Jack Ma
I got into business after 10 years of professional life as an engineer and an actuary - both excellent professions that I continue to take pride to be have been associated with. After a decade, I realized that professional life was not for me given my need for versatility and breadth in my work day, freedom to go where imagination took me, and a platform to dream big and work towards achieving something great.
At 33, I decided to quit my job as a pensions actuary in Toronto, and become an entrepreneur. I moved to Qatar and, with the mentorship of my father, launched a construction company. Over 10 years, along with a very capable team, I diversified the business beyond construction, into Oil & Gas Services, IT, and Management Consulting.
Through this journey, I went through a major corporate turnaround and restructuring, several partnerships and JVs, and a business exit. Today, DicoTech is home to over 500 full-time employees, and is one of Qatar's renown service providers in its field of work.
Having transformed DicoTech into a fully professionally run enterprise, in 2017, I found myself looking for the next challenge, for a change. With our kids growing up, my wife and I decided to move to Canada. After almost two years of discussions, research and soul-searching, I decided to take on a near-impossible task: To create Canada's first institutional-quality halal mortgage company, which would provide the 1.6 million Canadian Muslims a pathway to halal financing without shortcuts, compromises, or deception. In early 2020, I founded EQRAZ Inc., to be not just a leader in Canadian Islamic Finance, but to be a cornerstone institution aiming to actively grow halal financing in North America.
I am an active member of the Young Presidents Organization ("YPO") through which I have made wonderful professional friends, and developed an extensive network of peers that have helped me through my entrepreneurial journey, to become a better leader, and a better person.
By education, I am an an actuary, a chemical engineer, and an MBA, educated at Imperial College of Science, Technology & Medicine, UK and at HEC Paris, Qatar - both of which are included in Global top-10 rankings within their respective academic fields.
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