Revealed: 10 best-paid executives in UAE

1.1358094-3886697963 — The ten highest paid executives in Abu Dhabi and Dubai recently had a bumper year, earning nearly Dh80 million in salaries and bonuses in 2013. Image Credit: Agency

Dubai: The 10 highest earning chief executives in the UAE make several million dirhams a year, taking home a total of Dh78.14 million in salaries and bonuses in 2013 alone, according to a new survey.

A study conducted by Argaam.com, an Arabic website, which looked at the income of 30 top-ranking officials of listed companies in Dubai and Abu Dhabi last year, showed that three executives from Etisalat and one from Emaar, the developer of Burj Khalifa, were among the UAE’s ten biggest earners in 2013. One of the executives made more than a million dirhams a month. The lowest monthly income stood at little over Dh400,000.

Seven out of the ten highest paid officials work for companies based in Abu Dhabi, while the rest are based in Dubai. Males dominated the list and only one woman chief executive, who used to work for Emaar Properties, made it to the top ten.

The biggest earner, Etisalat CEO Ahmad Julfar, took home Dh17.27 million in 2013, or about Dh1.4 million a month.

Low Ping, who served as CEO of Emaar Properties until January 2014 and is currently the company’s executive director for finance and risk, emerged as the second highest paid executive in the UAE, making Dh10.6 million last year or nearly Dh900,000 a month.

RAK Ceramics CEO Abdullah Massad came third on the list, with Dh7.64 million, followed by Carl Sheldon, CEO of Abu Dhabi National Energy (Dh7.38 million) and Hassan Ismaik, CEO of Arabtec (Dh6.61 million).

Dubai Investments CEO and managing director Khalid Jassim Bin Kalban made it to the top 10 list, earning Dh6.44 million. Michael Raynes, chief operating officer of Waha Capital, followed closely behind with total earnings worth Dh6.37 million.

The rest of the top ten earners were Serkan Okandan, chief financial officer of Etisalat, who took home Dh5.51 million last year, Abdul Aziz Al Sawaleh, Etisalat’s chief human resources officer (Dh5.34 million) and Ilias Assimakopoulos, chief executive officer of Emirates Foodstuff and Mineral Water (Dh4.98 million).

The top ten highest earners for 2013: