Yousuf Khalil Almoayyed (1918 - 1996)

It was while a young child at school, that Yousuf Almoayyed set his heart on becoming a successful businessman. At the age of six, he saved up his pocket money to purchase sweets, seeds and nuts from local merchants and sell them to his brothers, cousins and neighbours.

At 19 he left school and entered his father's pearl business. He travelled to Bombay to conduct business with Indian merchants, and was soon making more profit from his business dealings than his father had done.

But he began to recognise that pearl trading, with its periodic fluctuations and the threat posed by the development of cultured pearl, was not the vehicle for him to realise his life's ambitions.

So in 1940, he went into business on his own, starting by selling imported electrical goods and trading in sugar, tea, coffee and sandalwood beams for roofing. Before long, he was soon acting as a supplies agent for the Bahrain Petroleum Company (Bapco), the RAF and the British Navy.

In 1946, following the end of the Second World War, he made what was then a rather risky plane journey to London and returned with agency agreements for GEC, Lister and Blackstone Engines.

In 1949, he was in the U.K. again and also sailed in the Queen Mary to New York to arrange the supply of pipes, paint and rice for the Qatar Petroleum Company.

The business trips paid off and he began to secure other prestigious agency agreements with companies in the U.K. But this was not before he had bounced back, against all odds, from a disastrous fire which totally destroyed his warehouse in 1960. In under a year, he had recovered his fortunes sufficiently to start building a new headquarters building in Manama which, completed three years later, was the tallest building then in Bahrain and today still houses the corporate offices of Y. K. Almoayyed & Sons.

From his earliest days, Yousuf Almoayyed involved himself in charitable activities, and was instrumental in founding the Bahrain Red Crescent Society, the Rotary Club of Manama and the Bahrain Committee for Arab Support. In 1987 he personally financed the construction of a Drug and Alcohol  rehabilitation Centre, in memory of his late son Mohammed.

Yousuf Almoayyed also took a keen interest in the development of Bahrain's economy. He was an enthusiastic founder member of the National Bank of Bahrain, serving initially as a director for forty years and then as Vice Chairman.

As an active sportsman, he helped to popularise the game of tennis in Bahrain, and kept up a strict fitness regime until his death in 1996 at the age of seventy eight.

Yousuf Khalil Almoayyed will be remembered as a pioneer of industry, a business legend, a man of many talents, and a gentleman with a generous spirit. His faith in God, love of hard work, burning desire to succeed and excel, and respect for his fellow men will live on as example for the youth of Bahrain who aspire to business and personal excellence.