Name: Zulekha Daud
Designation: Founder & Chairperson
Company: Zulekha Healthcare Group
Zulekha Daud is an Indian-born physician and entrepreneur, best known as the founder and chairperson of the Zulekha Healthcare Group, a leading network of hospitals and medical facilities in the United Arab Emirates and India. Widely recognised as the first Indian woman to practise medicine in the UAE, she arrived in the country in 1964 after completing her medical education at Government Medical College in Nagpur.
Over a career spanning several decades, she has earned deep respect for her clinical expertise, resilience and commitment to patient-centred care, affectionately becoming known as “Mama Zulekha”. Born in Maharashtra, India, Daud overcame barriers to pursue medicine and moved to the Middle East in 1962. She established a Sharjah clinic in 1965, delivering over 10,000 babies, and later founded Zulekha Hospital (Sharjah, 1992; Dubai, 2004), now part of the Zulekha Healthcare Group, serving hundreds of thousands annually. She also advanced healthcare education through Zulekha College and medical initiatives, research, and training, and remains active in philanthropy, shaping the region’s healthcare landscape well into her 80s.
