Story, 1990 to today
Every company I've built has been somewhere I wasn't from.
The Navy, then the Rangers, then 25,000 nautical miles from Canada around Cape Horn to Hamburg. After that Egypt, Mexico, Egypt again, and since 2013 the Emirates.
The run
Where I've been, and what I was doing there.
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1990 to 1994 · Kiel
German Navy
Radio and telecommunications systems engineer on submarines: the radio, the sonar and the torpedo fire-control computers. Every step of a procedure there exists for a reason.
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1994 to 1995 · Flensburg
Army Ranger regiment
Two years of leading teams on live-fire exercises. That's where I learned to trust the procedure when I was too tired to think.
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1995 to 1996 · Canada, around Cape Horn, to Hamburg
Dagmar Aaen expedition
Dive leader on Arved Fuchs's expedition ship, 25,000 nautical miles. We dived and surveyed two famous wrecks: HMS Bounty at Pitcairn, and SMS Seeadler at Mopelia, the sailing raider of Count Luckner, the "Sea Devil". It became a full documentary for German television. The expedition also crossed the Patagonian inland ice field.
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1996 to 1997 · Egypt, then Mexico
Diving instructor
My wife and I instructed at Blue Water Dive Resort on the Red Sea and had already decided to leave when the Luxor attack of November 1997 emptied Egypt's tourism overnight. We arrived in Mexico knowing nobody. Within 14 days we had jobs at AquaWorld, a flat and work visas, and our landlady showed us her three-envelope system at her kitchen table. That's where the Money Map Method started.
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1998 to 2002 · Hurghada, Egypt
Emperor Divers, centre manager to regional manager
3 diving centres, 7 day boats, 5 cruise ships and a team from more than 20 countries. My boss handed me Rich Dad Poor Dad in my first year, and I bought my first rental flat soon after. In 2002 the same boss fired me and gave my job to my secretary. That day the owner in me was born: nobody would fire me again.
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2003 to 2004 · Hurghada, Dubai, Moscow
TDI Middle East and Russia, operations manager
A deliberate stepping stone. I ran branches in three countries and planned DiveMix on the side.
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2004 to 2022 · Egypt · 17 years
I founded it, held the majority and ran it as CEO until 2013, then chaired the board. It started with compressors and gas systems for the dive boats and grew into complete nitrogen and oxygen plants for hospitals, pharmaceutical companies and food and beverage producers. A team of 35, a cylinder test station and field service engineers looking after dive centres, hospitals and factories alike. I kept every employee paid through the Egyptian revolutions of 2011 and 2013.
Sold in January 2022.
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2013 to 2022 · Ras Al Khaimah · 9 years
I co-founded it with two German partners, was its largest shareholder and ran it as managing director. Nitrogen and oxygen generation plants, and my territory was Africa, Middle East, Indian subcontinent and Far East.
Sold in December 2020. I stayed on as managing director until August 2022.
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2022 · Ras Al Khaimah
Co-founder, shareholder and managing director. We regenerate spent seawater RO membranes that desalination plants used to throw away, test every one to ISO 20466 and sell them for non-potable water at 30 to 50 percent less than a new one. We started as a factory: I built the plant, brought production to life and I run it.
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2023 · Ras Al Khaimah
Founder and managing partner, since April 2023. Company setup, Day One home setup, industrial supply, and the commercial home of The Smart Money Family.
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2024
I started teaching parents and their teenagers the system that began at a kitchen table in Mexico.
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Today
Four behind me, three running
Four companies founded, sold and exited. Three running now.
Talk to me
Most of this started with a conversation.
If you're weighing up a partnership, an advisory role or a move into this region, write to me, or book a discovery call.