Speakers Ahmad Younis

Ahmad Younis is the Secretary General and CEO of the Arab Irish Chamber of Commerce, a role he has held since 2010.

 

Originally from the Arab world, Ahmad moved to Ireland at the age of nine and has since been a passionate advocate for strengthening Arab-Irish business relations to the mutual benefit of both regions.  He believes the culture and traditions of the Arab world are often misunderstood and that the region's business potential is significantly underestimated.

Ahmad began his career at AIB, where he spent 11 years working across various departments, including corporate banking and personal finance.  In 2008, he transitioned into wealth management, overseeing a substantial investment portfolio. Following the onset of a challenging economic climate, Ahmad left this role and joined the Arab Irish Chamber of Commerce.

Starting in a practical role invovling the manual processing of export documentation to the Arab region, Ahmad quickly identified the inefficiencies of the system.  His leadership led to the development  and implementation of tailored software to streamline the Chamber’s document handling and better serve its clients.

Ahmad engages with a broad range of stakeholders to promote Arab-Irish trade, including Ambassadors to Ireland, Irish chambers of commerse, Arab world chambers, the Department of Finance, Bord Bia and Enterprise Ireland. With trade between Ireland and the Arab states growing significantly - particularly in recent years - the Chamber no processes over 10,000 export documents from Ireland annually.