The business magazine Forbes-Middle East released the 2017 rankings for the top 100 Indian business owners in the Gulf region. The 61 year old retail magnate, Yusuff Ali M.A., Managing Director of Lulu Group International, came at the top of the list. Yusuff Ali hails from Thrissur, Kerala and his group operates 133 hypermarkets and stores across the Gulf countries, Egypt, India, Indonesia and Malaysia. Sunil Vaswani, Chairman of the diversified, Stallion Group, was placed second in the list. He was followed by B. R. Shetty, Founder of NMC Healthcare and UAE Exchange.
Business families of Indian origin have traditionally had a strong presence across the Gulf region. The top 10 Indian business owners in the list had estimated total revenues of $28.9 billion. Three major communities dominated the list: 27 business leaders had roots in Kerala, 23 came from the Sindhi community and 16 from the Gujarati community.
The rankings were released in an exclusive event organised in Dubai on May 11, 2017. The list of top 50 Indian Management executives was also released at the event. Mr. Sanjeev Chadha, CEO, Asia, Middle East and Africa, at PepsiCo International topped that list. For the first time, Forbes-Middle East also named 28 promising next generation business leaders who are taking the family legacy forward.
Source: Forbes Middle East, May 14, 2017.