Rashid Bahar

Entrepreneur

I was born in Dubai, UAE but moved to the USA with my family in the 80's.  This was the best decision my father made for me for my life as grew up with mentality of the best of both worlds i.e. what I learned in the Middle East with what learned in the USA.

After high school in the US, I went to Illinois State University in Normal/Bloomington, Illinois.  I learned so much during my four (4) years in university especially from my friends in the International Dormitory.  After graduating with BS in International Business with a French Squence on the top 10 of the Dean's List for my class, I moved to Dublin, Ireland for a year to do a master's degree in International Business at UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School.  This was the hardest schooling I have every completed as the education system in Europe is much different to that in the US.

After graduating from my Master's Degree in 1996, I went back to the USA but decided to move back to Dubai, UAE to work for TSSC Sharjah a factory where my father was a shareholder.  This factory manufactured coldstores, refrigerated truck boxes, warheouse cladding material and eventually upright merchandising refrigerators.  We sucessfully implemented ISO 9000 Quality Management System for the factory which was not easy because the factory has been in operation since 1961.  It is like teaching old dogs new tricks.  In any case, I worked a total of five (5) years in the factory where we tripled our revenue.

In 2002, I decided to leave the factory and join Swarovski Middle East as Market Manger for the B2B segment.  Swarovski is a very scucessful producer of luxury cut lead glass with HQ in Wattens, Austria.  This was a great experience as I learned how a large corporation works.  Not to mention, it was big difference to the factory I worked for in my earlier career years.

In 2005, I decided to finally join the family business TSSC Dubai.  This was after years of my borther chasing me knowing I always had difficulty working with my father.  TSSC is a leading foodserivce and commercial laundry equipment provider to the hospitality industry.  We have installed kitchens and laundry equipment for some of the most reputable names in the world including Burj Al Arab (7 star hotel), Grand Hyatt Dubai, One&Only Royal Mirage, One&Only The Palm, The St. Regis Saadiyat Island Resort, Four Seasons Jumeirah, etc.  In addition, we have installed kitchens for some of the big names in the restaurant industry e.g. At.mosphere in Burj Khalifa (highest restaurant in the world), Zuma and La Petite Maison which are the only two (2) restaurants in the UAE listed in the top 100 San Pellegrino World's Best Restaurants. We also fit-out any additional restaurants our clients build as we believe we are only good if we have repeat business.

Apart from the above daily works, I am now on the Board of Directors, representing my father, for our TSSC Sharjah.  The factory now turns around 150 million dollars in revenues each year.