DMCC's Ahmed Bin Sulayem Wins Dubai-it Award for Building Trade Hubs

Dubai, United Arab Emirates — Dubai Multi Commodities Centre (DMCC) Executive Chairman and CEO Ahmed Bin Sulayem has won the first Dubai-it Award for Project Managers, recognized for turning Dubai into a center for diamond trading and building commodity hubs that now house more than 26,000 companies.

Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed, Dubai's Crown Prince, named him among six winners, WAM reported. Sheikh Hamdan is also the UAE's Minister of Defence and Deputy Prime Minister and chairs The Executive Council of Dubai. The award citation credits Bin Sulayem with projects that expanded several trade sectors by drawing on the emirate's location to assemble connected trade and business ecosystems, with results the award release called exceptional and achieved in record time.

The release describes a consistent method: he would study a sector, work out how its value chain fits together, find the openings and build integrated projects around them. Under his oversight DMCC has expanded to over 26,000 member firms drawn from over 180 countries, with a combined workforce of more than 90,000.

Diamonds are the heart of the citation. The release says he ran an integrated effort to put in place the infrastructure and trading platforms the sector needed and to pull in international markets, to the point where Dubai became the world's biggest center for rough and polished diamond trading. DMCC's own figures put Dubai's diamond trade at a record $41.7 billion across 359.5 million carats in 2025, with natural stones making up 95.8% of the value.

In August, DMCC set up a separate lab-grown diamond vertical after the UAE traded a record 76.9 million carats of manufactured stones in 2025, up 91.5% on the year before. Bin Sulayem is also chairman of Dubai Diamond Exchange and of Dubai Gold & Commodities Exchange, the profile says, and the UAE Ministry of Economy named him the country's Kimberley Process Chair for 2016, a post he held again in 2024 and 2025.

The release also credits him with continuing to grow the gold and precious metals business and connect it to international markets, and with raising Dubai's profile in coffee and tea through facilities for storing, processing, packing and exporting the crops, as well as training. In September, DMCC turned the world's largest silver bar, a 1,971-kilogram piece, into the first commodity to be tokenized under the framework it runs with the Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority. The profile adds that he built the region's largest cluster of digital-asset companies.

The organizers framed this record as Dubai-it in practice: deep study of an opportunity, integrated projects built around it, and results that lead globally and arrive in record time. For DMCC, the award may serve as public backing from Dubai's leadership for a trade-hub model it is now extending to lab-grown diamonds and tokenized commodities.

Sheikh Hamdan set up the award to honor work that reflects how Dubai approaches achievement, converting ideas and ambitions into concrete results quickly, to a high standard and with effects that spread beyond a single project, institution or sector. Besides Bin Sulayem, the honorees were Emirates NBD for Institutions in the Economic Field; OMNIYAT founder Mahdi Amjad for Real Estate Projects; Ounass, built by Khalid Al Tayer, for Services; Humantra founder Charlie Wright for Entrepreneurs; and Chef Izu Ani, who founded a string of Dubai restaurants, for Hospitality.

Sheikh Hamdan said: “We launched the Dubai-it Award to showcase Dubai’s philosophy of work in action across every field: extraordinary achievement, in record time, with excellence.” He named the first winners together: “The Dubai-it Award for Institutions in the Field of Economy goes to Emirates NBD for exceptional regional growth, expansion and continued improvement in its services and products. The award for Project Managers goes to Ahmed bin Sulayem, Executive Chairman of DMCC, for developing the diamond trade and building trade hubs across multiple sectors.”

Mohammad Abdullah Al Gergawi, Chairman of the Executive Office of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Ruler of Dubai and the UAE's Vice President and Prime Minister, said: “The diversity of the Dubai-it Award winners reflects what Dubai’s leadership has offered in terms of a development experience and a philosophy of work that open up horizons of achievement across different fields. Despite the differences in their experiences, what unites them is their adoption of the Dubai-it approach in turning ambition into tangible results. These examples give institutions, managers, entrepreneurs, and talents a practical reference for elevating their performance and embedding this approach in their work culture.”

Emirates NBD was honored for an institution-wide approach that carried out a large banking transformation at speed, which the release said reinforced Dubai's standing as a financial gateway for the region and the world. In recent years the lender has doubled its business, taken the top spot in the UAE for revenue, deposits and profitability, and become the country's highest-ranked banking brand.

Digital adoption at the bank has reached 91%, with millions of customer transactions moved onto digital channels and a connected digital banking platform, one of the region's biggest, of more than 220 services. Its investment offering grew to cover digital investment, digital asset services and fractional bonds and sukuk, along with gold and silver bars that widened access to precious metals. Abroad, it expanded in Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Türkiye closer to home and in the United Kingdom, India and Singapore further afield, which the release linked to fast, large-scale change and to building the Dubai-it approach into its growth.

Amjad, OMNIYAT's Founder and Executive Chairman, was recognized for putting architecture at the core of property development and converting standout designs into buildings that now mark Dubai's skyline. He started the company in Dubai and pairs architectural vision with execution and quality by working with a select group of architects, designers and brands: Dorchester Collection, Foster + Partners, Gilles & Boissier and Zaha Hadid. Under his lead, Zaha Hadid's design for The Opus became one of the city's best-known buildings, and at The Lana he combined Foster + Partners' design with Dorchester Collection's expertise to open the group's first Middle East hotel, ranked among the world's 50 best hotels just eight months after it opened. The release said the company made design a driver of property value and added to Dubai's urban and tourism appeal.

Ounass, which Khalid Al Tayer developed, won Services for an online luxury store that started in Dubai and reset expectations of speed in the sector by getting orders to customers in under two hours. Running from distribution centers across Gulf markets, it stocks more than 1,300 regional and international brands and averages 89 minutes per Dubai delivery, pairing easy shopping, payment and returns with fast service. Its sales doubled within a short time as its customer base grew, the release said, making it the region's leading digital luxury retailer and setting speed and service quality as a new benchmark for luxury shopping.

Wright began with a single office and grew Humantra into the UAE's leading electrolyte brand, with a share of more than 80%. The release describes it as one of the world's leading electrolyte supplement brands, with products customers find both effective and good-tasting and use every day. The brand has spread to 10 global markets, reached more than two million customers within 15 months and became the most searched electrolyte brand worldwide, a business that started from Wright's own experience and a simple idea and now competes internationally.

Chef Izu Ani's Dubai venues include Gaia, Sirene by Gaia, Carine, Kigo, Alaya, Shanghai Me, La Maison Ani and La Petite Ani, and in a short span his projects reached London, Miami, Monte Carlo, Saint-Tropez, Marbella and Bodrum. The release credited him with restaurant and hospitality brands born in Dubai that achieved global stature quickly, and with strengthening the emirate's role as a place where hospitality concepts are created and then exported. With these six names, the list of winners for the award's first edition is complete.