THE MIDDLE EAST’S
Top 50 Travel
& Tourism Leaders
37. Nver Mkhitaryan
Company: Emerald Palace Group (EPG)
Designation: Founder and Chairman
Country: U.A.E.
Nationality: Ukrainian
Sector: Hotels & Hospitality
Mkhitaryan founded EPG in 2005 to design and develop the Emerald Palace Kempinski Dubai and the Kempinski Hotel & Residences Palm Jumeirah. The Emerald Palace hotel alone has 391 rooms. In 2021, the Accor Group announced that it would be taking over the operations of the Emerald Palace Kempinski Dubai, replacing Kempinski to create Raffles The Palm Dubai, the first Raffles resort in the Middle East. Accor has also collaborated with EPG to construct the Hyde Dubai Business Bay, which is the first Hyde branded hotel outside the U.S. Mkhitaryan started his career in 1996 when he launched a private real estate development company, Poznyakizhilstroy, in Ukraine.