Ram Buxani is a Dubai-based veteranNon-Resident Indian entrepreneur and chairman of the a 60-year-old business conglomerateITL Cosmos Group and considered an expert in international trade finance with six decades of experience. Buxani is also an established community leader of the NRI population in U.A.E. He became a well-known figure in the Indian community after his role in influencing the Indian government to abolish estate duty in 1985. Having arrived in 1959 at the young age of 18, he has witnessed the dramatic rise of Dubai from its early, humble days as a sleepy pearl-fishing desert community to the ultra-modern global city it has become today.
Positions held
Dr. Ram Buxani has been on the Board of many businesses and establishments in Dubai as well as India. He had held the position of Director of IndusInd Bank for 8 years. During 2009-2004, he was Chairman of the Board of The Indian High School, Dubai. He has also participated and led many initiatives and special purpose committees formed by the Governments of India as well as UAE.
Community leadership
Buxani was the founder and Chairman of the Overseas IndiansEconomic Forum, which was a preeminent forum for the Indian NRI community until 2003 when it merged with the Indian Business and Professional Council. He was also instrumental in supporting and arranging temporary shelter for the NRIs fleeing from Kuwait en route to India during the Invasion of Kuwait by Iraq in 1990. Sripriyaa Kumaria, Director General of the India Trade & Exhibition Centre in Sharjah, once described him as "the founding father of the U.A.E.’s NRI community".
Education and awards
He holds a Ph.D. degree in International Business from Washington International University for his thesis on “Governance of Dubai: The influence of tribal tradition in decision making, especially in the critical periods of the development of the city-state”. He was also conferred the honorary D.Litt. Degree by D.Y. Patil University of Mumbai for his contribution for NRIs and victims of natural calamity. Forbes Middle East selected him as one of the top Indian leaders of Middle East during 2014, 2016 and 2017 and awarded him a "Lifetime Achievement Award" in 2017.
Personal life
Buxani was born in 1941 in Hyderabad, Sindh in British India. Like many other Sindhi families, his family migrated to India after the Partition of India in 1947. His father passed away when he was five years old. At the age of 18 years, in order to support his widowed mother and family, he started to search for a job in Mumbai. After seeing an advertisement on a local newspaper, he applied for a job as an executive assistant with International Traders Limited in Dubai. After securing the job, in November 1959, he boarded a steamship to Dubai that finally anchored off the coast of Dubai on a rainy day and he was ferried ashore in a small boat to the beach. This was during an era when Dubai was part of the Trucial States and was not even marked on most maps. Buxani started working in 1959 as an office clerk at the ITL outpost at Dubai and eventually rose to chair the Cosmos ITL group in 2014. Buxani is also a writer and actor, having acted in 28 plays. He has three daughters and seven grandchildren. His autobiography “Taking the High Road” was a bestseller in Dubai for several months when it was published in 2003. Subsequently, it was translated to Arabic, Hindi, Malayalam, and several Indian and Pakistani languages. Another book titled "Sindhis – God’s Gift to Global Economy" was published in 2007.
