UAE-based Thumbay Group on the verge of global expansion.

In the UAE, Thumbay Group founder and president Thumbay Moideen is already well known as one of the country’s success stories, having turned a chance meeting decades ago into a huge and diversified – and expanding – business conglomerate.

But rather than rest on his laurels, Thumbay is ready to embark on a new journey that will see the company spread as far afield as West Africa and the Balkans.

The Thumbay Group story began in earnest in 1997, when Thumbay – a third generation businessman from India – happened, by chance, to meet Ajman ruler Sheikh Humaid Bin Rashid Al Nuaimi while traveling through the UAE while on his way to Africa.

The initial meeting ended with an invitation from Sheikh Humaid to establish a medical university in the emirate. The end result, Gulf Medical University (GMU), became the first private medical university in the UAE and possibly the entire Middle East, in 1998, and the Thumbay network of hospitals became the first private teaching hospital network.

Since that time, the company has expanded enormously, with Thumbay Group now being involved in businesses ranging from hospitals and clinics across the UAE to real estate and construction, pharmacies, labs, a floral shop and even a chain of coffeehouses as well as health clubs and spas.

The first business, GMU, now trains nearly 20 percent of the doctors and 60 percent of the healthcare professionals in the UAE with the Thumbay Hospital network.

We want to dream big, we want to think big and we want to become global palyers

Speaking to Arabian Business, Thumbay proudly explains that he’s “nowhere near” done with Thumbay Group, which he says is currently in the midst of changes in both organisational and mindset terms.

By 2023, he says, the company has plans to expand ten-fold and increase its employee strength to 25,000 around the globe.

“Many people have said it’s time to grow. We want to dream big, we want to think big, and we want to become global players,” he says.

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