Gulf Business Awards 2022: Nominees revealed

The year is drawing to a close and it’s time to honour the very best among the region’s leaders and companies at the prestigious Gulf Business Awards 2022.

This year’s edition will be held at Central Park Towers DIFC in Dubai on November 23.

We will be celebrating business leaders and companies who’ve steered their companies through geopolitical challenges, inflation and other factors while successfully leveraging the opportunities the year has presented.

These individuals and companies – across various sectors – have innovated, disrupted and contributed to their industries and the regional economy. It’s our privilege to present the select group of names that have made it to our shortlist this year.

All our nominees richly deserve to be recognised for their work and are pioneers in their fields.

This year, the awards cover categories such as banking, finance and investment; healthcare; hospitality; real estate and construction; retail; tourism; transport and logistics.

We also have seven excellence awards that recognise institutions and individuals for their exemplary performance throughout the year. These include Company of the Year, Leader of the Year, Sustainability Company of the Year, SME of the Year, Female Leader of the Year, Business Disruptor of the Year and Marketer of the Year.

Gulf Business will also present the coveted Lifetime Achievement Award to one special individual for their outstanding contribution to the region. It’s an award whose past winners have included Sir Tim Clark, Sheikha Lubna bint Khalid Al Qasimi, Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Easa Saleh Al Gurg and Colm McLoughlin among others.

This year, we are also introducing the Golden Frame Awards for SMEs in collaboration with Century Financial, one of the UAE’s oldest and most respected financial institutions. Given to a select group of enterprises across five categories, the awards will be conferred on SMEs that are pioneers and leaders in innovation, business strategy, product delivery, sustainability and customer service among other factors.

Some of the categories for the awards include: Innovative SME of the Year, SME Accelerator of the Year, Disruptive SME of the Year, SME Leader of the Year and Emerging Female Leader of the Year.

Below is the list of nominees for all the categories that are part of the Gulf Business Awards 2022:

COMPANIES

Category: Banking, Finance and Investment

Online Trading Company of the Year

• VI Markets
• Sarwa
• eToro
• EFG Hermes One

Investment company of the Year

• Invesco
• Mubadala Investment Company
• AIX Investment Group
• Al Tamimi Investments

Bank of the Year

• Qatar National Bank
• First Abu Dhabi Bank
• Emirates NBD
• Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank

Category: Real estate and Construction

Real Estate Agency of the Year

• fäm Properties
• Seven Century Real Estate Brokers
• Driven Properties
• Allsopp & Allsopp

Developer of the Year

• Emaar Properties
• Majid Al Futtaim
• Al Hamra
• National Housing Company

Most Innovative Project of the Year

• Sharjah Sustainable City
• Grand Bleu Tower by Elie Saab
• Maimoon Gardens
• Torino by ORO24

Project of the Year

• Tilal Al Ghaf
• Emirates Crop One (Bustanica)
• Samana Waves
• Etihad Rail

 Contractor of the Year

• Khansaheb
• Al Habtoor Group
• Al-Futtaim Construction
• Al Naboodah Construction

Proptech Company of the Year

• Stella Stays
• Stake
• Huspy
• Bayut

Category: Tourism

Company of the year

• Abu Dhabi Department of Culture and Tourism (DCT- Abu Dhabi)
• Dubai Corporation for Tourism and Commerce Marketing
• Ras Al Khaimah Tourism Development Authority
• Abu Dhabi National Exhibitions Company

Category: Hospitality

Company of the year

• Abu Dhabi National Hotels
• Sunset Hospitality Group
• Emaar Hospitality Group
• Palazzo Hospitality

Category: Retail

Company of the Year

• Majid Al Futtaim Group
• Noon.com
• Dubai Duty Free
• Al Hokair Group

Category: Transport and Logistics

Company of the year

• Dubai Roads and Transport Authority
• Aramex
• DP World
• Keolis MHI

Category: Healthcare

 Company of the Year

• Aster DM Healthcare
• Mubadala Health
• PureHealth
• Malaffi

BUSINESS LEADERS

Online Trading Business Leader of the Year

• Talal Ajmi, Founder and CEO – VI Markets
• Yoni Assia, Founder – eToro
• Mark Chahwan, CEO – Sarwa
• Karim Awad, Group CEO – EFG Hermes

Investment Leader of the Year

• Zainab Kufaishi, Head of the Middle East and/ Africa and Senior Executive Officer – Invesco
• Harish Prithvi, COO – AIX Investment Group
• Karim Awad, Group CEO –  EFG Hermes Holding
• Musabbeh Al Kaabi, CEO –  UAE Investments arm, Mubadala

