Six Jordanians chosen among most powerful Arabs

AMMAN — Arabian Business magazine has chosen six Jordanians in its list of 100 most powerful Arabs, with three of them tagged under the “Geniuses” category. 

Comprising nine different categories, the list saw Khaldoun Tabari and Fadi Ghandour in the Legends category, Omar Yaghi, Rana Dajani and Daoud Hanania in the Geniuses category and Sami Mufleh in the Creatives category.

Khaldoun Tabari has been leading Drake & Scull since 1998, when he first bought a stake in the firm, according to his CV, which Arabian Business published.

However, his association with the originally British company dates back to 1982 when he first joined the firm to work on a project that involved the installation of 18 radar stations and underground command centres in Saudi Arabia, which were later used in the first Gulf War.

Ghandour is the founder of Aramex, which the magazine described as “one of the great entrepreneurial success stories of the Arab world”.

Ghandour is also founding partner of Maktoob.com; the world’s largest Arab online community which was acquired by Yahoo!.

Currently a professor of chemistry at the University of California, Yaghi has been building metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) that could prove crucial in helping develop green energy solutions, such as natural gas vehicles, hydrogen fuel cells and carbon capture technology.

Dajani’s main job is an assistant professor and the director of studies at the Hashemite University in Zarqa, where her research concentrates on diabetes and cancer in ethnic populations in the country. 

“She is perhaps one of Jordan’s most qualified scientists, with a PhD in molecular biology from the University of Iowa, and she is also a Fulbright visiting professor at Yale University. Dajani is a strong advocate of the theory of biological evolution and its compatibility with Islam,” the magazine said.

Hanania has several firsts under his belt; he performed the first heart transplant in the Arab world at the King Hussein Medical Centre in 1985 and the first kidney transplant in the Middle East in 1973. Today, the leading surgeon has a private practice. 

Arabian Business said Mufleh, the CEO of Hills Advertising, has been at the forefront of the industry for over a decade.

“But this promises to be his best year yet. He has struck a huge deal to take over the outdoor advertising in Dubai’s The Beach development — on top of the many locations he already has in the emirate.” 

The list — issued annually by the magazine — originally had 1,200 names, and then was shortened to include 100.