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

billionaire A billionaire is a person with a net worth of at least one billion (1,000,000,000, i.e., a thousand million) units of a given currency, usually of a major currency such as the United States dollar, euro, or pound sterling. The American busin ...

businessman, CEO of the

Dubai Dubai (, ; ar, دبي, translit=Dubayy, , ) is the most populous city in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the capital of the Emirate of Dubai, the most populated of the 7 emirates of the United Arab Emirates.The Government and Politics of ...

-based

Al-Ghurair Group Al Ghurair Group ( ar, مجموعة سيف الغرير), also known as Saif Al Ghurair Group, is a Dubai, United Arab Emirates-based business group founded by the Al Ghurair family. A diverse conglomerate, it has operations in the Middle East, N ...

, a large company in the

UAE The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia (The Middle East). It is located at th ...

'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, the eldest of five sons. Al Ghurair gained a bachelor's degree in accounting at the Al Ain University.

Career

In 1960, he founded the Al Ghurair Group, a company which has interests in banking, steel 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 ( ar, ٱلْمَشْرِق), sometimes spelled Mashreq or Mashrek, is a term used by Arabs to refer to the eastern part of the Arab world, located in Western Asia and eastern North Africa. Poetically the "Place of Sunrise", the n ...

. In 2006, he formed the company Taghleef Industries through a merger of Dubai PolyFilm with Technopak of Egypt and AKPP in Oman, and it became one of the world´s largest manufacturers of polypropylene films, lamination and food packaging.

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 (fruit), the fruit of the date palm (''Phoenix dactylifera'') Social activity *Dating, a form of courtship involving social activity, with the aim of assessing a potential partner **Group dating * Play date, a ...

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