Hussain Sajwani

Hussain Sajwani was born in 1953 in Dubai, when the emirate was still a modest trading port with little of the wealth oil would later bring. His father ran a small shop selling watches and pens, and Sajwani grew up helping in the family trade before winning a government scholarship to study in the United States, where he supported his living costs in part by running a small catering business for fellow students.

He returned to Dubai and worked briefly for the government before starting his own trading company in the early 1980s, supplying goods and later catering services to the growing number of foreign workers and companies arriving as Dubai began to develop as a regional hub. That catering arm eventually grew into one of the largest food service operations in the Gulf, feeding labour camps and oil industry sites, a steady if unglamorous business that gave him the capital to move into property.

In 2002, when the Dubai government first allowed foreigners to own property in designated areas, Sajwani founded DAMAC Properties, betting early and heavily on the emirate's ambition to become a global luxury property and tourism destination. The company grew rapidly through the property boom of the 2000s, survived the sharp Dubai crash of 2008 to 2009 that ruined several rivals, and went on to build tens of thousands of homes across the region.

He has remained closely associated with Dubai's transformation from trading port to global city, and with the boom-and-bust cycles that have shaped its property market.