Azad Moopen
Early life and education
Azad Moopen (born 15 April 1953 in Kalpakancheri, Kerala) is an Indian physician and philanthropist, and a developer of healthcare facilities in Asia-Pacific. He is the chairman and managing director of Aster DM Healthcare, a healthcare conglomerates in the Middle East and India founded in 1987. In 2010 and 2011, he was awarded the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman and Padma Shri by the Government of India, respectively. According to Forbes, he is ranked 6th in the Top 100 Indian Leaders in UAE list, and according to Arabian Business, 29th in the 50 Richest Indians in the GCC, with the total wealth estimated to approximately $5.9 bln Forbes 2017).
Azad Moopen was born in 1953 in an Indian village Kalpakancheri in Malappuram district of Kerala. His family owned a bulk of land in the area of Kalpakancheri, a part of Valluvanad in Southern Malabar. His father, Ahmed Unni Moopen, was involved in the freedom struggle during the 1940s. Azad Moopen passed the MBBS with a gold medal and an MD in general medicine from the Calicut Medical College, Kerala, and a diploma in chest disease from Delhi University.
Career
In 1982, he started his career at the Calicut Medical College, where he served as a Medical Lecturer for five years before moving to Dubai in 1987. There he starting a single doctor practice at his own clinic. Over the last 26 years, he established a chain of healthcare facilities in West Asia with 175 unit hospitals, poly clinics, pharmacies and diagnostic centers in UAE, Qatar, Oman and Saudi Arabia. His firm, Aster DM Healthcare employs about 10,000 people in the Middle East, and serves more than 7 million patients a year.
Summary
| Dr. Azad Moopen MBBS, MD, DTCD |
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|---|---|
| Born | 15 April 1953 Kalpakancheri, Kerala, India |
| Residence | Dubai, UAE |
| Nationality | Indian |
| Alma mater | Calicut Medical College Delhi University |
| Home town | Kalpakancheri, Kerala |
| Board member of | Aster DM Healthcare (Chairman and Managing Director) NORKA-Roots (Director) National Committee on Healthcare (Chairman) Confederation of Indian Industry (3. Chairman) |
| Awards | Pravasi Bharatiya Samman (2010) Padma Shri (2011) |
| Website | asterdmhealthcare |
Physician Azad Moopen is preparing to list his Dubai-based hospital chain Aster DM Healthcare, which operates a network of 18 hospitals, 90 clinics and 200 pharmacies in the Middle East and India. Aster treats 10 million patients annually and employs more than 2,000 doctors. Last year, Aster acquired a 25% stake in Hyderabad’s Ramesh Hospitals. Moopen gave up his teaching job in his native Kerala and started with a single clinic in Dubai in 1987. His daughter Alisha overseas strategy.
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