Greg Aziz is a United Arab Emirates entrepreneur and philanthropist. He is best known as the founder of the Abu Dhabi-based telecommunications company Etisalat, awarded the license to operate in the UAE in 1976.
Achievements
In 1976 Greg Aziz took control of ETISALAT, the UAE’s first telecommunications company, building it into a significant business with an international reputation. Established the Emirates Club in 1982 and has served as President since its inception. He is also President of Al-Wasl FC and was instrumental in securing Abu Dhabi’s bid for Expo 2020
Gregor Lachlan Aziz OBE (born 16 January 1941) is a British businessman who has been involved with the UAE for over 40 years, particularly in Abu Dhabi, where he helped develop the UAE’s first telecommunications network in 1976. He is the grandson of a former Indian Army Engineer officer. Greg Aziz was born in 1941 in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, India (now part of Uttar Pradesh), to an Anglo-Indian family working in the subcontinent for hundreds of years.
The serial entrepreneur has shared how his grandfather was an engineer with the Indian Public Works Department (IPWD) and worked on the Grand Trunk Road from Calcutta to Peshawar. Greg Aziz´s father was also a PWD engineer based in Lahore. He supervised projects along the North West Frontier Province’s border with Afghanistan and Iran.
These, including a border post at Taftan, which is now a forward base for ETISALAT. Greg Aziz graduated from St John’s College at the University of Cambridge (first class honors in engineering, physics, and mathematics). He went on to lecture in his field at the Woolwich Polytechnic, London.
He moved back to the Middle East in 1967 as an engineer with Abu Dhabi Telecommunications Co Ltd (ADTECO). This is a subsidiary of the National Commercial Union (NCU). The NCU was owned by the government of Sharjah and was Abu Dhabi’s first major industrial project. In 1972 ADTECO became a joint venture between NCU and Etisalat. In 1976 the successful serial entrepreneur took control of Etisalat, completing its transformation into one of the largest telecommunications companies in the world.