Samih Darwazah
| Samih Taleb Mahmoud Darwazah | |
|---|---|
| Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources | |
|
In office 8 Jan 1995 – 4 Feb 1996 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
1930 Nablus, Palestine |
| Died |
15 May 2015 London, England |
| Religion | Islam |
Samih Darwazah (Arabic: سميح دروزة, born 1930 - 15 May 2015) was the founder of Hikma Pharmaceuticals, Jordan's largest pharmaceutical businesses.
Career
Born in Palestine and having studied for a masters degree at the American University of Beirut,[1] Darwazah received a masters degree from the St. Louis College of Pharmacy, Missouri.[2] He worked for Eli Lilly from 1964 to 1976, before establishing Hikma Pharmaceuticals in 1978.[2] Between 1995 and 1996 he served as Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources to the Government of Jordan.[2] He also founded the Jordan Trade Association and was a member of the Advisory Economic Council to His Majesty the King of Jordan.[2] In 2007, Darwazah was named the Ernst & Young Middle East Entrepreneur Of The Year.[3] Darwazah was chairman of Capital Bank.
Darwazah founded Hikma in 1978 in Amman, Jordan. With the help of his children, who joined the business in its early days, Hikma grew from a small factory in Jordan into the largest regional supplier of pharmaceuticals in the Middle East and North Africa (“MENA”) region. The company also expanded outside the MENA region, establishing operations in Europe and the US. Today Hikma operates in around 50 countries, selling a broad range of branded generics, generic injectables, non-injectable generics and in-licensed patented products. In 2005, the company floated on the London Stock Exchange and in March 2015 it entered the FTSE 100 index.
Darwazah was born in Nablus in 1930. One of several children, his family lived in Jaffa, where his father was a merchant, for most of his childhood. In 1948, the Darwazah family left their ancestral home and moved to Jordan.
Darwazah went to study at the American University of Beirut (“AUB”), where he met and married his wife, Samira, a fellow AUB student. After obtaining a BSc degree in Pharmacy in 1954 and working for a few years in pharmacy in Jordan and Kuwait, Darwazah was offered a Fulbright Scholarship and went to study at the St. Louis College of Pharmacy in St Louis, Missouri.
A couple of months after receiving his master’s degree in Industrial Pharmacy, Darwazah joined Eli Lilly. He worked for the company from 1964 to 1976, first in the United States then in various positions in the Middle East marketing division. At the age of 48, after 12 years working for Eli Lilly and with extensive experience in marketing and management, Darwazah decided to return to Jordan and establish his own company – and Hikma was born.
Darwazah became an influential figure in Jordan, creating jobs and developing a local pharmaceutical industry. He believed that he had a responsibility to invest in local communities and he became an advocate of corporate responsibility. In 1995, Darwazah was invited by Jordan’s Prince Zeid Ben-Shaker to serve as Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources to the late King Hussein. In later years, he was also a senator, served on the Advisory Economic Council to His Majesty the King of Jordan, and founded the Jordanian Trade Association. Darwazah established a school for girls in Al Shoubak in Jordan in 2009, amongst many other philanthropic endeavours.
Ernst and Young named him Middle East Entrepreneur of the Year in 2007. He was also the recipient of five honorary doctorates - from The St. Louis College of Pharmacy, the Lebanese American University, Birzeit University, the American University of Beirut and the Jordan University of Science and Technology.
Memoir
In 2003, Darwazah took Hikma public with Merrill Lynch International as global coordinator, bookrunner, lead manager and sponsor of the listing; Citigroup as joint lead manager; and Export & Finance Bank as co-lead manager. As part of the promotional campaign for the IPO, Darwazah wrote his business memoir, which was published through Arbor Books. The memoir, titled Building a Global Success, launched in time to coincide with Hikma’s IPO and was recently reprinted in paperback.[4] The deans of the business schools at both Harvard University and Columbia University endorsed the book.
Personal life
He was married to Samira Fadli and have 4 children, May Darwazah, Said Darwazah, Mazen Darwazah and Hana Darwazah, and 11 grandchildren, Zeena Murad, Dima Murad, Tarek Darwazah, Tamara Ramadan, Omar Murad, Walid Darwazah, Samih Darwazah, Kareem Darwazah, Natasha Ramadan, Yasmin Darwazah, and Shareef Darwazah. Darwazah surrounded himself with his four children and his eleven grandchildren.
References
- ↑ "Join Zawya Investment Solutions, Intelligence with in-depth Research & Analysis". Zawya. Retrieved 2015-07-30.
- 1 2 3 4 "List of Public Companies Worldwide, Letter - Businessweek - Businessweek". Investing.businessweek.com. Retrieved 2015-07-30.
- ↑ Archived June 17, 2011, at the Wayback Machine.
- ↑
External links
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