The Al Habtoor Group has announced a major reshuffle across all units, includes hotels, motors, real estate, schools, car rental as well as the group’s legal and audit boards.

Announcing the big shakeup on Thursday, chairman Khalaf Ahmad Al Habtoor said the changes were geared at providing guidance and advice on group strategy to enhance growth across its diverse businesses. The changes take effect from January 1, 2014.

“This reshuffle is essential to ensure we are ready to for what the future holds. We need to prepare our units for the opportunities ahead following Dubai’s success to host the Expo 2020. I want to ensure we have renewed energy throughout the Al Habtoor Group units and make sure we have the correct strategy in place,” he stated.

The changes impact the Habtoor Hotels, Al Habtoor Motors, Diamondlease, Emirates International Schools, Real Estate and legal & audit  boards.

“As our motto states, we are growing with the UAE, and the Emirates is experiencing unprecedented growth. We want to capitalise on this and make sure we have the right people in place to enable us to continue growing with the UAE,” said Al Habtoor.

The Hotels Division, which is growing rapidly, with the recent addition of the Waldorf Astoria on the Palm Jumeirah, and Al Habtoor City - which will incorporate three five-star hotels on one plot, has been carefully planned with a mix of expertise to cope with the growing demands of the business.

The new board, to be chaired by Mohammed Al Habtoor, the vice chairman and CEO of the Group, will include Maan Halabi, the executive director, AHG; Mohammed Mazrooei, the managing director, AHG; Sanjeev Agarwala, the director Strategy & Business Development, AHG; Henning Fries, the group director of Hotels, and Omar Khalaf, the chief financial officer, Habtoor Hotels.

In the event of any absence of Mohammed Al Habtoor, Maan Halabi will chair the meeting, said a statemnet from Al Habtoor.

Al Habtoor Motors, which has experienced rapid growth in 2013 with the addition of several new global tyre business and two top Chinese brands of cars, will be chaired by Mohammed Al Habtoor.

The new board members will be Ahmed K Al Habtoor, CEO, AL Habtoor Motors; KP Rajan, group financial advisor;  Paul A Rayner, advisor to the chairman;  R Venkataraman, the director of Corporate Governance and Risk Management; Karl Hamer, the managing director, Al Habtoor Motors and Jagdish Parulekar, the chief financial officer at Al Habtoor Motors.

The new Diamondlease board will be chaired by KP Rajan. Other members include Maan Halabi, Paul Rayner, Mohammed Mazrooei, R. Venkataraman and Karl Hamer.

The chairman said in line with best practice he has formally introduced a position of Chairman of the Divisional Board to monitor the on-going performance and be the contact point for the units from the Group for all Board related matters.

Maan Halabi has been appointed chairman of the Real Estate Division. The board members include Yusef Shalabi, the director of Projects and Real Estate, AHG; Mohammed Mazrooei, Arun Krishnan, the chief financial officer, AHG; Jamar Johnson, the real estate manager, AHG.

The Real Estate division is growing significantly in the coming years with the addition of three residential towers, currently under construction, as part of the Al Habtoor City development. Al Habtoor City is a mixed use development incorporating residential, hospitality, leisure and lifestyle in a prime and central location in Dubai.

KP Rajan has been appointed chairman of the Emirates International Schools divisional board. Paul Rayner and Maan Halabi have been selected as members of the school board.

Rajan will also head the legal committee board. Other board members are Maan Halabi, R Venkataraman, Sanjeev Agarwala and Mohammed Younes, Legal Affairs Manager, AHG.

AHG’s audit committee will be chaired by Rajan, while its members are made up of Paul Rayner, R Venkataraman, Maan Halabi, Mohammed Mazrooei and Sunil Nampoothiri, the director of Internal Audit, AHG, said the statement.

A UAE-based conglomerate, The Al Habtoor Group is best known for construction, it is globally recognised through its involvement in the hotel, automotive, real estate, education, insurance and publishing sectors.-TradeArabia News Service