Saif Ahmad Al Ghurair (; 1924 – 27 August 2019) was an Emirati

billionaire A billionaire is a person with a net worth of at least 1,000,000,000, one billion units of a given currency, usually of a major currency such as the United States dollar, euro, or pound sterling. It is a sub-category of the concept of the ultr ...

businessman, CEO of the

Dubai Dubai (Help:IPA/English, /duːˈbaɪ/ Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''doo-BYE''; Modern Standard Arabic, Modern Standard Arabic: ; Emirati Arabic, Emirati Arabic: , Romanization of Arabic, romanized: Help:IPA/English, /diˈbej/) is the Lis ...

-based Al-Ghurair Group, a large company in the

UAE The United Arab Emirates (UAE), or simply the Emirates, is a country in West Asia, in the Middle East, at the eastern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is a federal elective monarchy made up of seven emirates, with Abu Dhabi serving as i ...

's real estate and manufacturing sectors. His family owns and leads the different business units of the group.

Early life

Al Ghurair was born in 1924 on the shores of

Dubai Creek Dubai Creek () is a natural Seawater, saltwater creek (tidal), creek in Dubai. It extends about inwards and forms a natural port that has traditionally been used for trade and transport. The creek ranges from in width while the average depth ...

, the eldest of five sons.

Career

In 1960, he founded the Al Ghurair Group, a company which has interests in banking,

steel Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon that demonstrates improved mechanical properties compared to the pure form of iron. Due to steel's high Young's modulus, elastic modulus, Yield (engineering), yield strength, Fracture, fracture strength a ...

and packaging. The group invested in real estate, retail and manufacturing. In 2004, his group opened a second Burjuman Centre with an office tower, hotel, and luxury service apartments. He was also a significant shareholder in

Mashreq The Mashriq (; ), also known as the Arab Mashriq (), sometimes spelled Mashreq or Mashrek, is a term used by Arabs to refer to the eastern part of the Arab world, as opposed to the Maghreb (western) region, and located in West Asia and easter ...

. In 2006, he formed the company Taghleef Industries through a merger of Dubai PolyFilm with Technopak of

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

and AKPP in

Oman Oman, officially the Sultanate of Oman, is a country located on the southeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in West Asia and the Middle East. It shares land borders with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. Oman’s coastline ...

, and it became one of the world’s largest manufacturers of polypropylene films, lamination, and food packaging. In 2015, his net worth was estimated at $3.4 billion.

Personal life

He was the eldest son of Ahmed Al Ghurair. He was married with six children, and lived in Dubai. A stormy boat trip to India in the 1930s to sell

dates Date or dates may refer to: * Date, the fruit of the date palm (''Phoenix dactylifera'') * Jujube, also known as red date or Chinese date, the fruit of ''Ziziphus jujuba'' Social activity *Dating, a form of courtship involving social activit ...

left him blind in one eye.

Death

Al Ghurair died in Dubai in August 2019, aged 95. He was buried in Qusais Cemetery, Dubai on 27 August 2019.

References

External links