Countdown begins for Gulf Business Awards 2017

The sixth edition of the annual prestigious Gulf Business Awards 2017 is all set to be held on Sunday, September 10 at Fairmont The Palm in Dubai.

The awards recognise the very best in companies and business leaders across nine industries including aviation and transport, banking, healthcare, energy, technology, real estate, retail, media and marketing, and tourism and hospitality.

Awards will also be given to the winners of five special categories for business excellence: Innovator of the year, SME of the year, Businesswoman of the year and two publicly voted categories – Entrepreneur of the year and CSR initiative of the year.

A special award is also being introduced this year to acknowledge an important segment gaining more and more prominence in the UAE and the GCC region – Gulf Business will present one deserving business with the Happiness and Positivity company of the year award.

To close the night, one business leader and one company will win the coveted Business Leader of the year and the Company of the year awards.

(Revealed: Winners at the Gulf Business Awards 2016)

The winners, aside from our special categories to be picked by the Gulf Business team, will be decided by our esteemed panel of judges. (Click here for more details).

Here are the shortlists:

Companies of the year

Aviation and transport

• Careem
• Dubai Airports
• Emirates
• Etihad
• flydubai

Banking

• Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank
• Al Rajhi Investment & Investing Corporation
• Commercial Bank of Dubai
• Emirates NBD
• Mashreq

Energy

• ACWA Power
• ENEC
• ENOC
• Masdar
• TAQA

Healthcare

• Aster DM Healthcare
• Dubai Health Experience
• King Fahad Medical City
• Mediclinic Middle East
• NMC Healthcare

Media and marketing

• ARN
• Facebook
• Netflix
• OSN
• UTURN

Real estate

• Aldar
• Damac
• Danube
• Emaar
• Nakheel

Retail

• Chalhoub
• Dubai Duty Free
• LuLu
• Majid Al Futtaim Retail
• Souq.com

Technology

• Apple
• DarkMatter
• Dell Technologies
• Huawei
• Samsung

Tourism and hospitality

• ADTCA
• DCTCM
• DXB Entertainments
• Jumeirah
• RAK Tourism Development Authority

Business leaders of the year

Aviation and transport

• HE Mattar Al Tayer, Roads and Transport Authority
• Ghaith Al Ghaith, flydubai
• Peter Baumgartner, Etihad
• Sir Tim Clark, Emirates
• Magnus Olsson and Mudassir Sheikha, Careem

Banking

• HE Abdul Aziz Al Ghurair, Mashreq
• Steve Bertamini, Al Rajhi Bank
• Adnan Chilwan, Dubai Islamic Bank
• Ala’a Eraiqat, Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank
• Shayne Nelson, Emirates NBD

Energy

• HE Saif Humaid Al Falasi, ENOC
• HE Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, DEWA
• Ivano Ianneli, Dubai Carbon
• Mohamed Jameel Al Ramahi, Masdar
• Paddy Padmanathan, ACWA Power

Healthcare

• HE Humaid Al Qatami, Dubai Health Authority
• David Hadley, Mediclinic Middle East
• Thumbay Moideen, Thumbay Group
• Dr Azad Moopen, Aster DM Healthcare
• Dr BR Shetty, NMC Health

Media and marketing

• Kaswara Al Khatib, UTURN
• Mahmoud Al Rasheed, ARN
• Sam Barnett, MBC Group
• Jonathan Labin, Facebook
• Martin Stewart, OSN

Real estate

• HE Mohamed Alabbar, Emaar
• HE Mohamed Khalifa Al Mubarak, Aldar
• Ali Rashid Lootah, Nakheel
• Rizwan Sajan, Danube
• Hussain Sajwani, Damac

Retail

• Yusuf Ali MA, LuLu
• Patrick Chalhoub, Chalhoub
• Eric Legros, Majid Al Futtaim Retail
• Colm McLoughlin, Dubai Duty Free
• Ronaldo Mouchawar, Souq.com

Technology

• Faisal Al Bannai, DarkMatter
• Mohammed Amin, Dell EMC
• Lino Cattaruzzi, Google
• Sayed Hashish, Microsoft
• Charles Yang, Huawei

Tourism and hospitality

• Khalaf Al Habtoor, Al Habtoor Group
• HE Helal Saeed Almarri, DCTCM
• HE Mohamed Khalifa Al Mubarak, ADTCA
• Ahmad Hussain bin Essa, Global Village
• Haitham Mattar, RAK TDA

Special categories (Business Excellence awards)

Businesswoman of the year

• Dr Dalya Al Muthanna, GE Gulf
• Joelle Mardinian, Maison de Joelle
• Alisha Moopen, Aster DM Healthcare
• Sima Ved, Apparel Group

SME of the year

• YallaCompare
• Fetchr
• Luxury Closet
• NOW Money
• UTURN

Innovator of the year

• FinTech Hive DIFC
• Global Blockchain Council
• HUB1006
• Hyperloop One
• RTA’s passenger drone

Happiness and Positivity Award

• Al Naboodah Construction Group
• BizGroup
• DHL
• Du
• Landmark Group

Entrepreneur of the year

• Joy Ajlouny and Idriss Al Rifai, Fetchr
• Ian Dillon and Katharine Budd, NOW Money
• Helen McGuire, Hopscotch.ae
• Qais Al Khonj, Qais United Enterprise Trading / Genesis International
• Nayla Al Khaja, D-Seven / The Scene
• Jon Richards, CompareIt4Me
• Bong Guerrero and Ramzi Nakkad, Fashion Forward Dubai
• Huda Kattan, Huda Beauty
• Ibrahim Colak and Dunia Othman, Mr Usta
• Geet Bhalla and Digvijay Pratap, HolidayMe

CSR initiative of the year

• ENOC – Ramadan Aman
• Standard Chartered Bank – Seeing Is Believing
• Qurum Business Group – QBG Echoes
• Etisalat – Medicine Drop Box
• Danube – free communication and development courses
• Bank Muscat – Green Sports programme
• British Council – Taqaddam Programme
• Daman – ActiveLife
• DHL – GoHelp, GoGreen, GoTeach, volunteering
• P&G – ‘Stepping Up’ for athletes with special needs