2007 was one of those years that rushed by you because there was so much happening in the country. Despite Gonu, it has been a good year for most businesses and reports from all sectors of the economy have been upbeat. Instead of doing another round-up of business deals that happened or soured in 2007, all of which we have already covered in detail, this time we thought we would look at faces behind significant events of last year. To make matters a bit more interesting, the team at BusinessToday took the decision to broaden the usual base of business people to include individuals from all walks of life.

We wanted to look at significant contributions made in 2007. In Vincent Lombardi’s words, ‘It is time for us all to stand and cheer for the doer, the achiever - the one who recognises the challenges and does something about it.’ Besides the corporate bigwigs who stood out last year for some smart business decision or achievement, we have included (among others) two young boys who put together a rock show to raise RO2,500 for cancer awareness, a PDO executive who spearheaded the Schools Paper Recycling project and the banker who just published his first in a series of children’s books.

Our list of 50 is by no means exhaustive; rather, it is indicative of milestones reached in Oman last year. It is a list that celebrates business acumen as much as it does community spirit.

Happy New Year to all readers and we hope that in 2008, BusinessToday can make a difference by doing things better, by raising our standards even before your expectations do.

Mohana Prabhakar
mohana@apexstuff.com
Managing editor