Media Release

Dubai, Jan 22: An event featuring ‘Sharing of entrepreneur success for enriching society’ was held at the India Club, Dubai on 19th Jan, 2013.  It was the perfect start to the New Year to hear the success of an entrepreneur who has now pledged significant time and effort for development of education and health care especially in developing countries like India.  The entrepreneur was none other than Faizal Kottikollon, Founder and Chairman of The KEF Company.

Through his corporate video, Faizal provided snapshots of his growth as an entrepreneur from a simple steel scrap trading business in 1995, to a well-established foundry manufacturing high end valves in the early 2000.More importantly, he demonstrated how he transformed his staff to be leaders of tomorrow by providing them in house training in key areas including education, recreation and an excellent work environment.  In spite of objections from his management, he ploughed the entire AED 20 million profit that he had earned in his first year into setting up this community centre.

The Community Center soon drew recognition from across the region and won wholesome praise, including a rare visit by HH Dr. Sheikh Sultan Bin Mohammed Al Qassimi, the Ruler of Sharjah, who congratulated him for his unique initiative.  Another milestone was achieved in 2011 when the former President of India, Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, a renowned scientist in his own right, visited the manufacturing facility and addressed a large crowd of engineers and dignitaries at the Community Center.  He said all these aspects helped him reach the pinnacle of success.  His company, Emirates Techno Casting LLC was acquired by Tyco International, a $20B global conglomerate in 2011 for a valuation of around $400 million.

Instead of enjoying the rich dividends earned through this exit, he decided to plough it back to developing education and health-care through his foundation – Faizal and Shabana Foundation.  The foundation made an endowment of AED 5 Million, named the ‘Shabana and Faizal Scholarship’ to the American University of Sharjah.  The scholarship allows bright students whose finances preclude them from joining the University to benefit from this grant and permits the University to select the best and brightest students irrespective of their financial background. 

The Foundation has contributed AED 1 Million towards Alzheimer’s and Breast Cancer Research being carried out by the University of Sharjah’s newly designed Research Center. The Foundation is also undertaking a number of charity projects in India.  Faizal pointed out that attendance in government schools in his home state (Kerala) is consistently dropping and schools are being closed down partly because of this, and partly because of resource constraints.  The Faizal and Shabana Foundation has taken up the refurbishment of a 114-year-old school in Calicut by improving the infrastructure and upgrading the school on all fronts, including re-training programs for the teachers. 

He mentioned that he has made it a point to be innovative and is using international practices in construction and wants this building to be built in a record six months. He wants to make it a model for other schools and communities as well. 

Faizal was followed by  Prashant Gulati, who is the Trustee atTiE Global & Past President, TiE Dubai. Gulatiwho is a serial entrepreneur and angel investor, spoke on how TiE can mould entrepreneurs to be better in the business by having access to a large network of entrepreneurs across the globe which includes 61 TiE chapters with over 20,000 members.  He gave examples of certain startups mentored and funded by TiE members that have grown into significant businesses.  In particular, he spoke of the Red Bus intiative in India - how a basic need of an individual revolutionized and created a large opportunity for online booking of bus tickets across India.

This was followed by a very interactive Q&A session where several relevant questions were answered by the speakers. 

The event was attended by a delegation from KE Bangalore.  Robinson D’Souza, President of KE Bangalore gave specific examples of how his members had benefited from this trip.  In particular he appreciated sharing of experiences among members and thanked the members who provided details on their businesses and site visits in the field of service apartments, restaurants and tyreplant processing.  He said such sharing will benefit their members to improve their businesses and take them to the next level.

Alfred Vaz, President of KEL Dubai gave a report on the various activities and events during the last year and how the members had benefited from such events.

Ivan Fernandes, Chairman KE Global welcomed the gathering and Albert Rodrigues, Director – Events proposed the vote of thanks.

This event was compered by Melanie Noronha.