Meet Adil Alzarooni: From laundry owner to ethical hacker to thriving CEO in the UAE

Gulf News

Long before Emirati business leader, educator, and author Dr Adil Alzarooni rose through the ranks to become the CEO of Al Zarooni Emirates Investments (ZEI) and Al Bidayer Holding, and the Founder of Citizens School, he ran a chain of laundries in his 20s.  With a capital of Dh100,000, all of which came from his savings and earnings as a top student at Etisalat College of Engineering (now known as Khalifa University), Alzarooni kept his first business venture a secret from his family.  Read the full story here: https://gulfnews.com/business/laundry-owner-to-ethical-hacker-to-ceo-of-many-companies-uae-businessman-adil-alzaroonis-journey-1.96055981  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 #emirati

Transcript

00:00I wish that I was taught few statistics when I was a kid.

00:08Nine out of 10 businesses will fail in the first three years.

00:11Failure is the norm.

00:13You will have money, you need to know how to manage it

00:15and not to gamble with it.

00:17And you need to manage it long term

00:19and not get driven by forex day trading

00:23and stock market day trading

00:24and follow trends that are baseless.

00:27And I wish I was taught these things earlier on in my life.

00:31I would have saved myself a lot of stress

00:35and waste of money and tears.

00:40My name is Adel Azarouni, a telecom engineer,

00:44a professional hacker or ex-hacker.

00:49Worked in Saudi Arabia with the satellite mobile.

00:54For a few years, joined the government of Dubai,

00:57Jabal Ali Free Zone.

00:59For 10 years, attracting FDI and developing economic zones.

01:04Established my family office around 15 years ago.

01:09Currently running a couple of family offices

01:12in multiple fields.

01:14My fields of expertise are in economic zones development,

01:19economic zones development,

01:21family businesses sustainability.

01:24I have been involved in many sectors,

01:29starting with the healthcare industry,

01:32getting into financial services,

01:34into consumerism technologies, food and beverages,

01:38FMCG, fast moving consumer goods.

01:42And currently focusing on education and venture studios.

01:50What was the time like when you were still working?

01:53You were not an entrepreneur yet.

01:55So I'm asking this because I want to understand

01:57how that transition happened.

01:59Yeah, it's actually happened

02:00towards the end of college days.

02:03So Saudi College of Engineering at the days

02:06used to reward the top students with some cash.

02:11So I accumulated some of that

02:14and I wanted to get into business,

02:17but I wouldn't tell my father

02:19because I feared failing.

02:21And I didn't want to embarrass myself and the family.

02:24So I bought actually a chain of laundries.

02:28And when asked, you know, why did you do that?

02:30I said, well, I opened the newspaper,

02:31I found a laundry for sale.

02:33I said, you know what, let me start something.

02:35And I actually bought it.

02:37And I started operating it.

02:40And that taught me sales.

02:43That taught me customer service.

02:45That taught me how to read books, financials.

02:49That taught me cash flow.

02:50That taught me management of staff,

02:54labors, expectations, quality, or even machinery.

02:58I mean, like running operations.

03:00So I used to do most of that with my hands.

03:02So I stand at the reception, receive garments,

03:06handle marketing, handle...

03:09That gave me a lot of ammunition earlier on

03:14onto how to manage a customer.

03:17This is why I'm very much of an experienced guy.

03:20Today, even.

03:22To me, everything that I do needs to be an experience.

03:26Education is an experience.

03:27Healthcare is an experience.

03:29Food and beverages is an experience.

03:32So at this point in time, it's my dearest baby.

03:36Why?

03:37And I like the environment

03:39because the education environment is so noble.

03:42It's positive.

03:44It's about enhancing people's life.

03:47So everybody is collaborative.

03:50In business, you would know that it's not always the case.

03:52You know, many times it's invasive.

03:55It's challenging.

03:56It's political.

03:57It's crunching, yeah?

04:03Education is more noble.

04:05And I like that, I have to say.

04:07But am I stuck onto this feeling?

04:10No, but I'm quite influenced, though, and inspired.

04:14So I saw a lot of gaps in what we get taught as humans.

04:22And this is inspiring me to diversify

04:27into parallel industries that require a lot of education.

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