One of Bahrain’s top businessmen and community leaders, Farouk Almoayyed died yesterday, aged 80, following medical complications.
In addition to being the chairman of Y K Almoayyed and Sons, Mr Almoayyed had a long and illustrious career, with management and leadership positions in a number of top organisations including National Bank of Bahrain, Gulf Hotels Group, Ashrafs, Bahrain Duty Free, Ahlia University, Labour Market Regulatory Authority, Harvard University’s Institute for Social and Economic Policy in the Middle East and Georgetown University’s Centre for Contemporary Arab Studies.
Born on May 26, 1944, the young Mr Almoayyed spent much of his childhood in Fareej Al Fadhel, where the Almoayyed family home, now the Almoayyed Tower, was a five-minute walk away from his father’s and uncle’s shops in the old Manama Souq.
He started working when he was just 10 years old, either with his late father Yousuf Khalil Almoayyed at his
electrical shop or with his uncle at his stationery outlet, Almoayyed Stationery, between school and games of football, cricket and marbles with his friends.
The late chairman of Y K Almoayyed & Sons (YKA) witnessed his family transition into selling electrical products, including fans, ceiling fans and then air-conditioning units, sensing a change in the markets away from the dying pearling trade.
Always a true ‘son of the soil’, Mr Almoayyed was educated in local schools and went to the only high school in Bahrain at the time – where he made invaluable contacts with fellow elite contemporaries.
Upon graduation, boarding school abroad beckoned, and Mr Almoayyed as well as his cousin, the late Tariq Almoayed, who went on to become Bahrain’s Information Minister from 1973 to 1995, headed to the UK. There, Mr Almoayyed went on to study Mechanical Engineering, completing his Bachelor’s at Loughborough College in England in 1966.
“When I came back to Bahrain, I started working for my father, getting paid the equivalent of BD200, which was quite a lot back then, and my first car in Bahrain was a red convertible 1966 Ford Mustang,” he had previously told the GDN during an interview.
“Once I came back, I also realised that we needed computers in business and we became amongst the first to order National Cash Register (NCR) computers for our accounting and inventory.”
In 1968, YKA secured not one, but two major dealerships, signing up both Nissan and Pontiac, which proved to be a turning point.
When Bahrain gained sovereignty in 1971, Mr Almoayyed led the family through a booming period, which also brought its share of commodity price fluctuations and other challenges.
In 1973, Mr Almoayyed, then 29-years-old, married Fadia Fahad Algosaibi. In the latter half of the 1970s, Mr Almoayyed looked to computers and word processors, the natural successors to the mechanical and electronic typewriters.
He wrote to Wang, a now-defunct computer company that pioneered word processors which eventually evolved into personal computers. He was able to get a service order for 10 Wang processors from Bapco, and this led to the birth of Almoayyed International, which started out with BD7,000-worth of inventory on the seventh floor of the Almoayyed building.
The 1980s saw the rise of computers being used in households and Mr Almoayyed, seeing their potential once again, imported Bahrain’s first Apple II and Commodore Pet.
The 1990s saw Mr Almoayyed and the rest of the family weather the first Gulf War, deciding to stay in Bahrain in solidarity with their staff, despite seeing other families move abroad in the face of uncertainty.
After the end of the Gulf War, Bahrain took its first steps towards democracy and Mr Almoayyed was chosen as a member of the Shura Council in 1992, a position he held until 2000.
Many renowned personalities and establishments paid homage to Mr Almoayyed and his modesty, humaneness, and moral uprightness.
“We will always cherish your virtues and noble deeds. You have been a model of humbleness. May Allah Almighty bless you with mercy and rest your soul in vast paradise,” the Crown Prince’s Court Media Adviser Isa Al Hammadi wrote on his social media account.
Mr Almoayyed’s daughter Hala also published a photo with him on her Instagram account, expressing her grief. “My heart is shattered to a million pieces,” she wrote.
Prominent Bahraini personalities, including Shura Council member Ali Al Aradi, Yusuf bin Ahmed Kanoo Group Deputy Board Chairman Fawzi Ahmed Kanoo, Shura Council First Deputy Chairman Jamal Fakhro, Shura Council Financial and Economic Affairs Committee Chairman Khalid Hussain Al Masqati, and Parliament Financial and Economic Affairs Committee chairman Ahmed Al Salloom paid tribute to Mr Almoayyed, recalling his character and contributions to Bahrain’s economic growth.
In the last two decades of his life, Mr Almoayyed handed over the reins of the family’s growing empire to his children – Mohammed, Hala, Mashael and Yousif – as well as family including his sisters Mona, Laila, Salwa and Amal, and brother Fareed, who will carry his legacy forward.
Mr Almoayyed’s body was flown back from Abu Dhabi last night, where he was undergoing medical treatment.
He will be buried at the Manama Cemetery today. Condolences can be offered at Almoayyed Complex in Burhama tomorrow, Thursday and Friday from 8am to noon and 3pm to 7pm for men and from 10am to 1pm and 4pm to 8pm for women.
naman@gdnmedia.bh
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