Dubai-based entrepreneur Sunny Varkey, chairman of the Varkey Group, has been voted as the Outstanding Asian Businessman of the Year 2007, at the Asian Business Awards Middle East.

The award was presented yesterday in Abu Dhabi and reflects his achievements in education and health related enterprises over the last 30 years.

The award was part of the first Asian Business Awards in the Middle East and included 17 other nominees in eight different categories, representing the cream of Asian business success in the Middle East. 

Commenting on his award Varkey said he was humbled, honoured and happy to be chosen and gave thanks to the support and commitment of many who made the award possible.

“I feel very overwhelmed and I wish to thank the Almighty God for all his blessings.  Without doubt, I would like to first take this opportunity to thank the Rulers of the UAE for enabling Asian business to flourish and excel,” he said.

“My sincere thanks go to my family, well wishers, friends, parents, every staff member of Gems and Welcare World and most importantly to all the children of Gems schools.

From a middle class background Varkey has spearheaded the development of the Varkey Group over three decades to become a global business.

The Varkey Group includes Gems Education, a growing network of nearly 75 international schools around the world providing a unique brand of holistic education to 75,000 students from 124 countries and employing over 5,800 education professionals, specialists and staff.

In the early 1980s The Varkey Group applied lessons learnt in education to the healthcare sector with the establishment of Welcare World. 

Varkey concluded by highlighting: “throughout, our focus has been on developing services that contribute and raise standards of living and the quality of life for communities – we call this social entrepreneurialism. For the future, our vision is to continually strive to develop the quality of our services, but on an increasing global scale.”—TradeArabia News Service