Top 10 Inspiring Business Persons to Watch in the Middle East in 2023 These business persons listed below are at the forefront of driving innovation in different sectors in the Middle East

In the difficult times when the world is recovering from the pandemic, these ten business persons listed below are at the forefront of driving innovation in different sectors in the Middle East.

Ziad El Chaar, Quara Holding

Ziad El Chaar is the Chief Executive Officer of Quara Holding, a holding company focused on innovative financial, technology, and real estate. He is also the Vice-Chairman of Dar Al Arkan Properties.

El Chaar is actively involved in shaping Dar Al Arkan's development strategy to maintain its competitive advantage with solid launches in KSA and leading global expansion into Oman, UAE, Qatar, the UK, Spain, and China. She collaborates with major brands to introduce exclusive real estates, like Pagani, Missoni, and Elie Saab.

Within Quara Holding, El Chaar is spearheading prominent technology startups like Wasalt, the most advanced portal for verified real estate in KSA, Quara Finance consumer lending, Quara Pay for BTB and BTC payment wallets, Blockchain projects for tokenization of assets and ticketing, in addition to introducing robots to the various daily functions.

Amro Bagedo, KOA

Amro Bagedo is a well-traveled serial entrepreneur at a cultural crossroads. Being raised between the Arabian and Western worlds evolved him into a hybrid of the two. He craved a platform through which he could illustrate this, and fine dining was the answer. KOA was conjured up not to please the masses but to appease his internal desire to break through boundaries like a true artist. His masterpiece merges the methodology of the West with the flair of the East, while his mindset is married to a worldwide level of greatness:

"We bring people together at the table and inspire our entire country to dream bigger. That's why our chefs have Michelin star experience, and KOA will be the exciting flame that lights the way for passionate, purpose-driven Saudis who want to break boundaries and put their homeland on the global map for dining, entertainment, and services".

He wants Saudis to raise their level of excellence to be on par with their international peers. By setting such high standards, Amro aims to be the benchmark for young entrepreneurs who want Jeddah and Riyadh to be known for quality as much as London, Paris, and Dubai (incidentally, these are places he seeks to set up KOA next). His ambition is why he is a shining emblem in the Kingdom's Vision 2030 campaign. If the country is to achieve its goals, it will be because of pioneers like him who dared to dream and the discipline to do.

Sky Kurtz, Pure Harvest Smart Farming

Sky Kurtz is the co-founder and CEO of Pure Harvest Smart Farms and a pioneer in the Agritech sector, delivering fresh produce through world-leading controlled-environment technologies, which provide precise climate and environmental controls.

Pure Harvest supplies premium fruits and vegetables to key retailers and HORECA accounts across the UAE and is now expanding across the Gulf Region and beyond.

Before founding Pure Harvest, Sky Co-Founded Vence, a wearable technology solution reinventing livestock management. Sky also served as a Senior Executive with Francisco Partners and served on the boards of numerous companies across many sectors.

Sky was awarded an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and holds a B.S. in Finance from the W.P. Carey School of Business at ASU, graduating Summa Cum Laude.

Raksha Khimji, Team Red Dot

With a career spanning 20 years across the advertising industry, Dubai-based Raksha Khimji stands at the helm of Team Red Dot, an independent advertising company thriving in a region of network giants.

She attributes her commitment to innovation to her life's motto of "being happy, but never satisfied." Keeping up with the vertical generation is no easy task, but the ability to constantly shape-shift her company's integrated offering to cater to the demands of clients is what ensures favorable outcomes for all parties.

Raksha attributes her success in winning blue-chip multinational clients such as Etihad Airways, Titan International, and IHG from the big guns in the industry to her agility in managing the requirements of such accounts without compromising on the quality of strategic output and results. Under her leadership, Team Red Dot saw the pandemic as an opportunity to further grow their skill set and client portfolio by immersing themselves in blockchain technology and metaverse marketing, allowing the agency to remain ahead of the competition in the current environment. A similar nimble-footed approach was taken in 2014 when she decided to invest in a full-fledged creative studio, followed by a social arm upon having the foresight that the future of media consumption would rely heavily on short-form video content.

