HASHER AL MAKTOUM:jun09 25/06/2009 09:33 Page 86
hen his Highness Sheikh Maktoum Hasher Al Maktoum returned to Dubai
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from university in Boston, the nephew of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al
Maktoum was prepared to take the region by storm. Through his background
in finance, he has found immense success from his earliest ventures, bringing
Virgin Megastores to the Middle East, followed by investments in Promod, Pull & Bear, and
Bershka, all a part of his company Shadar Holdings. He also serves as CEO of the Al Fajer Group,
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a multi-billion dollar conglomerate with interests in numerous markets, and where he found early
success as president of Al Fajer properties, leading a highly successful restructuring, which has
made the company one of the strongest and most successful property developers in Dubai today.
It is testament to His Highness Sheikh Maktoum's financial and management expertise that he was
selected in 2007 as a Young Global Leader 2007 by the World Economic Forum, and in 2008,
awarded the prestigious Young CEO of the Year award by the former French prime minister Do-
minique de Villepinn.
Though his success in business has been substantial, the true driving force of his life is sport,
and he has found myriad ways to combine his two major skills. As a participant and an executive,
he has been and aspires to be in the future one of the pillars of the sporting community in the Mid-
dle East and around the world. Recently appointed chairman of Al Nasr Club, one of the UAE’s
oldest football clubs, His Highness Sheikh Maktoum's first order of business is to conduct an
analysis of the club's financial and management aspects with the goal to restructure the club and THE
re-gear it for what lies ahead, similar to the success he achieved with Al Fajer properties. “The
Al Nasr Sports Club is an icon of our sports heritage,” he said upon his acceptance of the posi-
tion, emphasizing, “I am proud of its history and I am even prouder to be a part of its future.”
He is also making waves in the racing world, on the track and off. Youthful experience racing
gained as a racer in local 24hrs endurance series, stock cars, open wheel formula cars and as a
multiple UAE karting champion, has served him well as he’s moved on to bigger projects. He
founded the A1 Grand Prix and saw an extremely successful first season, during which Maktoum
proved both the excitement of this new form of motorsport and the economic viability of the event,
which was sold to investors in 2006. More recently, the talented young racing driver has been
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testing cars at the famous Hockenheim circuit with BMW ALPINA factory team. This outing was
the first time he had tested on European race tracks with such a leading touring car team, in the
newly developed BMW ALPINA B6 GT3 race car, which is campaigned in the ADAC Masters,
the 24hrs of Nurburgring and the FIA GT3 European Championship series. The FIA GT3 series
will, again, enjoy its final race of the season at the Dubai Autodrome in late November this year.
His skills garnered high praise from the experts who he drove with. “Hasher has shown real
speed in the car from the first outing, he has a good technical understanding and is very easy for
our team to work with; we look forward to working again with him in the near future,” said Andreas
Bovensiepen, team boss and company CEO. Peter Lanz, the UAE based motor sports consultant
and multiple touring car champion, with an impressive 40 year racing career spoke highly of the
test as well, saying, “It gives me great pleasure to support Emirati drivers such as Sheikh Hasher,
who has a very promising racing career ahead of them.” In response, the young sheikh said mod-
estly, “I am looking forward to putting in some more test time, I love the circuits here in Europe
and I am very excited to represent the UAE abroad,” but we expect it won’t be very long before
he’s making headlines with more than just test drives. n
RACE
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