Dubai: Over 100 Indian nationals, mainly businessmen and executives that are based in the UAE, have just been recognised for their “phenomenal success” in the Arab world.
These expatriates are among the top 100 business owners and 50 Indian executives that made it to the Forbes Middle East’s Top Indian Leaders 2018 rankings.
At least three of these trailblazing individuals, who are now self-made billionaires in UAE with a combined net worth of more than $12 billion, are leading the rankings, with retail magnate Yusuff Ali M.A., managing director of LuLu Group International, taking the crown as the top business owner.
As of March, the Indian tycoon is the third-richest self-made billionaire in UAE with a net worth of $5 billion.
Also UAE-based businessmen B. R. Shetty, who holds a net fortune of $3.6 billion, and Ravi Pillai, with a net worth of $3.5 billion, are ranked second and third, respectively.
Popularly known as the man behind money transfer house UAE Exchange, Shetty is the founder and chairman of NMC Health and BRS Ventures, while Pillai is the founder and chairman of RP Group of Companies.
Leading the list of top executives in the Arab world is Sanjiv Kakkar, who works as an executive vice president (VP) at Unilever, taking care of the company’s operations in the Middle East, North Africa, Turkey, Russia, Ukraine and Belarus.
Following closely behind are two other Indians occupying the top posts in big businesses: Kalyana Sivagnanam, president and regional VP at Nissan for the Middle East, Africa and Indian, and Adnan Chilwan, group CEO at Dubai Islamic Bank.
The top businessmen were selected based on a number of factors, including how much financial and employment impact they’ve created and how long their company has been in business.
For top executives, the nominees were ranked according to experience, job title or the importance of their role in the organisation, as well as company revenues and payroll size.
The successful expatriates were honoured by Forbes during a ceremony.
The Top 100 business leaders:
1. Yusuff Ali M.A.
2. B. R. Shetty
3. Ravi Pillai
4. Sunil Vaswani
5. Sunny Varkey
6. Shamsheer Vayalil
7. Joy Alukkas
8. Rizwan Sajan
9. Shaji Ul Mulk
10. Basheer Kunhiparambath
11. Thumbay Moideen
12. Gagan Goel
13. P.N.C. Menon
14. Roy C.J.
15. Azad Moopen
16. Shamlal Ahamed
17. Adeeb Ahamed
18. Paras Shahdadpuri
19. Ashok Bhawandas Awtani
20. Siddeek Ahmed
21. Tony Jashanmal
22. Sudhir Goyel
23. Ramesh Ramakrishnan
24. Yogesh Mehta
25. Firoz Merchant
26. Jayant Ganwani
27. Birbal Singh Dana
28. Anand Kapoor
29. Harish Tahiliani
30. Dhananjay M. Datar
31. Rajan Mathrani
32. Kamal Vachani
33. J.P. Kalwani
34. Pradeep Kumar Handa
35. Naresh Bhawnani
36. Bharat Bhatia
37. Hassan Darvesh
38. Kiran Asher
39. Faizal Kottikollan
40. Asgar S. Patel
41. Harshad Mehta
42. Jacky Panjabi
43. Korathe Mohammad
44. Zulekha Daud
45. Kabir Mulchandani
46. Vardaraj Shetty
47. Kamal Puri
48. Lalu Samuel
49. Shafi Ul Mulk
50. Sohan Roy
51. Sudhakar Tomar
52. Vasu Shroff
53. Ajay Bhatia
54. George V Nereparambil
55. Hitesh Mehta
56. Thomas K. V.
57. Thomas Alexander
58. G.B. Jethwani
59. Atul Ahuja
60. Ram Buxani
61. Surender Singh Kandhari
62. Abdulla Amirudin Ajmal
63. Eugene A. Mayne
64. Varghese Kurian
65. Ajay Hamlai
66. Haji Moosa E.P.
67.Vandana Luthra
68. Ramesh Hiranandani
69. Mahesh Shahdadpuri
70. Shailesh Dash
71. Khurshid Vakil
72. Samir Salya
73. Amit Dhamani
74. Ali Asgar Mir
75. Deepak Arora
76. Raju Menon
77. Praveen Kumar Shetty
78. Sugathan Janardhan
79. Khalid Maniar
80. Kesavan Muraleedharan
81. Nitish Jain
82. Poonam Bhojani
83. Sudhakar Rao
84. Mustafa Vazayil
85. Neelesh Bhatnagar
86. Manohar Lahori
87. Rafih FiLLi
88. Vito Gomes
89. Vivek Kallidil
90. Bharat Thakur
91. S.K. Wadhawan
92. Kulwant Singh Thiara
93. Ved Sharan Chhabra
94. Sundar Menon
95. Mohammad Tariq
96. Tejinder Singh
97. Sajith Ansar
98. Ganesh Iyer
99. Gaurav Tandon
100. Abishek Sharma
