‘Day with Business Leaders & CEO’s’ is an initiative of Westford University College to connect with C-Suite Business Leaders / CEO’s in understanding their success stories while exploring the industry-academia boundaries and stretching further to bridge the gap.

This platform celebrates & collaborates with successful award-winning business leaders and entrepreneurs across domains to interact with Westford students. The core objectives is to offer appropriate guidance from leaders that would eventually help ignite the entrepreneurial spirit in young minds and propel them to explore a world of opportunities.

The fifth edition held on 29th April 2019, witnessed the iconic presence of Mr. Rizwan Sajan, ranked 7th among st the Top 100 Indian Leaders in the UAE by the Forbes Middle East, a multi billionaire, noted philanthropic founder and chairman of Danube Group, which occupies ‘numero uno’ position in the building materials segment across the Middle East & GCC region. The students, faculty and the management team members were deeply privileged to have had the rarest opportunity to meet an inspirational leader and a ‘Man on a Mission’, narrating his rags to riches story.

As has been often learnt in several management disciplines, there is no substitute to hard work, self-belief, grit and determination, Mr. Rizwan Sajan epitomized all these values and left a life-long impression at Westford University College by humbly responding to a range of questions surrounding his personal life, professional ambitions. The conversation was fielded with humor, advisory and reflections from his own life lessons to quantify that success is always measured by ‘calculated risks’, ‘adequate foresight’, ‘never following the herd mentality’, ‘finding the right mentors’, ‘loads of commitment’ and the ‘Right perspectives by discovering one’s unique USP’s’.

Mr. Rizwan Sajan walked us through his early years that began by selling bread, milk, crackers and paraphernalia from the age of 14 first for only earning ‘pocket money’ and later having to shoulder family responsibilities upon the untimely demise of his father.

 

His story is of a middle class boy’s matured journey from Mumbai facing financial hardships, desperate conditions, humiliation & rejection from his lady love, loss of valuables in the height of Kuwait’s invasion and endless sacrifices…. but never losing hope in miracles.

Danube Group rose up from a small trading entity with his wife being the first employee, and as they say rest is history. The legendary ‘Midas Touch’ of Mr. Rizwan Sajan Danube has diversified into property development, publishing and home improvement solutions, recording revenues of US $ 1.3 Bn (FY 2018). A team of 3300 qualified dedicated professionals, operating in over 50 geographies, carrying a portfolio of over 50,000 products and owner to 5.5 million sq ft land bank in Jebel Ali Free Zone showcases the strength of this powerful institution.
Apart from his current role as a Chairman and Founder of Danube Group, Mr. Sajan has been bestowed with numerous accolades in recognition to his contribution that has led to the economic
growth and prosperity of UAE. He now prevails across numerous thought leadership programs held by ICAI – Abu Dhabi Chapter.