Egyptian business leader who came to UAE six decades ago retraces his journey

Gulf News

When the UAE and Egypt recently celebrated 50 years of deep-rooted official ties between the two countries, there was an Egyptian father-son duo among the UAE delegation that visited Egypt. The reason why the UAE government invited Farouk Mohamed and his son Hisham Farouk, the chairman and the CEO of Grant Thornton UAE respectively, for the historic celebration—Farouk is one of the earliest Egyptian expats to arrive here six decades ago and their company has celebrated 55 years in the UAE. It was a special moment for both of them.  Read the full story here: https://gulfnews.com/uae/watch-egyptian-business-leader-who-came-to-uae-six-decades-ago-retraces-his-journey-1.92768372  See more videos at https://gulfnews.com/videos Read more Gulf News stories here: https://bit.ly/2HLJ2km  Subscribe to Gulf News on YouTube and watch more of our videos: https://www.youtube.com/user/GulfNewsTV  #UAEnews #Dubai #Egypt

Transcript

00:00In the 60s, the government decided to nationalize all the private sectors.

00:16At the same time, the government sent a delegation to the crucial states, the seven states which

00:24is now the United Arab Emirates, to see what is happening in this part of the world, to

00:32reinforce the relationship with them.

00:36Delegation came, they had a meeting with the head of the chamber, chairman of the chamber

00:40of commerce, and as usual, they asked him how we can help you, what we can offer you.

00:47He said, we need accountants to help us in organizing our business.

00:55When they came back, they offered me to come here.

00:58I decided to look into the subject.

01:02Finally, I received employment agreement from here, and I decided to accept the job.

01:12When I came to Dubai, I was coming, I took the risk to come to a place unknown to me,

01:20but I was pushed by compassion and curiosity to see what is going to happen in this part

01:29of the world.

01:30The company really I joined was dealing in import and export and the construction company.

01:35I was the finance man and the manager for the construction company.

01:40I continued to work with this company for three years.

01:44Having the qualification as a chartered accountant, I decided to, and I was practicing before,

01:49I decided to practice a profession here.

01:52In 1966, I obtained the license.

01:55I started my practice in a small office with limited people, with limited resources, and

02:07that office was located, if you remember Dubai very well, in Nasir Square in Dera.

02:15This was the real start of ourselves.

02:18Gradually, really, we started really to be in the market.

02:22The market was very difficult at that time.

02:25We are talking to people with a language unknown for them.

02:30The market was very difficult to penetrate.

02:35But because when I started, I was associated with one of the international professionals,

02:42one of the big eight, so we managed to be able to give good quality for our clients.

02:50I'm proud really to say that the companies, we started with them to provide professional

02:59service 55 years ago.

03:02Still, they are our clients until today, working with the third generation with them.

03:10When I started, I started with the international professional firm.

03:15I stayed with this professional firm for a couple of years.

03:18After that, we had a partnership with Coopers and Labyrinth.

03:22That partnership was not a member firm, full partnership with London.

03:28And the partnership continued until 1975.

03:34And then after that, I joined Grants Ranton.

03:38And from that time until now, we are a member firm for Grants Ranton and the oldest member

03:45firm in the network.

03:48With the quality we were providing, with our relationship with the, as I said, founder

03:55of the family business, we managed really to carve our space in the market.

04:04Challenge really was too much, but gradually with the quality, with the loyalty, we managed

04:14really to move and grow.

04:17Our growth was parallel to the growth of UAE and the family business also.

04:24The real growth started when Hisham joined me 25 years ago.

04:31Many things, it has been introduced by him.

04:35He has a vision, the leadership, and he took a decision under no circumstances I could

04:44have dared to do it myself.

04:47In my early teens, we left to continue my education overseas, and I finished my university

04:52and master's, and I came back in 1999.

04:55So when I first came back, Grants Ranton here, we were only 20 people.

04:59And that was really synonymous to the size of Dubai.

05:01If you can imagine at that time, Emirates Towers was still under construction.

05:05And there was nothing else beyond that, all the way to Jebel Ali.

05:09So we were very blessed.

05:11I came in 1999, and I witnessed this massive growth that has taken place in the country.

05:15And we continued building our business to be aligned with that growth and the requirements

05:19and expectations.

05:20And we're very proud to say that today we're almost 500 people, providing a full suite

05:24of services that are actually aligned with all the regulations and changes that are happening

05:28in the country, and the need for this professional support, which we are very happy to provide.

05:32If I am comparing really the start with what we are now, standing now, it's amazing and

05:41unbelievable growth.

05:43We started with two people, with four rooms.

05:48Now we are in our offices, really.

05:50The size of this office is almost, with the extension we are going to have, is 30,000

05:56square feet.

05:57We cannot forget our people.

06:00Without them, we could not have reached anything.

06:05Our clients, without the good relationship, the trust, the confidence they put in us,

06:12we could not have reached where we are today.

06:15This combination, staff, people, client, relationship, we managed to be Grand Frontenac of today.

06:25One of my proudest moments in my professional career is in 2016, when I was appointed to

06:31the Global Board of Grand Frontenac International.

06:33This was, of course, a fantastic recognition, not only for my own personal professional

06:39presence, but most importantly, for the success of the business, which was led by its people.

06:44Even more so, it was the first representation of someone from the Middle East.

06:48It was very important for the voice of the Middle East to be heard in a professional

06:52arena across the world.

06:53As our changes and regulations took place, we were able to be aligned and learn from

06:57the best practices of the international arena and be able to bring it back into this part

07:02of the world.

07:03United Arab Emirates is not only in my heart, it is also in my blood.

07:09Being here for that long time, I believe that my feeling as Egyptian and as staying in UAE

07:20melded together to create a new nationality for me.

07:25I can say I am not really UAE, I can say I am UAE, United Arab Emirates Egyptian.

07:36As a reflection, as a confirmation of my love to this part of the world, in where I

07:44spend the majority of my life.

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