Khalaf Ahmad Al Habtoor won one of the region’s most prestigious awards at the Gulf Business Industry Awards (GBIA) 2013. Gulf Business magazine announced the Al Habtoor Group Chairman as the winner of its Lifetime Achievement Award at a lavish event held at the Oberoi Dubai on Monday September 23rd.
Al Habtoor, who was unable to attend the event, said, “It was a pleasure to be selected in this category. Success isn’t something that comes easy.”
The Chairman, who released his bestselling autobiography last year, ‘Khalaf Ahmad Al Habtoor, the Autobiography’ added, “Success is something you have to work hard to achieve, be disciplined and have a good team of people around. To be successful, you have to fail first.”
The event was hosted by Motivate Publishing, in association with Marina Gulf and co-sponsored by Alpari, Nikon, and Servcorp.
Ian Fairservice, Managing Partner and Group Editor at Motivate, who presented the award to Mohammed Al Habtoor, CEO and Vice Chairman of the Al Habtoor Group, on his father’s behalf, said, “This is the readers’ choice, the view of the business public.”
Fairservice paid a visit to the Al Habtoor Group Chairman to personally congratulate him on winning the prestigious award.
The winners were voted for by the GBIA’s independent judging panel, which included Ibrahim Al Ansari, CEO of Dubai First; Husam Hourani, Managing Partner at Al Tamimi; Y. S Shashidhar, Managing Director of Frost and Sullivan MENA; Peter Cooper, Editor of ArabianMoney. net and Alicia Buller, Editor of Gulf Business.
It marks the second time this year the Al Habtoor Group Chairman has been presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award. In May, His Highness Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Chairman of Dubai Airports and Chairman and CEO of Emirates, awarded Al Habtoor with the Arabian Hotel Investment Conference (AHIC 2013) 'Lifetime Achievement Award' recognising him for his “invaluable contribution to the region's hotel industry.”