UAE. Dubai Duty Free Executive Vice Chairman and CEO Colm McLoughlin today announced his retirement, effective 31 May, bringing down the curtain on an extraordinary 55-year career.
McLoughlin, who has been the driving force behind Dubai Duty Free’s rise to become the largest single airport duty-free operation in the world, will maintain an advisory role. He will attend sponsored sporting events and will remain as Chairman of the Dubai Duty Free Foundation.
Dubai Duty Free’s much-respected Chief Operating Officer Ramesh Cidambi, who has been with the company since 1988, will take the leadership reins in the role of Managing Director, reporting directly to H.H. Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, President of Dubai Civil Aviation Authority and Chairman of Dubai Duty Free.
Current Joint Chief Operating Officer Salah Tahlak will become Deputy Managing Director.
McLoughlin noted, “I am pleased to announce my retirement and want to extend my sincere thanks to all of our management and staff who have supported me so well. A huge thanks of course to our Chairman, H.H. Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, who has been a wonderful boss to me for all these years and who I know will give the same level of support to my successor.
“Longevity is a key factor in the success of Dubai Duty Free and both Ramesh and Salah are great examples of this. I am confident that Dubai Duty Free will continue to grow and I see a very bright future for the operation.”
Commenting on the new role, Cidambi said, “I want to thank our Chairman, H.H. Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum and our Executive Vice Chairman and CEO, Colm McLoughlin for this appointment. Colm is a legendary figure in our industry and has been a fantastic role model for me, and our entire team. I wish him and his wife Breeda a very happy retirement.
“I am looking forward to this next chapter of my career and to working with the team to continue driving the business across both our retail and leisure divisions.”
It is almost impossible to overstate McLoughlin’s contribution to the travel retail sector, to Dubai Duty Free and indeed to Dubai itself, writes Martin Moodie.
By remarkable and poignant coincidence, his retirement takes effect a day before the anniversary of his entry to the travel retail industry. For it was on 1 June 1969 that he took up a post as Special Assistant to Freeport Shops General Manager Bill Maloney at Shannon Airport (the birthplace of the airport duty-free industry in 1947 under the leadership of Dr Brendan O’Regan), Ireland.
In later years he became synonymous with the extraordinary rise and rise of Dubai Duty Free to become the most famous travel retail brand on the planet. Yet when a group of Irish executives from state-owned Aer Rianta arrived in Dubai in October 1983 on a six-month consultancy project to advise the Dubai government on the creation of an airport duty-free enterprise, none surely could have envisaged what lay ahead.
A key member of that team was Colm McLoughlin. He came expecting a half-year stint in the desert sands and never left.
When he first walked into Dubai International Airport all those years ago, what did Colm McLoughlin see? “It was a very small airport with just two conveyor belts,” he recalled in an interview with The Moodie Davitt Report. “It was massively congested with 3 million passengers going through a building that was built for just 750,000.” Last year Dubai International was the world’s third-busiest hub.
“On this [airport] side of town there were no buildings, four or five hotels at most, a poor taxi service and little public social activity,” he remembers.
All that has changed. A new Dubai has emerged as a world powerhouse of tourism and of economic achievement, and Dubai Duty Free has played a pivotal role in putting the emirate on the map.
Dubai Duty Free is the recipient of over 780 awards, of which 86 have been attributed to McLoughlin directly.
But the company remains in good hands. Ramesh Cidambi joined Dubai Duty Free in October 1988 and is among the longest-serving members of the team.
During his stellar career with the travel retailer, Cidambi has held a variety of senior positions with responsibility for areas such as information technology, logistics, retail development and the Dubai Duty Free Leisure business through the Jumeirah Creekside Hotel and The Irish Village Bar and Restaurant. His trajectory through various management roles to become Chief Operating Officer in 2016 is emblematic of the retailer’s drive to promote talent from within.
Salah Tahlak joined the airport retailer in 1992 and was one of the first Emiratis and US graduates to join the organisation. He went on to head up the Marketing division and became Tournament Director of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships in 2003.
He was the first Arab national to be on the Council of both the ATP and WTA. In 2016 he became Executive Vice President for Corporate Services responsible for Marketing, IT, Logistics and Corporate Security and in 2022 was appointed as Joint COO.
Commenting on his new appointment, Salah Tahlak said, “I have had a long and rewarding career with Dubai Duty Free and I want to thank our Chairman, H.H. Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum and of course Colm McLoughlin for this new opportunity. Colm has been like a father figure to me over the years and I have learnt so much from him. I wish him and Breeda and the whole McLoughlin family many happy years of retirement.”
Under the leadership of McLoughlin, Dubai Duty Free has grown dramatically over the past four decades from US$20 million in sales in year one (1984) to US$2.16 billion (2023). ✈
Note: Look out for our more extensive commentary and analysis in The Moodie Davitt Report eZine, to be published later this week. We will include a selection of readers’ tributes. You can post them on our LinkedIn page or by writing to Martin@MoodieDavittReport.com
