized method at the moment,” said Taylor.

Asked about the outlook in light of emerging trends such as sustainability, Taylor said that people have come to realize that the U.A.E. is a desirable place to live, thanks to the country’s forward-thinking, innovative leadership, and great infrastructure. In line with global trends, Taylor projected an increase in urbanization and continued population growth while noting that for property developers, the major challenge will be how to deliver projects that meet the requirements of future generations.

From a designer perspective, Wan said that a simple approach in dealing with sustainability is often the best approach. “You F O R B E S M I D D L E E A S T.C O M

instinctively know when you walk into a building from the lighting, the air circulation, and experience that this is a sustainable project, and that is what I see shaping the future of sustainable properties going forward,” he explained. Wan also highlighted that with a better understanding of the relationship between space and people, especially with a lot of people working from home due to the ongoing pandemic, a healthy mind is important.

Chauhan noted that as facilities management services providers, companies like EFS are at the receiving end, given that they take control of a property after construction has been finished. He noted that sometimes the properties that are being built do not “meet the standards in context to the new specifications that were established at the COP26 last October.” To ensure that the new standards are not compromised, Chauhan said that facilities management follows either regional or global standards while noting that the sector is still facing challenges in ensuring compliance with sustainable development goals when it comes to the use of certain types of chemicals and machines.

When it comes to issues like energy sustainability, facilities management firms have limited control.

Hospitality and tourism in the new normal The second panel discussed how the tourism industry has been impacted by COVID-19 and the future outlook for the industry. Moderated by Daniyal Baig, Forbes Middle East’s COO, the panel featured: Basmah Al-Mayman, Regional Director of

the Middle East at UNWTO; Jerry Inzerillo, CEO of the Diriyah Gate Development Authority (DGDA); Sherif Beshara, Group CEO of Mohamed & Obaid Almulla Group of Companies; and Filip Boyen, CEO of Forbes Travel Guide.

Al-Mayman began by highlighting initiatives created by the UNWTO to support postpandemic recovery, such as the UNWTO Global Tourism Crisis Committee. “With each wave of the pandemic, the restrictions change, but in the region, we still try to harmonize our procedures,” she said.

Adding to the discussion on the regional tourism sector recovery, Beshara brought in the perspective of hotel owners, crediting the support of the local government in Dubai and the U.A.E. as instrumental to the hospitality sector during the pandemic. He stressed the dual importance of vision and planning.

Inzerillo agreed with Beshara on the importance of leadership in handling the pandemic, highlighting the “phenomenal” and “steady” leadership across the Gulf region. In Saudi Arabia, under King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, “We were lucky to have that continuity of dynamic leadership,” said Inzerillo.

Boyen noted travelers wanted a human connection and to feel safe and truly cared for.

“Maintaining service standards is going to be the key going forward because let’s not forget, after the frustration and the isolation that all the travelers have experienced over the last few years, they want to feel again,” he added.

The panelists spoke about how they were adopting new trends and implementing digital MARCH 2022

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Building The Future Summit 2022

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Jerry Inzerillo

Basmah Al-Mayman

Filip Boyen

Chief Executive Officer

Regional Director of the Middle East

Chief Executive Officer

Diriyah Gate Development Authority (DGDA)

UNWTO

Forbes Travel Guide

Sherif Beshara

Daniyal Baig

Group Chief Executive Officer

Chief Operating Officer

Mohamed & Obaid Almulla Group of Companies

Forbes Middle East

Hospitality & Tourism In The New Normal innovation to enhance the visitor experience. Inzerillo said DGDA updated its technology during the pandemic. “We’ve spent a lot of time analyzing roads, electric vehicles…the UNESCO site and Diriyah are planning 40,000 parking spots, all underground, all carbon-neutral. So we’re ready to open up guest experience in a very beautiful and diversified country,” he revealed.

However, Boyen added that while technology can be leveraged to offer a more seamless guest experience: “Luxury hospitality will always be about high-touch rather than high-tech.”

Al-Mayman offered her thoughts from the guest’s perspective. “When you are a tourist now, you are more demanding for better services, health protocols…and that didn’t exist before.”

Beshara pointed out the F O R B E S M I D D L E E A S T.C O M

connection between staff and guests to ensure customer service. “The important element of personal service is a personal touch. Your staff should be happy before passing the happiness to your guest,” he said. “Employees should be knowledgeable, and their language should reflect their community, their behavior, their uniforms…all of this helps.”

Is sustainable financing the way forward?

The event’s third panel, moderated by Forbes Middle East Managing Editor, Claudine Coletti, focused on the shift towards more sustainable financing and adopting the principles of environmental, social, and governance criteria (ESG).

Speakers were: Richard Attias, CEO of the Future Investment Initiative Institute (FII Institute); Paschalis Bouchoris, Managing Director and Country Manager for

BlackRock in the Middle East; Rola Abu Manneh, CEO of Standar d Chartered Bank U.A.E.; and Rishi Kapoor, co-CEO of Investcorp.

Talking about how adopting ESG is evolving across a key principle for many investors across the world, Attias said, “more and more institutions, corporations, and governments are taking very seriously this notion of sustainability, and even world leaders are becoming very serious.”

Bouchoris estimated investments in sustainable finance solutions and strategies at $4 trillion, noting that “Europe has been leading the way.” In the Middle East, Bouchoris highlighted important initiatives from the public and private sectors that are being launched in various fields, from energy transition to renewables to green hydrogen and sustainable urban development.

