20-05-2025
Abdul Aziz Al Ghurair
For Abdul Aziz Al Ghurair, chairman of Mashreq Bank—the oldest privately-owned bank in the United Arab Emirates—philanthropy is a family tradition. It helps that the family happens to be one of the wealthiest in the Arab world, with a business empire built over three generations with interests in construction, property, food production, and finance in over 50 countries.
A decade ago, Abdul Aziz's father Abdulla, who founded the bank with family in 1967, set aside one-third of his assets (then worth $1.1 billion) to launch the Abdulla Al Ghurair Foundation. The focus: providing educational opportunities for Arab and Emirati youth—a cause that Abdulla, who never finished secondary school, was passionate about. He named his son chair and Abdul Aziz has been expanding on his father's mandate for giving ever since, launching a variety of programs in partnership with universities, corporations, and other nonprofits that have so far helped more than 230,000 young people access education and job opportunities.
One signature initiative: the $32.6 million Abdul Aziz Al Ghurair Refugee Education Fund, launched in 2018, which helps refugees—more than 100,000 so far, many from Syria and Palestine, and over half, female—access secondary, vocational, and tertiary education in the UAE, Jordan, and Lebanon. Abdul Aziz is also an anchor donor to the Global Muslim Philanthropy Fund for Children, launched in 2019 by UNICEF and the Islamic Development Bank.'Strategic philanthropy transforms lives by building ecosystems where people thrive,' he said at the foundation's recent summit.
