Chairman of the Board, Mashreqbank PSC (Mashreq)
Winner's Stage: Arabian Business Achievement Award 2018 - HE Abdul Aziz Al Ghurair
As the CEO of Mashreq Bank, the chairman of the UAE Banking Federation and the Chairman of Al Ghurair Investment, Abdul Aziz Al Ghurair has helped shape the economic fortunes of this nation.
But arguably these aren’t even his most important roles. He’s also the chairman of the Abdulla Al Ghurair Foundation for Education. And this summer he launched a $27m education fund to finance the education of refugee children in the Middle East.
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Transcript (15 segments)
A
Abdul Al Ghurair0:04
Salam Alaikum. I'd like to thank all of you for being here with me for such a special occasion. I am truly humbled. Your Highness Sheikh Saud and Saker Al Qasimi, ladies and gentlemen, good evening.
As an Emirati and a business leader, I feel giving is both a privilege and a duty. The Arab world is generous, but the challenge, the real challenge, is when what we donate to and how we donate so that our contribution can have more meaningful impact on our people and on our region.
I firmly believe that Arab giving, if properly prioritized, will lift our people from poverty, conflict, and ignorance. But let me emphasize, it is not just how much we give, it is also what we give to and how we give. This is why I am calling for a new era in Arab giving, and it has four approaches.
First, Arab philanthropy must institutionalize their giving. We have the great Gates Foundation, everyone should have a clear strategy for their giving that is focused and demand-resulted.
Second, more Arab charity must be professionalized and specialized. We need to apply the same standards to our charity organizations as we apply to our business. Charity organizations must be legally registered, have a board, staff, corporate governance, strategy, goals, and really we need to work for impact. We have to have results.
Charity organizations also need to be specialized and earn their reputation as experts in one field. We cannot have every charity that does everything, and they have to choose whether they want to do it in environment, education, health, whatever it is. But I think the time has come that we really need to specialize.
The third point is that all Arab donors and charity must adopt transparency and accountability. I believe that the more transparent and accountable our charity sector is, the more it will boost confidence of the Arab donors and also encourage our government to work closely with us.
Fourth, Arab philanthropy needs to be open about their giving and work together with other philanthropies. I believe giving should be talked about and discussed publicly, and it will really encourage other donors to give and go public and to establish quality giving approaches and organizations.
Traditionally here, when we do charity, we do it on the quiet side. Because of the size of the economy and the size of the charity programs we have, I think we need to be talking about it and we should encourage other people to join also.
The fifth point is that philanthropists should personally engage in their giving. I believe that philanthropy is not about giving your money, it is also about giving your time. It is this experience. My father gave me the opportunity to chair his fund to give scholarships for bright young Arab students across the Arab world. For the last two and a half years, we have been giving scholarships to go to Canada, the U.S., the Arab world, and Turkey. I met some other bright students, and I discovered that some of them came from a background of refugees.
And today we have some of those refugees who came here. Can I have them come over?
They came here by accident, and some of them had to work hard, left high school. I would like to take a photograph of them. They left high school and took jobs to support their family. So Muhammad, he worked for two years helping his parents living here after migrating or leaving Syria. He applied for a scholarship, got in. We have received over fifty thousand applications for the scholarship online. He got in. Today he is studying at the American University of Sharjah. He is studying computer science and he is a 4.0.
So it is people like him who have been here, and I find them, they are smart, who really inspired me to say, well, while you are looking after people like him who have been lucky to get a scholarship, we are also missing out on people who are still in the camp and have no chance to be here to complete their education. So I got inspired because I got involved. That is why I am calling that people should not only give their money, they should also give their time. Because I gave my time, I came across these people, and the idea came that we have to look after the refugees in their camps.
So today we are launching a program where fifteen thousand students from the UAE, Jordan, and Lebanon will get access to quality schools, colleges, and universities so they can complete their programs. It is people like them who have been demonstrating that they are intelligent. That is why I have accepted this award. I hope that by being public and talking about it, it will encourage other people to come forward and also talk about their programs and encourage more of the community to participate in uplifting our society. Thank you very much for this.
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