A Shot In The Arm For The Healthcare Industry
Gulf Business|July 2018

In an exclusive interview, the healthcare industry’s rising star Alisha Moopen discusses the enduring pull of helping others, how Aster DM Healthcare is continually striving to make positive impact, and how she plans to use her new platform as a Young Global Leader.

Neil King
A Shot In The Arm For The Healthcare Industry

FOR MOST PEOPLE living in the GCC, Aster DM Healthcare needs no introduction.

The healthcare empire with more than 320 establishments across nine countries and growing is one of the most renowned and successful in the region, as well as the Middle East, India and Far East.

Born out of the vision of Dr Azad Moopen more than 30 years ago, the company has grown from a single clinic in Dubai to a sprawling enterprise that employs nearly 20,000 people in its hospitals, clinics, diagnostic centres and retail pharmacies.

The company has been a major part of the growth of healthcare in the Gulf, and continues to be so. And while Dr Moopen is still firmly leading affairs as chairman and managing director, recent years have seen the company’s stature enhanced by another Moopen – Alisha, daughter of the founder who serves as executive director and CEO of hospitals and clinics in the GCC.

Bringing additional energy, passion and sharp business acumen to the ever-growing organisation, Moopen junior has certainly made her mark since joining in 2012; but while healthcare has always been part of her life, it was far from certain that she would follow her father’s footsteps into the industry.

“Dad used to work 16 to 18 hour days, and everything we would hear was about patients, the lives that have been impacted, and taking care of the people around you. So it’s always been a part of my life,” explains the former Ernst and Young audit executive.

“My son had an accident when he was a year and a half, and that was probably my closest encounter with healthcare in a vulnerable sense, and it shook my life to the core a bit. That’s when it sort of hit me that I want to be back in healthcare and that I belong in healthcare.

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