As Managing Director at Team Red Dot, she oversees and ensures the smooth running of operations across all three departments of Media, Studio, & Social and spearheads client business growth and collaborative partnerships.

Dr. Oliver Elbracht, Siemens Advanta

Many of you have seen the specifics of Siemens Advanta and what the new business Siemens has launched recently on a global scale is focusing on in terms of end-to-end professional services. It is one major bet of Siemens not only to continue leading technology innovation but to realize such tech visions as digital twins, smart cities, AI, and the like. It is a unique offering (and what attracted me to Siemens) since many technology innovations never leave the idea stage or fail in implementation. But since the value is created only by such successful implementation, this is what we aim to do differently.

Dr. Oliver Elbracht, Managing Director of Siemens Advanta Middle East, is innovating professional services by uniquely combining top-tier consulting capabilities with Siemens' heritage of technology leadership. He is raising the bar of achieving results in digital transformations across industries and countries in the Middle East - transforming businesses, making an impact on society, and creating unseen opportunities.

Dr. Elbracht explains, "we are bringing disruptive end-to-end capabilities to the market, with the right people, deep technology know-how, and ecosystem partners - which allows our clients to innovate faster, collaborate more efficiently, and deliver more value. Thus truly accelerate digital transformation journeys."

Richard Shearer, Tintra

Richard founded Tintra Group over a decade ago to focus on providing Family Office services to emerging market clients. It was based on a core belief that Tintra should act as a cultural API between different geographies, religions, and cultures. During that time, Tintra developed into a business that services some of the highest-profile names in the emerging world, from Ruling Families to Sovereign Funds and high-profile business families.

Having spent years trying to bridge the gap between these markets, Richard has now stepped down from the day-to-day operation of Tintra Group to become the CEO of Tintra plc. This London-listed company is leveraging Tintra and Richard's experiences in these markets and building the world's first build-for-purpose Web 3.0 artificial intelligence bank. He says it will be the first bank in the world built on principles that are "beyond borders, cultures, and politics."

Amine Sabri, Medallion Associates

Medallion is a Dubai-based investment and advisory firm with offices in London and Kuala Lumpur. Since Amine joined the firm as Executive Director of Investments and Strategy in 2020, the AUM rose beyond USD 500 million. The company diversified its activities towards technology-driven initiatives, cross-border investment strategies, and global strategic partnerships.

A Canadian national of Arab heritage, Amine is fluent in three languages. He moved to Dubai in early 2020. Since then, he rapidly became a trusted advisor for investment-related matters to Royal Family offices from the Middle East and governmental officials from Africa, bridging Middle East-Africa-North America business relations.

Amine is also an entrepreneur, and co-founder of Rocket Science Development, a fast-growing AI-focused technology company with offices in Montreal, Los Angeles, and Dubai. In 2021, he opened an office in Dubai exclusively focused on building AI-powered blockchain solutions for crypto/blockchain global companies and signed a strategic partnership for co-investment and incubation with Solana ventures, the USD 300 million venture arm of Solana Blockchain company.

Previously, Amine worked at Ernst & Young and Deloitte in Canada, where he reached an executive level and advised fortune 500 companies and multinational corporations. He also had broad experience within the Canadian retail and banking sectors. Amine is a CPA/CA Chartered holder and Laval University alumni.

Beyond his corporate and entrepreneur career, Amine is a happy and engaged father to two young boys.

Hani Khabbaz, Syria Recovery Trust Fund

Hani Khabbaz has been the Director-General of the Syria Recovery Trust Fund (SRTF) since June 2014. Established in 2013 by Germany, the United Arab Emirates, and the United States, the SRTF is a multi-donor trust fund that finances projects inside Syria to alleviate the suffering of the Syrian people. It has fourteen member states, including 12 contributing donors, Turkey and Jordan as host countries, and the German Development Bank (KfW) as the Trustee of the SRTF. To date, donor funding to the SRTF is around EUR 310 million, and the SRTF, under Mr. Khabbaz's leadership, has served around 12 million beneficiaries.

