Our People
Razi Ansari
An accomplished corporate Chief Executive, Razi has led high-standing regional and multinational businesses for 15 years. He now enjoys advising Boards of Directors and CEOs on strategy, international mergers and acquisitions, and transformation with the status of a trusted advisor. He also oversees ConfluCore’s MENA-SA regions.
Razi’s 30-year experience spans advisory, consulting, executive, training, and implementation roles on 3 continents and in 7 industries. His clients and companies have included Al Ghurair Foods UAE, Akzo Nobel, Dreshak Construction Group MENA, ICI UK, Parke Davis, Pfizer Pharmaceuticals, and Warner Lambert. As a CEO in 3 of these companies – all diversified businesses – he directed and implemented integrated strategies across functions and countries in his regions. He has emphasized an organization development approach to corporate transformation, achieving distinctive metrics along all the 3 Ps (people, planet, and profit).
As CEO of Al Ghurair Foods, Razi led the company to historic success which included $1 Billion in sales, 9 manufacturing plants making diversified products, and 1,200 employees engaged in business operations in 40 countries. He won the most prestigious MRM Award, presented by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum. He also won MAP’s cherished Management Excellence Award. He received the Best Business Plan award from Babson College’s Business Entrepreneurship Center. Additionally, he has won turnaround awards for his roles in the merger and acquisition initiatives of two multinationals in MENA-SA regions.
Razi earned a bachelor’s with honors in applied physics and an MBA with a focus on Marketing. Starting as a sales representative in ICI, he rose through the ranks. He pursued post-graduate studies with distinctions at Babson College. He has been interviewed on regional and international networks and has authored executive briefs as the founder-chair of IBA’s Center for Executive Education. He lives with his wife in the U.A.E. and visits his children working in Karachi, Kuala Lumpur, Toronto, and the U.S.A.
Why did you decide to work at ConfluCore?
Desiring to help board members and CEOs take a confluent approach to management as I myself did with ConfluCore’s help, I took an early retirement and am enjoying this advisory role. I want more and more companies to pursue confluence.
What’s the biggest transformation you have been a part of?
Two multinational mergers, each lasting around 2 years, are among the biggest transformations that I have overseen. I feel pride also in taking a UAE manufacturing company to the level of an international operations company, growing its markets to 40 countries within 3 years.
What challenges do you most enjoy helping clients address?
CEOs are always busy. I like them to see the big picture and take multiple views of their challenges and opportunities so they can create their legacies. It is heartening when executives can integrate to be different and take fresh, bold steps.
What do you like doing in free/personal time?
I play chess, go golfing, and watch cricket test matches. My wife and I enjoy coaching and mentoring our children and their friends; we find the inter-generational dynamics and seeing things through their perspectives quite fascinating as they are becoming our future leaders.
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