Q&A WITH ABDULAZIZ BIN REDHA

Q

Where do you want to be in five years?

A

I want to be standing on land we regenerated. I would like to reach 100,000 tonnes capacity and reach commercialisation of microalgae.

I want to start looking at soils in Saudi Arabia and Africa and look at that type of soil and create a formula for that.

We would like to have a suite of IPs [intellectual property] that we can start to licence. We also want to be in a position where we’ve inspired the new generation of scientists in the UAE.

If you could do it differently, what would you change?

We learn from our mistakes. I keep asking my team, ‘What have you failed at today?’. We need to learn from failure.

When we’re thrown curveballs, we need to figure out solutions for them and that builds our knowledge base. I love where we are today because we learn from mistakes.

What skills have you learnt?

I am not a scientist by background, but I have quickly learnt about science, plant science, soil science, engineering. So I have picked up a lot of these skills to understand what my engineers or my scientists are talking about, to hold the conversation and to challenge them.

I think we have all picked up different skills. They have picked up business skills and I have picked up a lot of scientific and engineering skills.

Who is your role model?

Whenever I run into trouble, I always ask myself what would these two people do. One of them is Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid [Vice President and Ruler of Dubai]. Everything that he does, the way he runs the country, the way he inspires, the way he leads. The way we have taken this place from a desert to what it is right now.

The other one is Elon Musk. It has to be engineering, it’s going back to first principles. Why build the rocket this way? Why not make it reusable? Why not bring it back to where it is supposed to be? How can you produce it more cost effectively?

And the two people I could never forget are my parents. As entrepreneurs, they’ve taught me perseverance and grit.