industry conglomerate founded 1996 1996 founder ashish j. thakkar headquarters dubai united arab emirates area served africa middle east and indian sub continent key people jagdish thakkar chairman ashish j. thakkar founder and ceo products financial services infrastructure technology bpo real estate investment advisory number of employees approximately 11 000 1 website www.mara.com mara group is a pan african multi sector business services company . it operates in the technology financial services manufacturing real estate & agriculture industries . the company was founded by ashish j. thakkar 2 in 1996 and is now active in 24 countries and employs more than 11 000 people . 3 it is headquartered in dubai united arab emirates . description edit mara was founded by ashish j. thakkar in 1996 . the company grew into an international multi sector business with operations and interests across 24 countries including 22 in africa . 4 in 2010 mara group was selected by the world economic forum as a global growth company . 5 the company is active in 22 countries and through its investments and operations employs more than 11 000 people . 6 the mara foundation was founded in 2009 and is the company s social enterprise project . it provides african entrepreneurs with resources for online mentor ship business incubation and funding . 7 8 references edit 1 nsehe mfonobong 18 june 2012 . young successful and african ashish j.thakkar ceo of mara group . forbes magazine . retrieved 18 june 2012 . nsehe mfonobong 4 march 2014 . harvard business school adopts mara group as african case study . forbes magazine . retrieved 1 august 2014 . nsehe mfonobong 18 june 2012 . young successful and african ashish j.thakkar ceo of mara group . forbes magazine . retrieved 1 august 2014 . wef . 19 november 2013 . list of global growth company members as of 19 november 2013 pdf . world economic forum wef . retrieved 1 august 2014 . the lion s roar ashish j thakkar s rise from rwanda genocide to 1bn powerhouse . arabian business.com . 12 december 2014 . retrieved 30 january 2015 . nsehe mfonobong 7 august 2012 . young african millionaire launches mara.com africa s first online mentorship network . forbes magazine . retrieved 1 august 2014 . news . 29 january 2014 . un women and mara foundation announce partnership to support women entrepreneurs . united nations entity for gender equality and the empowerment of women un women . retrieved 1 august 2014 . external links edit official website retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title mara group & oldid 669147062 categories companies based in dubaicompanies established in 1996 navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 29 june 2015 at 06 02 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view