Azad Moopen

Dr.
Azad Moopen
MBBS, MD, DTCD
Born (1953-04-15) 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)[1]
National Committee on Healthcare (Chairman)
Confederation of Indian Industry (3. Chairman)
Awards Pravasi Bharatiya Samman (2010)
Padma Shri (2011)
Website asterdmhealthcare.com

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.[2] In 2010 and 2011, he was awarded the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman and Padma Shri by the Government of India, respectively.[3] According to Forbes, he is ranked 6th in the Top 100 Indian Leaders in UAE list,[4] and according to Arabian Business, 29th in the 50 Richest Indians in the GCC, with the total wealth estimated to approximately $1.1 bln Forbes 2015).[5]

Early life and education

Azad Moopen was born in 1953 in an Indian village Kalpakancheri in Malappuram district of Kerala.[6][7] 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[8] employs about 10,000 people in the Middle East, and serves more than 7 million patients a year.

Healthcare development in India

Dr. Azad has been involved in the development of healthcare facilities in India.[9] MIMS hospitals directly employ about 3,000 people.

He participated in establishing the 600-bed tertiary care Malabar Institute of Medical Sciences (MIMS) hospital at Kozhikode in Kerala in 2001. This was the first multi-specialty hospital in India to receive National Accreditation Board for Hospitals & Healthcare Providers accreditation in 2007. The second 150-bed MIMS hospital was set up at Kottakkal in Malappuram district in 2009.

MIMS Charitable Trust under his leadership established a rural health centre at the backward Vazhayur Panchayat near Kozhikode in 2008 and adopted 7,000 BPL members for comprehensive free out-patient and in-patient care. The trust is adopting the BPL population in the three wards around MIMS in the Corporation of Kozhikode and also plans to conduct a breast and cervical cancer screening program.

Other development activities

He was the Gulf Area convener of the Malabar Airport Development Action Committee (MADAC), which spearheaded the efforts for the establishment of Kozhikode International Airport through a public–private partnership initiative in the 1990s. Kozhikode International Airport is the first airport set up with such private participation in the country. He is the founding chairman of the Association of Kerala Medical Graduates (AKMG) and the Association of Indian Muslims (AIM) in the UAE.

Moopen is vice chairman of the Social Advancement Foundation of India (SAFI). The organization is in the process of establishing a deemed university on 350 acres in Malabar to provide access to the students from the backward communities to frontier areas of technology, science and management.

Philanthropy

Dr. Moopen has set up Dr. Moopen’s Foundation for uplifting and extending healthcare charitable benefits to downtrodden in wider geographies. Foundation focuses on healthcare, educational and social philanthropies through "Healing Touch" activities.[10] He has recently gave 20% of his wealth (about Rs.1 billion) for the philanthropic activities for support of the social changes.[11]

Naseera & Moopen Foundation, his family trust, is setting up the Human Resource Management Centre in his native village of Kalpakancheri to address the educational backwardness through intervention among school children and by parental counselling and training. The MIMS Academy Trust, under his chairmanship has set up a 32-acre campus at Karad in Malappuram district which has more than 1,100 students in medical and nursing subjects.

Dr. Moopen initiated innovative corporate social responsibility (CSR) programmes and some of the ongoing non-profit activities of the Foundation are establishment of stand-alone community dialysis centers, early disease detection and cancer screening centers, radiation oncology centers, free paediatric and adult cardiac surgery programmes, subsidies for advanced surgical treatments for underprivileged people, village adoptions and local empowerment programme for women and children, various health and safety awareness campaigns etc., across Gulf countries, India, Africa, Afghanistan and Philippines, either directly and through supporting NGOs. He is also actively involved in setting up educational establishments in Saudi Arabia, India and the UAE in moulding future generations. On 14 July 2015, Aster DM Healthcare, chaired by Moopen, made a donation of US$ 2.72 million to Al Jalila Foundation, a UAE based charitable organization promoting medical education and research.[12]

Awards and recognitions

The following is the list of awards and recognitions received by Dr. Moopen:

See also

References

  1. Satish, V. M. (5 March 2013). "Dr Moopen appointed director of NORKA-Roots". Emirates 24/7. Retrieved 5 May 2014.
  2. Jagwani, Lohit (12 February 2014). "We are looking at a turnover of $1B by 2017: Azad Moopen, chairman of Aster DM Healthcare". VC Circle. Retrieved 5 May 2014.
  3. Padma Awards Announced Ministry of Home Affairs, 25 January 2011
  4. 1 2 "Top 100 Indian Leaders in UAE". Forbes. Archived from the original on 5 May 2014. Retrieved 5 May 2014.
  5. "50 Richest Indians in the GCC". Arabian Business. Retrieved 5 May 2014.
  6. "Sky is the Limit". Financial Express. Retrieved 8 July 2014.
  7. "UAE-based Indian entrepreneur offers jobs to rescued nurses". July 7, 2014. Retrieved 8 July 2014.
  8. "Healthcare organisation expanding across Middle East, India & Philippines - Looking for primary or secondary international healthcare facility or home care solutions in GCC, Sharjah, Kuwait, Dubai and UAE? Visit us at Aster DM Healthcare". Asterdmhealthcare.com. 2016-03-31. Retrieved 2016-12-01.
  9. "Dubai's Moopen Group to invest $200 Million in Indian healthcare". Silicon India. 10 January 2010. Retrieved 5 May 2014.
  10. "Dr Moopen's Foundation extends its charity works to the Philippines". Future Medicine. 10 March 2013. Retrieved 5 May 2014.
  11. "Inaugural Forbes Middle East Indian leaders list ranks Dr. Azad Moopen among top 10". Olympus Capital Asia. 26 June 2013. Retrieved 5 May 2014.
  12. "Aster DM Healthcare donates Dh10m to Al Jalila Foundation". Gulf News. 14 July 2015. Retrieved July 15, 2015.
  13. "India confers Padma Shri on Dr Moopen". Khaleej Times. 26 January 2011. Retrieved 5 May 2014.
  14. "Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award" (PDF). The Government of India. Retrieved 5 May 2014.
  15. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 19 October 2010. Retrieved 2010-10-20.
  16. "Global Kerala Initiative – Keraleeyam". Keraleeyam.in. Retrieved 2016-12-01.
  17. "Archive News". The Hindu. Retrieved 2016-12-01.

External links

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