Banking recovery see financiers ride high in Expat Power List

Banking and finance has again proved to be the sector featuring the highest number of Gulf expatriates on the Arabian Business Expat Power List.

Fully 13 expat financiers made the 2011 list, up from 11 last year. Three executives made the top five, led by Emirates NBD CEO Rick Pudner.

Pudner was followed by Qatar Holding’s Anthony Armstrong, Standard Chartered’s V Shankar and Abu Dhabi Investment Authority’s Jean Paul Villain.

The second biggest sector on the list was retail, which had seven entries, up from six last year. Major retailers included Landmark Group’s Mukesh Jagtiani, EMKE Group’s Yusuf Ali, Tony Jashanmal and Jumbo Electronics chairman Deepak Khetrapal.

Transport dropped from being the second-largest sector in 2010, to third this year, with six entries. Heavy hitters in transport included Etihad’s James Hogan, Emirates’ Tim Clark, and Dubai Airports’ Paul Griffiths.

Other sectors to feature prominently were energy, and construction and real estate, which had five entries each.

Yogesh Mehta from Petrochem was ranked as the most influential energy expat, followed by Aramco’s David Kultgen and PetroRabigh’s Noriaki Takeshita.

The construction and real estate charge was led by Arabtec Construction CEO Thomas Barry and Galfar’s P Mohammed Ali.

To read the full Expat Power list 2011, click here