CEO of the Week: DAMAC’s Hussain Sajwani

DAMAC Properties Dubai Co (DAMAC) is a property development company. The company focuses on the development of luxury residential villas and apartments, leisure properties, mixed-use properties, hospitality and commercial properties.

The Company’s portfolio includes residential apartments, hotel apartments, serviced apartments, furnished apartments, hotel rooms, villas, offices, land and retail.

In addition, the company offers interior architecture and decoration, master community planning and design, project management and design, facility and shift management, emergency preparedness, fire protection, mechanical, plumbing and electrical maintenance, financial controls and billing, and structural planning services.

DAMAC operates and manages hotel apartments in partnership with Paramount Hotels & Resorts. The company has offices in the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan, Lebanon and the United Kingdom. DAMAC is headquartered in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

The brain behind this successful venture is a 70-year-old Emirati billionaire businessman Hussain Sajwani. He is the founder of DAMAC Properties and his private investment company, DAMAC Group.

Who is Hussain Sajwani?

1. Hussain Sajwani was born into a conservative, middle-class family of Dubai in 1953

2. In the beginning of his educational career, Sajwani went to attend a medical college in Baghdad after getting a government scholarship, but he did not complete the course

3. As he had keen interest in economics, he went on to complete his graduation degree in economics from the University of Washington

4. After completing his degree, he joined GASCO, an Abu Dhabi gas company, to serve as a contracts manager, but soon left the job and joined Abu Dhabi National Oil Company

5. In 1982, Sajwani established his own business under the name of DAMAC LLC and later it became DAMAC Group

6. In 1992, he established ZDICO Invest, an investment company and also found Al Jazeira Services Co SAOG which has a capitalization of over USD 125 million

7. In 2002, he established DAMAC Properties, which is one of the largest property development companies in the Middle East

8. Hussain Sajwani resigned as the chairman of DAMAC Properties and offered to take the company private in 2021

9. He is ranked number 15 on ‘Hotelier Power 50’ – CEO Middle East Awards 2017 and he is in the ‘100 Most Powerful People in Global Hospitality,’ which was recognized by the ‘International Hospitality Institute’s Global 100’ in 2022

10. As of 2025, Hussain Sajwani ranks in the top richest Arabs with a net worth 510 crores USD, according to  Forbes