Meet 9 Influential CEOs in Dubai Leading Major Brands and Shaping the Business Landscape in 2026.
Dubai’s business story extends beyond its impressive skyline, major investments, and international brands. Behind the city’s expanding economy are entrepreneurs and executives building businesses around changing customer needs, new technology, and evolving ways of working.
From digital payments and property platforms to food delivery, e-commerce, and remote-work software, these leaders represent a range of industries connected to Dubai’s wider business ecosystem. Some have built services around everyday consumer needs, while others are working to change how people manage money, find homes, communicate, and work across borders.
Here are nine business leaders whose companies offer a glimpse into the ideas and industries influencing the region’s commercial landscape.
1. Kamal Reggad: RemotePass
Industry: HR technology and software-as-a-service
Managing an international workforce can involve complicated employment arrangements, payroll processes, and administrative requirements across different countries. RemotePass operates in the HR technology sector, providing businesses with tools to manage distributed teams and support cross-border work.
As companies hire talent beyond their home markets, the demand for software that simplifies international workforce management has grown. Leaders in this sector must understand both the technology involved and the practical challenges businesses face when employing people in different jurisdictions.
RemotePass represents a broader shift toward digital services that help companies work across geographical boundaries without relying on traditional office-based structures.
2. Khaled Al-Otaibi: Talabat
Industry: Food technology and delivery
Food delivery has become an established part of urban life across the Middle East. Talabat connects customers with restaurants, grocery providers, and other merchants through digital ordering and delivery services.
Operating in this market requires businesses to balance customer convenience with merchant relationships, delivery operations, and service reliability. Competition also places pressure on platforms to maintain an experience that encourages customers to return.
Talabat reflects how digital services have changed access to everyday essentials, allowing customers to order food and other products through a single platform.
Note: The supplied profile identifies Khaled Al-Otaibi as a Talabat leader, but his specific executive title was not provided.
3. Michael Lahyani: Property Finder
Industry: Property technology
Property decisions often involve substantial financial commitments, making reliable information and accessible listings important to buyers, renters, and investors.
Property Finder operates in the real estate technology sector, helping users explore properties and compare options across regional markets. Its platform connects property seekers with listings and gives them a digital starting point for researching homes and investment opportunities.
For proptech executives, the challenge extends beyond putting listings online. Information quality, user experience, trust, and an understanding of local property markets all influence how people use these services.
Property Finder illustrates the growing role of digital platforms in how people discover and evaluate real estate.
4. Hosam Arab: Tabby
Industry: Financial technology
The growth of digital commerce has changed how consumers pay for purchases. Tabby is known for its buy-now, pay-later services, which allow eligible customers to divide qualifying purchases into installments.
Building a financial technology business in this category requires more than developing a convenient payment option. Companies must consider consumer protection, responsible lending, merchant relationships, regulatory requirements, and the long-term sustainability of their business models.
Tabby’s growth reflects the wider development of digital payments and alternative payment options across the Middle East. Its business also illustrates the responsibilities that accompany financial products designed for everyday consumers.
5. Mudassir Sheikha: Careem
Industry: Mobility, digital services, and fintech
Careem began by addressing a familiar urban need: making transportation easier to access. Over time, the company expanded into additional digital services, building on its relationships with customers, drivers, and businesses across the region.
Mudassir Sheikha’s entrepreneurial journey is closely associated with the growth of technology-led services in the Middle East. Careem demonstrates how a company can expand beyond its original service by using its customer relationships and digital infrastructure to address related needs.
Such expansion brings its own challenges. Each new service requires an understanding of customer expectations, operational demands, and the competitive conditions of the market it enters.
Careem’s evolution offers an example of how regional technology businesses can grow by responding to everyday needs while exploring new areas of activity.
6. Mona Ataya: Mumzworld
Industry: E-commerce and family-focused retail
Shopping for children and family essentials often involves research, product comparisons, and confidence in the retailer. Mumzworld was established around this specialized market, offering parents an online destination for products serving babies, children, and families.
Mona Ataya’s entrepreneurial journey illustrates the value of understanding a specific audience. Rather than serving every type of customer, a business can build its offering around a clearly defined set of needs.
In e-commerce, long-term customer relationships depend on factors such as relevant product selection, reliable service, convenient shopping, and confidence in the purchasing process.
Mumzworld reflects how a focused retail business can serve a distinct consumer segment in an increasingly competitive online market.
7. J.C. Butler: Dubizzle Group
Industry: Digital marketplaces and classifieds
Online marketplaces have changed how people buy and sell products, search for services, and discover opportunities. Dubizzle Group operates in the digital classifieds and marketplace sector, with platforms serving categories that include property, vehicles, and other consumer needs.
Building a successful marketplace involves more than attracting users. Businesses must maintain listing quality, provide a useful search experience, and give customers reasons to return. Trust is particularly important when transactions involve expensive purchases such as homes and vehicles.
Dubizzle Group represents the role of digital marketplaces in connecting buyers and sellers across multiple categories.
Note: The supplied profile identifies J.C. Butler as a Dubizzle Group leader but does not specify his exact executive title.
8. Amira Sajwani: PRYPCO
Industry: Property technology and real estate investment
Real estate remains a major part of Dubai’s business identity, while technology is creating new ways for people to access property-related services and investment opportunities.
Amira Sajwani is associated with PRYPCO, a property technology business offering services connected to real estate investment and financing. Her wider professional profile also links her to DAMAC and Amali Properties, connecting established property development with newer approaches to property services.
For proptech businesses, one challenge is making complex processes easier for customers to understand. Access to clear information, straightforward procedures, and a better understanding of available options can influence how buyers and investors engage with the market.
Sajwani’s work represents the intersection of real estate development, investment services, and digital platforms.
9. Pavel Durov: Telegram
Industry: Messaging and digital communication
Digital communication platforms have become important tools for individuals, communities, and businesses. Telegram has built an international audience through messaging, group conversations, channels, and other communication features.
Pavel Durov’s entrepreneurial journey reflects the ambition involved in building a technology platform for users across different countries and markets. Running a global communication service also brings responsibilities involving privacy, security, content moderation, and user trust.
Telegram’s international reach illustrates how a digital product developed by an entrepreneurial team can become part of everyday communication across geographical boundaries.
Durov’s inclusion also reflects Dubai’s connection to internationally active technology entrepreneurs, although Telegram’s user base and operations extend well beyond the UAE.
What These Business Leaders Tell Us About Dubai’s Economy
The companies associated with these nine leaders operate in very different industries, but their business models share a common starting point: identifying a customer need and developing a service around it.
RemotePass addresses the administrative challenges of international work. Talabat connects customers with food and other products. Property Finder and PRYPCO operate in the property sector, while Tabby focuses on payment options. Careem, Mumzworld, Dubizzle Group, and Telegram serve different needs across mobility, retail, online marketplaces, and communication.
Technology plays a significant role across these businesses, but it is not the only factor behind their development. Customer trust, service quality, operational decisions, and an understanding of local markets also influence how companies compete and grow.
Dubai’s business environment brings together regional entrepreneurs, international companies, and investors across a wide range of sectors. The leaders featured here offer different perspectives on building businesses in that environment, from solving everyday problems to developing services that operate across borders.
For aspiring entrepreneurs and business professionals, the broader lesson is that leadership involves more than launching an ambitious idea. It requires understanding the people a business serves, making sound decisions, and continuing to deliver value as customer needs and market conditions change.
Read more news and follow us on Instagram
Source: UAE Stories
