10 HE ABDUL AZIZ AL GHURAIR

CEO, MASHREQ

ORIGIN UAE RESIDENCE UAE SECTOR FINANCE 2016 RaNk 08

The drop in oil prices and resultant impact on the UAE’s economy has meant testing times in the country’s banking industry but Al Ghurair has emerged as a rare voice of reassurance in the gloom. As the head of the bank founded by his father during the oil boom in 1967 and chairman of the UAE Banks Federation he was one of the most high profile figures lobbying the government to introduce insolvency regulation, even going as far as creating a joint industry rescue initiative to help SMEs restructure their debt in March last year before the new law was announced. Unfortunately though, conditions still weighed on Mashreq’s financial results, with profit down 24.8 per cent in Q3 to $112.98m. Separately Al Ghurair also made headlines with the launch of his father’s $1.1bn Abdulla Al Ghurair Foundation for Education for which he announced a number of initiatives with the world’s top universities as the year went on.