Kabir Mulchandani is an Indian-born, Dubai- based businessman, entrepreneur, and philanthropist from Mumbai. He is the founder and CEO of FIVE Holdings (formerly SKAI Holdings) with interests in real estate and hospitality. He is ranked as one of the Richest and Most Powerful Indians in the Persian Gulf regions.
Born in Mumbai to entrepreneurial parents, Mulchandani attended the private school Cathedral and John Connon School before being sent to Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire. For the 1992-93 school year, he pursued his undergraduate studies at Stanford University, in the United States, where he majored in industrial engineering,
Mulchandani served at Baron International and Baron Electronics, two Mumbai-based, family- owned firms that specialised in the distribution and sale of consumer electronics. He was termed as 'Mumbai's Marketer' by The Economist magazine in 1998.
In 2011, he founded SKAI Holdings, a Dubai- based real estate investment firm. In 2013, SKAI revealed plans for a luxurious hotel on Dubai's manmade Palm Jumeirah, and signed up Viceroy, the Los Angeles based hotel management company to brand and manage the property. He was quickly celebrated as the comeback king of Dubai.
In 2012, he married Nadia Zaal, considered one of the most influential Emirati women, the couple have three sons and one daughter. And with a new hotel opening in Switzerland this spring, Kabir Mulchandani looks to be extending the family.
Mulchandani, who won Philanthropist of the Year at the CEO Middle East Awards 2017, supports several charities. In March 2017, his company FIVE launched Project Udaan with the aim of saving a life every day in India. The project provides daily life-saving surgery to children born with congenital heart defects, whose families could otherwise not afford the medical costs.
Just after FIVE launched Project Udaan that helps children in India, Mulchandani opened in 2019 his second hospitality and residential project, FIVE Jumeirah Village Dubai.
In 2020, during the height of Covid, FIVE was able to purchase two stellar properties—FIVE Zurich in Switzerland and FIVE LUXE in Dubai by working with financial institutions such as Deutsche Bank for Zurich and Commercial Bank of Dubai for FIVE LUXE with existing relationships with Arab African International Bank. Mulchandani was able to do so because of FIVE’s ability to maintain its EBITDA from 2019 to 2020.
Kabir Mulchandani follows the philosophy which says, “You do not need a big thing to fix a business, you need little things.” As an extremely detailed oriented individual, he believes it is important to delegate and “to create culture.” FIVE Hotels and Resorts takes part in the Great Place to Work.
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