Bidding adieu to Iyad Malas – and a couple of others too

It's farewell to the Majid Al Futtaim chief, Oliver Schutzmann of Shuaa and a less friendly goodbye from Nouriel Roubini.

So, farewell then, Iyad Malas. The chief executive of Majid Al Futtaim Holdings announced that he was leaving the group after five years in the top slot, and you can only wish him luck in whatever he chooses to do.

As one of the most talented of the new generation of technocrats brought in to accelerate modernisation at one of the UAE’s grandest old family names, Mr Malas – Lebanese by birth but clearly a citizen of the world – was responsible for easing MAF into the next stage of its development.

The company that brought you Dubai’s first ever mall, and the ski slope in Mall of the Emirates, has been left with a sound future by Mr Malas.

I’m personally grateful to him for all the insight into the UAE business scene over the years, but also for one very crucial favour he provided in 2014: a life-saving car ride from Davos after the World Economic Forum to Zurich airport, where we just caught the Emirates flight back to Dubai.

Without Mr Malas and his kind offer of a lift, I would have undoubtedly missed the plane. Instead I enjoyed a bit of chauffeur-driven luxury through the Swiss Alpine scenery on a beautifully sunny day, followed by delivery at the VIP departure gate in Zurich.

Again, many thanks, Iyad. I hope you will continue to thrive at the heart of UAE business.

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So, farewell then, Oliver Schutzmann. The head of marketing and communications at Shuaa Capital has left the bank to set up on his own as a consultant in the investor relations field, with a new firm, Iridium.

In his eight years at Shuaa, Mr Schutzmann has seen it all as the bank, the oldest indigenous investment bank in the region, once called the “Cazenove of the Middle East” by one commentator, after the British investment bank, went throughout the financial crisis and came out the other end. In a slightly trimmer form, perhaps, but still a regional financial force to be reckoned with.

Investor relations (IR) was really Mr Schutzmann’s forte at the bank. He also helped to set up and run the Middle East Investor Relations Society, a very worthy organisation that helped to spread best practice in the field, which can sometimes be tricky in the region.

He saw the gap in the market while at Shuaa for an outfit that had the advisory expertise and technological know-how to advance the IR cause, and has gone for it. Iridium is a rare metal, a member of the platinum family, characterised as hard, brittle and silvery white. Its symbol in the periodic table of chemical elements is Ir. Clever eh? You can see the marketing brain at work there …

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So, farewell then, Professor Nouriel Roubini. Not that the renowned economist, famously known for calling the 2009 financial crisis a good while before it happened, is going anywhere that I know. Just that an irritable farewell was the last thing I got from him at the World Economic Forum in Davos last month.

I had interviewed him last year in Dubai, and had bumped into him again at Zurich airport on the way to Davos. All very congenial I must say. So when I interrupted him at the WEF Congress Hall I was not expecting such a dismissive brush-off.

“Can I ask you about the price of oil, professor?” says I, notebook poised.

“No, I have to be somewhere else.”

“Later perhaps?”

“There are 100 people who want my opinion. Why should I give it to you?”

Maybe I just got him on a bad day. I suppose somebody referred to as Doctor Doom must have quite a few bad days.

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