As president of Emirates Airline, and a member of its founding team, having joined Emirates as Head of Airline Planning back in 1985 – Tim Clark has dedicated over 25 years to turning Emirates into the success story it is today. Clark has been in the civil aviation business since 1972 when he joined British Caledonian.

While other Gulf airlines have failed to turn a profit, in its annual result announced earlier this year, Emirates announced an impressive one billion dollar profit (up a massive 416% on the previous year.) Other figures make for impressive reading too. Last year Emirates carried 27.5 million passengers – almost 4.7 million more than the year before; and while the airline currently has a fleet of 151 aircraft including 11 A380s, another 202 are on order, worth over US$68 billion (Emirates is now the largest customer of the Airbus super-jumbo).

What is the secret to Clark’s success?  With Emirates he has exploited to the hilt Dubai’s perfect geographical positioning as a ‘global hub’ allowing the airline to connect up any two points inthe world with one stop in Dubai.

New routes are constantly being rolled out as the airline embarks on its rapid and ambitious drive to expand beyond the 105 destinations it currently flies to in 64 countries. The last few months have seen new routes added to Madrid, Prague, Dakar and Tokyo.

Clark is also chairman of the Emirates Airline Foundation, which he founded to improve the welfare of disadvantaged children around the world.