Zaid AI Mashari: An epitome of exceptional leadership

Zaid AI Mashari, CEO, Proven Arabia The Gulf Entrepreneur is featuring Zaid AI Mashari as the cover story for 10 Most Influential Entrepreneurs from Saudi Arabia in 2022. We want to tell Zaid AI Mashari story to many more people with an intention to inspire readers, especially budding entrepreneurs and thus embolden the entrepreneurial spirit of the region. This feature will talk about your professional journey: challenges, failures, successes, leadership approach and the values he brings to people through your company. Interview with Zaid AI Mashari What was your life like before you began your entrepreneurial journey? What experience shaped you to become an entrepreneur? I had the privilege to work with multinational companies which provide exposure to diverse colleagues as well global practices. These really came into perspective when I started to travel globally. The travels provided amazing experiences which broadened not only my perspective by allowed me to look at issues from multiple angles and design solutions. This broader exposure helps me connect various elements which might normally not be associated together. I have always been a perfectionist, though I’m not too fond of that term, but I’ve always approached every goal with honesty and the larger picture in sight. I applied the same work ethic when I started my professional career and work extremely hard. I never considered myself an employee but the appreciation and recognition were never there. However, challenges like these pushed me towards an entrepreneurial mindset of needing to create something of my own. During that time, I started my first venture in 2007, ELTE which was a food import business from India and Turkey. That venture added an immense amount of learning and experience since it was my first business exposure coupled with the economic crisis of 2008. Then, I joined a multinational company in Riyadh. During that time, and still employed, I started my second venture, PROVEN, in 2009 with Naif Al Otaibi. We were both working for multinational companies, which gave us insight into the gaps and challenges faced in the service industry in Saudi Arabia. Today, PROVEN has a well-established reputation in the market as a leading KPO services provider, with a customer-centric model. The business expanded by providing excellent outsourcing solutions backed by our on-the-ground expert knowledge of the Saudi Arabia market. Naif and I realized that we have an entrepreneurship