Samih Darwazah

Samih Darwazah (Arabic: سميح دروزة‎, 1930 – 15 May 2015) was the founder of Hikma Pharmaceuticals, Jordan's largest pharmaceutical business, the Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources from 1995 to 1996, and later a senator in the Jordanian parliament.[1]

Samih Taleb Mahmoud Darwazah
Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources
In office
8 Jan 1995 – 4 Feb 1996
Personal details
Born1930
Nablus, British mandate of Palestine
Died15 May 2015
London, England

Early life

Samih Darwazah was born in Nablus, the son of a tea merchant father.[2]

He studied for a master's degree at the American University of Beirut,[3] Darwazah received a master's degree from the St. Louis College of Pharmacy, Missouri[4] which he attended on a Fulbright scholarship.[5] In 2010 he was awarded an honorary doctorate from the college.[6]

Career

He worked for Eli Lilly from 1964 to 1976, before establishing Hikma Pharmaceuticals in 1978.[4] Between 1995 and 1996 he served as Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources to the Government of Jordan.[4] He also founded the Jordan Trade Association and was a member of the Advisory Economic Council to His Majesty the King of Jordan.[4] In 2007, Darwazah was named the Ernst & Young Middle East Entrepreneur Of The Year.[7] He was named chairman of Capital Bank in Jordan in 2009.[8]

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, and was the first Arab company to export pharmaceutical products to the U.S. in 1996. 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.

Publications

In 2004, Darwazah published his business memoir, Building a Global Success.[9] [10]

Personal life

He was married to Samira Fadli and they had four children, sons Said and Mazen, and daughters May and Hana, all of whom survived him.[1][2] His son, Said Darwazah, succeeded him as CEO in 2007.[2]

The Dawraz family founded the "Samih Darwaz Center for Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship" at the Suliman S. Olayan School of Business in 2011.[6]

References
  1. "Distinguished AUB alumnus and donor Samih Darwazah dies, leaving behind a remarkable personal and professional legacy". AUB. Archived from the original on 2015-05-23.
  2. Ward, Andrew (21 May 2015). "Samih Darwazah, pharmaceuticals entrepreneur, 1930-2015". Financial Times. Retrieved 10 October 2016.
  3. "Join Zawya Investment Solutions, Intelligence with in-depth Research & Analysis". Zawya. Retrieved 2015-07-30.
  4. "List of Public Companies Worldwide, Letter - Businessweek - Businessweek". Investing.businessweek.com. Retrieved 2015-07-30.
  5. "Samih Darwazah". www.aub.edu.lb. Retrieved 2020-10-29.
  6. "Darwazah Center for Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship". www.aub.edu.lb. Retrieved 2020-10-29.
  7. Archived June 17, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
  8. "Samih Darwazah". Arabian Business.
  10. "Building a Global Success". www.egypt-business.com (in German). Retrieved 2020-10-29.
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