President and founder of Millennium & Copthorne Middle East Ali Lakhraim explains how his Abu Dhabi roots have contributed to his success and reveals his ambitious vision for dominating the Middle East hotel industry.
Millennium & Copthorne Middle East president and founder Ali Lakhraim cannot hide his competitive streak, which derives from his passion for the industry.
Lakhraim is best known for his initiation of Millennium in the Middle East and for his role as vice-chairman and founder of Pearl Azure Hotels, through which he owns the Crowne Plaza hotels in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, Sheikh Zayed Road among others.
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Lakhraim is also founder and vice chairman of Emirates Hotels Company (EHC), which owns various hotel interests such as the Vista Fujairah Beach Resort and is the majority share holder in the National Corporation for Hotels and Tourism based in Abu Dhabi.
But, in spite of his achievements, Lakhraim admits his tendency to “personally stay below the radar”.
While he might not shout about it, Lakhraim graduated as a telecoms engineer and within 13 years had engineered one of the region’s most successful hotel operations, but he remains very low profile.
“We’re always in stealth mode, that is why you don’t tend to hear a lot about us. The most promoted part of the business is our subsidiary joint venture, Millennium Hotels,” explains Lakhraim.
The partnership is the only one in Millennium & Copthorne’s history where the company has a pure management focus, allowing it to grow at an unprecedented pace.
Under Lakhraim’s leadership the company has grown to 35 hotels in the Middle East, with plans to reach 40 by the end of the year.
By 2010, the company intends to manage 50-plus hotels.
“An engineer can do a lot of things and if you love what you do, you give more. I work from 8am until 9pm and I travel at least one or two weeks every month; visiting owners and potential owners. I spent yesterday in three different cities,” he says.
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