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Virtual Event Coverage

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Richard Attias

Rola Abu Manneh Chief Executive Officer

Co-Chief Executive Officer

FII Institute (Future Investment Initiative Institute)

Standard Chartered Bank UAE

INVESTCORP

Chief Executive Officer

Rishi Kapoor

Paschalis Bouchoris

Claudine Coletti

BlackRock

Forbes Middle East

Managing Director, Country Manager

Managing Editor

Sustainable Financing – The Way Forward?

Abu Manneh shared the same sentiment, noting that the drive to establish a green economy has accelerated globally, and the MENA region is really no different.

“The markets around the Middle East, Asia, and Africa are where sustainable finance matters most,” she noted.

Assessing and measuring green or sustainable projects is necessary when considering new investments or the provision of finance. Kapoor highlighted three universal principles: commitment towards diversity, equity, and inclusion; a real focus on managing and mitigating climate risks by reducing greenhouse gas emissions and waste; and a commitment towards best-in-class business ethics, governance, and transparency.

Attias described how the FII Institute is developing an ESG scoring methodology for emerging markets that is fair and F O R B E S M I D D L E E A S T.C O M

inclusive. He noted that current rating agencies are unfair and called for a more inclusive ESG approach. “We are thinking of the very western approach, but not all countries can be at the [same] level of ESG, where the U.S. or Europe stand, so Africa and Asia will be behind,” he explained. “It’s not just about making a good investment but an investment for good.”

Real estate is one of the top five contributors to greenhouse gas emissions, said Kapoor. He explained that Investcorp seeks to embed core principles of sustainability into real estate, especially when it comes to multifamily residential, where it’s an active investor by providing cost-effective housing solutions at affordable price points.

Abu Manneh noted that there is an increased interest in sustainability from businesses, investors, and lenders across the

region, expecting more demand for sustainable finance in MENA over the coming years, with the bank planning to mobilize on a global basis $300 billion in green and transition finance by 2030.

Attias highlighted that education is “very important” because a lot of companies have no real understanding about what they should do to be ESG compatible. “We should not forget the small to mediumsized companies because the transformation of how we mentally think of ESG will come from the very early stage.”

Bouchoris concluded that “no company, no industry can do this alone. This is why industry coalition, governments, and regulators have a significant role to play here, with taxonomies, standards, and more aligned approaches in general on data challenges that we undoubtedly face.”

MARCH 2022

• THOUGHTS ON •

Turmoil

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“A man who makes trouble for others is also making trouble for himself.”

“Evolution is the floating bridge on turbulent waters.Any time an organization misses a change step, it will face extinction.”

—Chinua Achebe “Every breathing soul longs to overcome.”

—Sukant Ratnakar “When you go in search of honey, you must expect to be stung by bees.”

—Ted Dekker “I was like you once, he added—in love with turbulence.”

—Joseph Joubert “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have tribulation. But take heart—I have overcome the world.”

—Louise Glück “It’s astonishing how much trouble one can get oneself into, if one works at it.”

—Neil Gaiman “As muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone, it could be argued that those who sit quietly and do nothing are making one of the best possible contributions to a world in turmoil.”

—Alan Watts “The more difficult the victory, the greater the happiness in winning.”

Pelé

“About me all goes really silent, from time to time, whereas for the righteous the tumult of the world never stops.”

—Samuel Beckett “ The difficult problems in life always start off being simple. Great affairs always start off being small.”

“Improbable as it may be, the day still has a few indignities left.”

—Colson Whitehead “There never is any escape from difficulties, never.

They have to be faced and fought.”

—Enid Blyton

—Pelé

—Lao Tzu

“I got my heart’s desire, and there my troubles began.”

“I don’t damsel well.

Distress, I can do.

Damseling? Not so much.”

“History is the transformation of tumultuous conquerors into silent footnotes.”

—Lev Grossman

—James Patterson

—Paul Eldridge

F O R B E S M I D D L E E A S T.C O M

—John 16:33

FINAL THOUGHT “If you can’t stand punishment, you wouldn’t be able to stand success.”

— B.C. Forbes

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Ajlan & Bros Holding Group Abilitii is one of the largest private sector conglomerates in the Middle East region, employing over 12,500 people in more than 25 countries and across 75 companies.

The Group has embarked on a significant diversification program with recent investments including:

Saudi Aramco

Jubail 3B

SAGO MC2

NIDLP

aramco entered into Carbon Fiber Collaboration Agreement with Ajlan & Bros Holding Group Abilitii.

Acquisition of Jubail 3B IWP Desalination Plant for US$ 800 Million. The 570,000 cubic metres a day (cm/d) plant will provide potable water for 2 million people in the cities of Riyadh and Qassim.

Acquisition of Saudi Flour Milling Company (MC2) for US$ 600 Million.

MC2 has three branches in Riyadh, Hail and Jizan. It has a production capacity of 1.3 million tons per year for flour, 180,000 tons for fodder, and 190,000 tons for silos.

Commitment to invest US$ 13 Billion with the National Industrial Development and Logistics Program (NIDLP) over the next ten years for the exploration of gold, nickel, copper, lithium, iron, zirconium, cobalt, and tinstone in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

F O R B E S M I D D L E E A S T.C O M info@ajlanbros-holding.com

ajlanbros-holding.com

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F O R B E S M I D D L E E A S T.C O M

MARCH 2022