Abdul Majid Rabbat is the CEO of SARA Group, a 52-year old family business with an established presence in the Middle East, Africa and Asia. SARA Group is the leading distributor of luxury bathroom products, ceramics, hospitality equipment, home accessories, gift items and tableware across the Middle East.
The Company was founded in 1967 by Abdul Majid’s grandfather in Saudi Arabia and grew tremendously over the past half-century to cover 11 countries, employ over 600 people, represent and distribute over 100 global brands, and build a strong retail network of over 75 showrooms and stores served by 17 warehouses and 12 offices.Abdul Majid’s journey to SARA Group was not direct. He grew up in Paris, France and pursued his college studies at Tufts University in Boston, Massachusetts. Upon graduation, he first worked at the World Bank before moving to Shanghai, China to create a new division of SARA Group in this new market. It was a big risk early on in his career which taught him valuable lessons in business and life. He left China to pursue his MBA at Harvard Business School and then moved into venture capital and investing in Dubai before finally returning to SARA Group in 2016.
Abdul Majid was asked to move to SARA at an opportune time to inject fresh ideas and bring in new perspectives to the business. On the turn of its 50-year anniversary, SARA went through a corporate re-branding and re-structured the Company to better position itself for the next 50 years. As his role evolved into becoming the Group’s CEO, he took on more responsibilities dear to his strategy such as focusing on the internal culture and human capital of the company, growing the company’s product portfolio, and enhancing the customer experience in SARA’s retail stores but also across B2B channels and building new online channels.
Abdul Majid is determined to turn SARA into the employer of choice in the region, making sure that it keeps developing great leaders and launching great ideas. With his ambition and drive, he will continuously strive to maintain the heritage of the Company while building towards a clear long-term vision of success and growth.