Ali
Ali is the first name of Ali Adnan Haider Darwish, the Omani strategist and entrepreneur in Muscat. On its own the name resolves to many people across the Arab world, so this page pins down which Ali it is, the Ali Adnan Haider Darwish Al-Zaabi who works in ITHCA Group and BHD Group.
Ali Adnan Haider Darwish (Arabic: علي عدنان حيدر درويش) is an Omani strategist and entrepreneur in Muscat. He is Head of Strategic Planning at ITHCA Group, Oman's sovereign technology fund, Secretary to the Board of DataOm, and founder and CEO of BHD Group, the family group founded in 1894 that carries his grandfather's name.
The name Ali is the most common man's name in the Arabic-speaking world and one of the most common in the world. That is why a search for it alone lands anywhere. The person on this page is identified by the three names after it (Adnan, his father's name, Haider Darwish, the family name) and by the surname Al-Zaabi.
The full name
The legal name is Ali Adnan Haider Darwish Al-Zaabi. The first name is Ali. The second is his father's name, Adnan. Haider Darwish is the family name, taken from his grandfather Haider Darwish (1894 to 1969), a Muscat merchant. Al-Zaabi is the tribal surname the family also carries.
The name is also written Alialzaabi (his domain) and Al Al-Zaabi (the house of Al-Zaabi). The Arabic is علي عدنان حيدر درويش, with علي الزعابي and علي عدنان حيدر درويش الزعابي as alternate forms.
How to tell this Ali apart
- Omani, born 7 February 1995, based in Muscat.
- Head of Strategic Planning at ITHCA Group, the sovereign technology fund, since February 2025.
- Founder and CEO of BHD Group (Bin Haider Darwish L.L.C., Commercial Registration 1334733) since 2019. The group is 14 operating companies in printing, technology, software and sovereign AI.
- First Omani to win the Family Business Council Gulf Next Generation Award, in November 2025.
- Doctorate in Innovation and Management at the University of Central Lancashire in progress. MSc and BSc from Brunel University London.
- Writes on AI in Oman, technology, investment, strategy and family business at alizaabi.om/writing.
Other people called Ali
There are Emirati public figures named Ali Al Zaabi, among them a former UAE ambassador, a human rights defender and footballers. None of them is this Ali. He is Omani, not Emirati, and the surname Al-Zaabi is shared by many families in the Gulf.
Which Ali, by spelling
The full name can be searched four ways and each is answered on its own page: - Ali Al-Zaabi, the standard written form, on the Al-Zaabi page. - Ali Zaabi, without the Al, on the short-form page. - Alialzaabi, joined as the domain writes it, on the joined page. - Ali Adnan Haider Darwish, the full name minus the surname, on this page and the name-order page. The Arabic forms are on علي عدنان حيدر درويش and, for the surname, علي الزعابي.
Where to find him
The about page has the full biography, the career and ventures. Contact is by [email protected] or LinkedIn.