Thursday, May 29, 2008

From hero to zero

Six months after ITP decided he was the Middle East’s ‘CEO of the Year’, Omar Ayesh, boss of Tameer Holdings has stepped down. It wasn’t the only one to look stupid, Ernst & Young had picked Tameer as a finalist in its Middle East ‘Entrepreneur of the Year’ awards.

The government of Umm Al Quwain says Tameer’s excuses for the failure of its flagship Al Salam City project are “lies that aim to impair the emirate's reputation”. Sources within the company say Tameer pressed on with Salam City sales despite having no plan to provide water and electricity to the development. The Umm Al Quwain government, with enough on its plate, had made it clear to Tameer that it would not be sorting the utilities.

Ayesh says he is stepping down to allow the company’s executive managers to take the reins; it is hard to believe Ayesh’s head of the price Tameer has to pay to extract itself from the do-do. His replacement, Abdallah Hageali, is a Tameer man, so it’s no new broom.

So it’s tough times for Tameer, but, if this is a case of executive responsibility, it’s good news for UAE business. Poor performance should be punished – hopefully one day Gulf company’s can admit as much. And who knows, Ayesh might remake himself as the Comeback Kid.

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