Mr. Khabbaz is a Mechanical Engineer, business consultant, certified information technology expert, and philanthropist. He has over twenty-five years of experience in senior management and business consulting positions in various industries.

An international independent consulting firm conducted an extensive review of the SRTF operations and described the relevance of the SRTF as "Highly Satisfactory, to the Syrian context, the needs of beneficiaries and Stakeholder interests and objectives." It also indicated that "the story underlying the SRTF is expansion, adaption, and innovation under the most difficult conditions" and that the "SRTF outputs are directly reaching beneficiaries."

Prior to starting a Technology and Business consulting practice in 2002, Mr. Khabbaz was a Regional Director for Arthur Andersen in the lower gulf region. In 2010, Mr. Khabbaz started a successful FMCG trading and distribution company in the levant region and the UAE, and in August 2011, as the crisis in Syria unfolded, Mr. Khabbaz began providing relief and aid to the Syrian people.

Chadi Hajjar, Vii Ventures

In 2020, during the Covid-19 pandemic, Chadi Hajjar saw a significant opportunity in the brewing crisis. He decided to create VII Ventures, which has since grown into one of the fastest-growing micro VC firms in the region, focusing on emerging technologies in the US, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. Chadi has over 15 years of experience working where he has excelled in technology, innovation, and venture. His core focus is on business, product strategy, and remarkable focus on operations.

Chadi is an emerging talent in the fast-growing EMEA & MENA venture capital space. Before moving to the GCC in 2017, Chadi worked across the globe, including Europe, Australia, and Southeast Asia. There he helped build and scale a number of successful automation, energy, and heavy industrial companies.

His current role at VII Ventures is to guide the team in each investment decision and then support the portfolio to scale. He currently acts as a mentor to company founders across the VII Ventures portfolio, offering them practical advice and support on the product, technology, funding, and accessing new markets. In addition, he is on the Board of some portfolio companies that have great potential to disrupt the Deep Technology sector.

In addition to his role at VII Ventures, Chadi is currently the Chief Innovation Officer at Lamar Holding, a large private investment group in the GCC. He is also the Chief Investment Officer of a Venture Builder and an Innovation Lab that are subsidiaries of Lamar Holding, focusing on the MENA innovation ecosystem. Through his roles, he is helping firms find solutions for the most pressing problems in the GCC's fast-growing technology sector.

Shefiq Abdulla, Telephony Telecommunications

Shefiq Abdulla is the Chief of Avatars of TCTx, a Metaverse company in Dubai, and the CEO of Telephony Communication Technologies. TCTx is the Metaverse arm of Telephony Communication Technologies, one of the early adopters of Web 3.0 technologies in MENA where customers will be able to access a wide range of solutions in Digital, Blockchain, FinTech, Xaas, ICT, Mobility, Telco, and Managed Services to improve efficiency, transformation and grow their businesses.

His business acumen and exemplary leadership skills, by and large, helped accelerate the consistent growth of the Telephony Group of Companies for over a decade. He began his career 20 years ago with Telephony in Sharjah when it was a newly incorporated start-up and climbed the ladder to the present position as the Chief Executive Officer of Group Businesses. Throughout the company's expansion and transformation, he worked his way up in different capacities, proving his leadership skills, team management, and industry know-how. Telephony Communication Technologies has now launched TCTx to empower businesses and communities towards their ultra-digitization goals. TCTx is building one of the biggest sustainable smart cities on Metaverse.

He has overseen the execution of major projects and regional expansion Telephony has undertaken over the years. He also has a unique hands-on approach to the company's day-to-day operational affairs. He attracted the best cross-industry talents and developed them into several high-performing team clusters delivering the projects Telephony was entrusted with by both the government and private sector companies.

He originally hails from Kerala, the southern state in India that has contributed hundreds of highly ambitious entrepreneurs to the Gulf economies. He has also taken proactive leadership for various CSR initiatives that have empowered hundreds of underprivileged. He ensured TCT is a great place to work for fresh graduates and senior executives alike by introducing staff welfare programs and recreational activities to enhance overall team happiness and competitiveness.