Indians make up the largest chunk of expats in GCC countries. They contribute a great deal to the economy, as laborers on construction sites, or founders of multi-billion dollar conglomerates. Some entrepreneurs have inherited family enterprises that have long operated in Arab countries. Tony Jashanmal’s family, for instance, founded a general store in Basra, Iraq in 1919. Ten individuals on the FORBES MIDDLE EAST list of top 100 Indian entrepreneurs run businesses that are more than 50 years old. Nine are billionaires, including Mukesh Jagtiani (net worth: $4.4 billion), Yusuff Ali M.A. (net worth: $4.2 billion), and Sunil Vaswani (net worth: $2 billion). Several are pioneers. Sunny Varkey founded the largest private network of K to 12 schools in the world. GEMS Education has a presence in 19 countries. Varkey’s foundation bestows annually $1 million to outstanding teachers. This year, a Palestinian primary school teacher won. Siddek Ahmed developed a low cost self-cleaning toilet, and received a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for “reinventing” the toilet. Of the 100 entrepreneurs, 91 are based in the U.A.E., a testimony of the ease of doing business in the country. In fact, four of the top 10 later moved their headquarters from other countries to the U.A.E. In addition to entrepreneurs, FORBES MIDDLE EAST ranks 50 Indians who have leadership positions in multinationals and Arab companies. Sanjeev Chaddah is the CEO of PepsiCo Asia, Middle East and Africa; Adnan Chilwan is the CEO of Dubai Islamic, the largest Islamic bank in the U.A.E., which recorded a 37% growth in net profits last year. Methodology We started with a list of 250 entrepreneurs, before narrowing it down to 100. We sent out questionnaires, and collected information from other primary sources. To rank the 100 top entrepreneurs, we used the following criteria:

• Revenues
• Number of employees
• Age of the company
• Visibility: professional associations and media exposure.

To rank the 50 top executives, we relied on:

• Experience
• Geographical reach
• Number of employees
• Position