Careers in Cupola Teleservices Limited

The Cupola Group's history mirrors the success story of Dubai. Cupola started life as a venture capital boutique almost two decades ago, the brain child of Arif Naqvi - the founder and CEO of Abraaj Capital, a leading investor operating in global growth markets with over $7.5 billion of assets under management.

The group's historical milestones include the setting up of numerous franchise concepts in the region including Pizza Express, TGI Fridays, Thomas Cook, and Estée Lauder among others. Cupola also provided the operational and financial nucleus of a number of pioneering concepts in the Middle East, prominent among these are the first Contact Centre in the region established in 1999 (CTS), which has become the core of a regionally focussed BPO; a Visa/MasterCard accredited financial cards manufacturing and personalisation unit (CPC) which was sold to Oberthur Technologies; and a document management business which was sold to Aramex.

Against all odds, Cupola did the unprecedented in 2000 when it outbid several well placed regional contenders to acquire the Inchcape Middle East business via a leveraged buy-out worth more than $102 million. The acquisition gave Cupola access to a highly diversified portfolio of regional businesses, including leading food wholesalers and retailers such as Spinneys supermarkets, logistics and oilfield services. The journey from a financial advisory service to a major owner-operator of diverse businesses is well captured in a 2009 Harvard Business School case study prepared by Professor Josh Lerner.