Real Estate and Construction Leader of the year

• Mohamed Alabbar, Founder – Emaar Properties
• Ahmed Alkhoshaibi, CEO – Arada
• Benoy Kurien, Group CEO – Al Hamra
• Engineer Abdulaziz bin Saleh Al-Aboudi, CEO – Thakher Development Company

Tourism Business Leader of the Year

• Mohamed Khalifa Al Mubarak, Chairman – DCT Abu Dhabi
• Issam Kazim, CEO – Dubai Corporation for Tourism and Commerce Marketing
• Fahd Hamidaddin, CEO – Saudi Tourism Authority
• Raki Phillips, CEO – Ras Al Khaimah Tourism Development Authority

Hospitality Leader of the Year

• Antonio Gonzalez, CEO – Sunset Hospitality Group
• Guy Hutchinson, President and CEO – Rotana Hotel Management Corporation
• Khalid Anib, CEO – Abu Dhabi National Hotels
• Mark Kirby, Head of Hospitality – Emaar Hospitality Group

Retail Leader of the Year 

• Faraz Khalid, CEO – noon.com
• Ronaldo Mouchawar, VP – Amazon MENA
• Fahad Mohammed Al-Fawwaz, CEO – Al Hokair Group
• Alain Bejjani, CEO – Majid Al Futtaim Group

Transport and Logistics – Leader of the Year

• Othman Aljeda, CEO – Aramex
• Peter Somers, CEO – Emirates Post
• Captain Mohamed Juma Al Shamisi, MD and Group CEO – AD Ports Group
• Engineer Shadi Malak, CEO – Etihad Rail

Healthcare – Leader of the Year

• Dr Azad Moopen, Founder Chairman & Managing Director, Aster DM Healthcare
• Hasan Jasem Al Nowais, CEO – Mubadala Health
• Shaista Asif, Group COO, PureHealth
• Dr Jamil Ahmed, Managing Director – Prime Healthcare Group

EXCELLENCE AWARDS

GB Company of the year

• DP World
• e&
• Saudi Aramco
• Ghassan Aboud Group

GB Leader of the Year

• Amin Nasser, CEO, Saudi Aramco
• Dr Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, Managing Director and Group CEO, ADNOC
• Hatem Dowidar, Group CEO, e&
• Yogesh Mehta, CEO – Petrochem Middle East

Sustainability Company of the Year

• PepsiCo
• Fakhruddin Properties
• Masdar
• GE

SME company of the year

• Chatfood
• Udrive
• Tradeling
• Falcon Global Capital 

Female Leader of the Year

• Hana Al Rostamani, group CEO – First Abu Dhabi Bank
• Zainab Kufaishi, Head of the Middle East and/ Africa and Senior Executive Officer – Invesco
• Dr Raja Easa Saleh Al Gurg, Chairperson and MD – Easa Saleh Al Gurg Group
• Alisha Moopen, Deputy Managing Director, Aster DM Healthcare

Business Disruptor of the Year

• Atif Rahman, Founder and Chairman, ORO24 Developments
• Rob Gryn, Founder and CEO, Everdome
• Benjamin Mouflard, Co-founder and CEO, and Vinicus Rodrigues, Co-founder and CTO, Chatfood
• Craig Ratajczyk, CEO, Crop One

Marketer of the Year

• Faisal Zaidi, Co-founder and CMO, Crypto Oasis
• Boutros Boutros, Divisional Senior Vice President, Corporate Communications, Marketing & Brand, Emirates Group
• Hana Ibrahim, Director Field and Channel Marketing Manager EMEAR and APJC, APP Dynamics
• Haris Mumtaz, Marketing Lead MEA Ecosystem Development and Operations (CBG), Huawei

SME GOLDEN FRAME AWARDS

We have another special edition category for this year called the SME Golden Frame Awards, presented by Century Financial and Gulf Business. Here are the list of nominees for this category. 

Innovative SME of the Year

• Panworld Education
• Sav Technologies Limited
• Houza
• CoinMena

 SME Accelerator of the Year

• 4IRme
• Hub71
• Flat6Labs
• DIFC FinTech Hive

 Disruptive SME of the Year:

• City Tower Properties
• Koinbasket
• Tabby
• Shipsy

SME leader of the Year

• Dr Nabil Alyousof, International Advisory Group
• Hosam Arab, CEO,Tabby
• Talal Tabbaa, CEO, CoinMENA
• Lara Hussein, CEO, Waste Lab

 Emerging Female Leader of the Year

• Niousha Ehsan, the CEO of LINKVIVA
• Salama Mohamed, Influencer and founder of beauty brand, Peacefull
• Basma Ashry, General Manager of Business Incorporation Zone
• Sara Chemmaa, CEO and Founder of Citron

We wish all our nominees the best of luck. See you at the awards.