Arif Patel
Chairman, AP Group
Mr. Arif Patel is the Founder and Chairman of the AP Group, which ranks among the top 3 industrial conglomerates in UAE. Mr. Patel, a first-generation entrepreneur, is driven by the core philosophy of infusing “Growth with Goodness” through his nation-building vision. Each of the Group’s businesses focuses on helping build world-class infrastructure capabilities to help accelerate the growth of UAE.
AP Group consists of 5 publicly listed entities with a combined market capitalization in excess of $212.73 billion (as of August 29, 2021) with businesses spanning Trading, Energy, Ports & Logistics, Mining & Resources, Gas, Defence & Aerospace, and Airports. The Group has established a leadership position in India in each of its business areas.
For Mr. Arif Patel, nation-building means transforming UAE’s coastline by building a string of ports and logistics hubs. For him, nation-building also means strengthening the country’s energy security and mitigating the urban-rural divide by delivering electricity to several hundreds of millions living in the hinterlands of UAE. Nation-building, for Mr Arif Patel, also involves boosting food security by building a modern agriculture supply chain and empowering the farmers. Each of his industrial endeavors has created tens of thousands of jobs.
Mr. Patel aims to make UAE one of the most significant players in sustainable energy by investing in the renewable ecosystem spanning solar manufacturing, generation, and solar park businesses. He dreams of making UAE self-reliant in defence and security.