The special thing about Dr. B.R. Shetty, founder Managing Director and CEO of the Abu Dhabi-based global giant UAE Exchange is that he is more a humane than a business man. Dr. Shetty is enthused by the dictum that the real secret of happiness is not in what you have or what you receive, but you share.
Dr. Shetty is a donor of par excellence, reaching out not only to the Indian community, but to the people from all lands, as numerous have been the beneficiaries of his charitable disposition. Reaping a rich harvest of the benefits of his kind acts, the young man who landed in UAE 40 years ago from Udupi searching for a job has become the head of a mammoth business empire. Son of late Shambushetty, Municipal Councilor of Udupi, Bavaguthu Raghuram Shetty had only a degree in Clinical Pharmacy to dream and make the dream come true, at the time of coming to UAE. But Shetty, who served as the Vice-Chairman of Udupi Municipality, possessed a rare gift — the ability to work hard with dedication to the task and an inveterate curiosity and interest in everything around him, the guiding spirit being the inspiration his mother lent.These joys of life coupled with a sense of justice in meeting the challenges with uncompromising compunctions are the recipe of his strength and success. It is not wonder, therefore, that people instinctively feelShetty as a special person – a man of principles blessed with divine fortitude.
The beginning in 1975 was modest with a small clinic. Today it has grown in to a giant healthcare group called New Medical Centre (NMC) with 5 facilities in UAE, out of which 3 are super specialityhospitals. There has been a daily footfall of around 5,000 patients in these hospitals, says Dr. Shetty.
Dr. C.R. Shetty, wife of B.R. Shetty has been the medical director of these hospitals.The UAE Exchange was established in 1980, at a time when fund transfer mechanism in the country were unorganized and inadequate to meet the needs of burgeoning expatriate population, especially the labourers who needed reliable and affordable system of transfer of funds. With his legendary foresight and vision, Dr. B.R. Shetty identified these aspirations and potentialities of an almost untapped market. His business acumen saw the rise of a one-branch organization flourishing in to one of the most prominent money transfer and exchange houses of the world in a span of 32 years.
“We have a wide network of 560 offices and presence in 30 countries. We are no more a UEA company or Indian company; we are today a global company with a presence in Europe to Africa. We are remitting $36 billion to India annually. The remittance from UAE, alone, will come to $6.8 billion, which accounts 15 percent of the total inflow of remittance to India”, says Dr. Shetty. The Xpress Money brand of the Group has presence in 136 countries with 100,000 locations.