Syrian-born businessman Ayman Asfari is CEO of British oil services giant Petrofac. He bought the company in 2001, floated it in 2005 and it is now one of the fastest growing FTSE 100 businesses, with more than 17,000 employees worldwide and offices in the UK, Sharjah, India and Malaysia. The company provides a range of services to oil groups, including constructing rigs, processing plants and other oilfield facilities, as well as training staff.
At the end of 2014 the company issued a profits warning and saw its shares plunge 26 percent as a result. However, shares in Petrofac jumped more than 5 percent in December 2015 after the company said it had more orders than ever before, despite the falling oil price.
Asfari took his first role in construction in Oman in his early 20s to fund an MBA at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. This turned out to be unnecessary as he progressed to become managing director and a millionaire within his own firm.
As well as heading up Petrofac, he is a member of the board of trustees of the American University of Beirut, founder and chairman of the Asfari Foundation and a member of the Senior Panel of Advisors of Chatham House in London. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2014.
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