Despite being ranked among the highest paid in the Emirates… Dowidar: My salary is below the global average

The former CEO of the “e&” group, Hatem Dowidar, spoke about his reaction to his classification among the list of the highest-paid CEOs in companies listed on the financial markets in the Emirates during the year 2025, explaining that he did not feel surprised when the list was published, given that this data is available due to the nature of the companies listed on the stock exchange.

He said in an interview with the CNN economic platform that the financial compensation associated with the position, despite appearing to be a high number, is within the usual levels globally for senior executive positions, especially in the technology and communications sectors, indicating that he considers it an average number compared to what his counterparts receive in global markets, and perhaps less than average.

He stressed that evaluating these numbers must be linked to the extent of the responsibilities and challenges that the CEO bears, and the nature of the role he performs.

He added that the salaries and bonuses of executive officers in listed companies are made public and available to the public, noting that the numbers associated with these positions are known to those who search for them, as is the case in various financial markets around the world.

He explained that the lists that are announced usually include listed companies only, while there are large companies that are not listed on the stock exchange that may offer different salaries and bonuses, pointing out that the order of names may change significantly if the scope of comparison is expanded to include all companies in the Emirates.

According to a monitoring by Emirates Today, which it published in May of this year, based on the data of governance reports and integrated reports for listed companies for the year 2025, announced on the website of the two markets, the managing board member of Emaar Properties, Mohamed Alabbar, topped the list of the highest salaries and bonuses for the companies monitored during the past year, with the total salaries, allowances and bonuses paid, in addition to business-related travel expenses for the year 2025, with a value of about 61.3 million. One million dirhams.

The former CEO of the E& Group during 2025, Hatem Dowidar, came in second place with about 20.24 million dirhams, which included the total annual salary, allowances, other allowances, incentive bonuses, and long-term incentives for last year.

In turn, the Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Dubai Investments, Khalid Jassim bin Kalban, came in third place with the total annual salary, worth 18.36 million dirhams, which includes allowances, retirement pensions, social insurance, and bonuses that were paid in 2025 and date back to the previous year, and any other cash or non-cash bonuses in the past year, which will become due in the future.
He was followed in fourth place by the Group CEO and Managing Director of Abu Dhabi National Energy, Jassim Hussein Thabet, with a total of 15.14 million dirhams, which includes total salaries, allowances, a variable performance bonus, other benefits, and a long-term incentive plan.

In fifth place came the CEO of the Emaar Properties Group, Amit Jain, with a total of salaries and bonuses amounting to 14.28 million dirhams, which is the sum of salaries, allowances and bonuses for the year 2025, followed by the CEO of the Aldar Properties Group, Talal Al Dhiyebi, with a value of 13.41 million dirhams, which includes the salaries, allowances and bonuses for the year 2025.

The CEO of the Integrated Telecommunications Company “Du”, Fahd Al-Hassawi, came seventh with about 13.05 million dirhams, which includes salaries, allowances, cash or in-kind benefits, and variable performance-based additional fees paid in 2025, then the CEO of the “NMDC Group”, Yasser Nasr Zaghloul, with about 12.66 million dirhams, which includes the total salaries and allowances paid for the year 2025 and the bonuses paid for the year 2024, and any Other cash or in-kind rewards for the past year.

As for the ninth place, the CEO of “E& Emirates” (the current CEO of the “E&” Group) during the year 2025, Masoud Mohammed Sharif, came with 12.07 million dirhams, the total annual salary, allowances, other allowances, incentive bonuses, and long-term incentives for the year 2025, then the Managing Director and CEO of Union Properties Company, Amer Khan Sahib, came in tenth place, with total bonuses for the year 2025 estimated at about 9.24 million dirhams.