Joy Alukkas One of 18 children, Joy Alukkas dropped out of college to pick up the skills of the trade from his father who ran a jewellery business in their hometown of Thrissur in Kerala. The then 30-something decided to take those early lessons and ambitions international, opening his first showroom in Abu Dhabi in 1987, followed by another one in Dubai and Sharjah. Today, that empire has spread to cover over 160 showrooms across 11 countries, employing 8,000 people with annual revenues of around $2bn. The rapid expansion has never been at the cost of quality – Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum even awarded the business the Dubai Quality Awards certification. Related Stories Gold just hit a seven-year high on virus fears Revealed: Influential Indians in the GCC: Rich list Dubai’s pursuit of jewellery domination You might also like Sunil John Dr. Thumbay Moideen Vidya Chhabria Mohan Valrani K. Rajaram Dr. Adnan Chilwan Sanjiv Kakkar Ram Kumar Thota Raghu Malhotra Sunil Kaushal Atif Rahman Amit Jain Rishi Kapoor Vasu Shroff Anil Pillai Bal Krishen Rohit and Sharad Bachani Raju Ramesh and Sunil Paul Ayesha Depala John Paul Joy Alukkas Geet Bhalla and Digvijay Pratap Snehal and Sunita Hadani Nisha Jagtiani Kunal Kapoor Dino Varkey Ashish Panjabi Adeeb Ahamed Yogesh Mehta Yusuff Ali M.A. Ravi Pillai Micky Jagtiani Sunny Varkey Sunil Vaswani Shamsheer Vayalil Firoz Merchant Rajen Kilachand Azad Moopen Tony Jashanmal Paras Shahdadpuri Dr. Zulekha Daud Dhananjay Datar Rizwan Sajan PNC Menon Sima Ved Shaji Ul Mulk Ramesh Prabhakar L.T. Pagarani Ram Buxani Surender Kandhari Sohan Roy Shyam Bhatia