The psychology behind business is something about which Sameer Al Ansari seems to give plenty of thought. As we sit in a plush boardroom in Dubai International Financial Centre — the emirate’s economic nucleus — issues such as human nature, motivation and a real concern as to whether those currently at the helm in Dubai have really learnt any lessons from the global recession of 2009 are subjects he has clearly considered for some time. “Human nature impacts everything. When things begin to pick up, general optimism and positive energy, all these things begin to feed on themselves,” he says, before counterbalancing it with a cautious footnote to bring proceedings back down to earth. “People have short memories. Several things have changed... [But in] human nature deep, deep down, we are all greedy, so if they get the chance to do it, they’ll do it again. In five years’ time, ten years’ time, 20 years’ time? I don’t know. It will happen again.” Of course, if anyone is in a position to know whether things have changed in Dubai it is Al Ansari. Few people have been privileged enough to be in the central core when the global recession engulfed the Dubai real estate market in 2008 and when it faced the headline-grabbing Dubai World debt crisis in 2009. Born in Kuwait but holding UAE nationality, he started out as a senior manager with Ernst & Young from 1987 to 1992, but his career progression quickly brought him deep into the inner circle of Dubai’s business community.
He served as group chief financial officer for the Executive Office of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Ruler of Dubai and Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE, and was the founding chairman and CEO of Dubai International Capital, a subsidiary of Dubai Holding and widely considered to be the sovereign wealth fund of Dubai, with assets under management of around $13bn. Add those positions to the fact he was also chief executive of Shuaa Capital, one of the Gulf’s top listed financial services institutions, for two years and chief financial officer at Dubai Aluminium Company (Dubal), where for eight years he played a significant role in the successful turnaround of the company, and you get a sense of the responsibility that has been regularly placed on Al Ansari’s shoulders by Dubai’s most powerful leaders and the insights he has gained over the years.“My view is that Dubai and the UAE are probably in the strongest point and position economically that I have ever known them to be. The crisis obviously impacted the whole world, and probably impacted us more than other countries, but we have emerged in a very strong position,” he says. “Economically, Dubai and Abu Dhabi are doing extremely well... If you look at the five years pre-crisis, Dubai went through a tremendous period of growth. Was it fundamentally driven or money driven? I think the whole world was money driven. There was enormous liquidity around the world chasing assets... Of course there were bubbles all over the world and when those bubbles burst everybody suffered. “I think today the fundamentals are stronger. We have population growth, we have all the various sectors of the economy doing very strongly and it is demand-driven rather than supply-driven and liquidity-driven. “The whole world is in a better shape and banks are in better shape and many of the issues we faced before are being addressed. Demand is coming back strongly.” To cater to this demand, mega projects — from even bigger malls to canals, theme parks and underwater hotels — are being announced all the time, but has anything been learnt from the scary days of the recession and what is going to stop history repeating itself all over again? “In Dubai there is a better handle on what the various state-owned enterprises and government-related entities are doing, how much debt there is and how it is going to be repaid. That is one,” he says, laying out his theory about how human nature has indeed changed in Dubai and some of the greed-led, crazy policies and projects of the past have been put out to pasture. “Secondly, access to debt is not what it used to be, so even if people get carried away the banks now act as the checks and balances. Before they were literally throwing money at everybody to do something and go spend it.
He served as group chief financial officer for the Executive Office of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Ruler of Dubai and Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE, and was the founding chairman and CEO of Dubai International Capital, a subsidiary of Dubai Holding and widely considered to be the sovereign wealth fund of Dubai, with assets under management of around $13bn. Add those positions to the fact he was also chief executive of Shuaa Capital, one of the Gulf’s top listed financial services institutions, for two years and chief financial officer at Dubai Aluminium Company (Dubal), where for eight years he played a significant role in the successful turnaround of the company, and you get a sense of the responsibility that has been regularly placed on Al Ansari’s shoulders by Dubai’s most powerful leaders and the insights he has gained over the years.“My view is that Dubai and the UAE are probably in the strongest point and position economically that I have ever known them to be. The crisis obviously impacted the whole world, and probably impacted us more than other countries, but we have emerged in a very strong position,” he says. “Economically, Dubai and Abu Dhabi are doing extremely well... If you look at the five years pre-crisis, Dubai went through a tremendous period of growth. Was it fundamentally driven or money driven? I think the whole world was money driven. There was enormous liquidity around the world chasing assets... Of course there were bubbles all over the world and when those bubbles burst everybody suffered. “I think today the fundamentals are stronger. We have population growth, we have all the various sectors of the economy doing very strongly and it is demand-driven rather than supply-driven and liquidity-driven. “The whole world is in a better shape and banks are in better shape and many of the issues we faced before are being addressed. Demand is coming back strongly.” To cater to this demand, mega projects — from even bigger malls to canals, theme parks and underwater hotels — are being announced all the time, but has anything been learnt from the scary days of the recession and what is going to stop history repeating itself all over again? “In Dubai there is a better handle on what the various state-owned enterprises and government-related entities are doing, how much debt there is and how it is going to be repaid. That is one,” he says, laying out his theory about how human nature has indeed changed in Dubai and some of the greed-led, crazy policies and projects of the past have been put out to pasture. “Secondly, access to debt is not what it used to be, so even if people get carried away the banks now act as the checks and balances. Before they were literally throwing money at everybody to do something and go spend it.
