Aramex (Arabic: ارامكس ''’arāmaks'') is a global transportation and logistics services company providing a variety of express, logistics, freight forwarding and domestic distribution services. The company was established in 1982 and is headquartered in Amman, Jordan. Aramex also provides a number of retail services including mail-order catalog services and mail forwarding services.

History

In 1997, Aramex was listed on the NASDAQ and was the first international company in the region to do so. In 2002, as Aramex was celebrating its 20th anniversary, it was approached by Abraaj Capital and consequently Aramex decided to delist from the NASDAQ. The Company moved to private ownership after being acquired in a leveraged management buyout by Aramex CEO and Co-Founder Fadi Ghandour.

In 2003, DHL acquired Airborne Express, Aramex’s main United States partner. This resulted in Airborne Express exiting the Airborne Alliance. In the same year, Aramex took over the alliance and co-founded the Global Distribution Alliance (GDA), a global alliance of 40 express companies with combined revenues of $7.5 billion. Aramex is chairing the alliance which uses a shipment management system developed by the company.

After deciding to list on the Dubai stock market, the company's initial public offering made available a total of about 550 million shares to the public at a price of Dh1 per share.

As part of its expansion plans, Aramex concluded a series of acquisitions, including Priority Airfreight, InfoFort, Freight Professionals and TwoWay-Vanguard.

World-renowned writer and columnist Thomas L. Friedman used Aramex in his book ''The World Is Flat'' as an example of companies that benefit from what he calls the flattening of the world. The flattening of the world is the leveling of the economic field and the destruction of “barriers to entry,” opening the door wide for an individual or a company anywhere in the world to collaborate or compete globally.

References

Fadi Ali Ghandour (1959) is a Jordanian entrepreneur mostly known for being the founder and CEO of Aramex, one of the global logistics and transportation providers. Ghandour co-founded Aramex in 1982 in Amman, Jordan and has served as CEO since then. Aramex was the first company from the Arab world to go public on the NASDAQ stock exchange. Aramex now trades on the Dubai Financial Market.

Ghandour is a Founding Partner of Maktoob.com, the world’s largest Arab online community. Maktoob was acquired by Yahoo! in 2010. Ghandour is also a member of the Board of Abraaj Capital, the largest private equity firm in the Middle East and South Asia, is a Founding Board Member of Endeavor Jordan, and serves on the Advisory Board of the Suliman S. Olayan School of Business at the American University of Beirut. Between 2003 and 2005, he was the Middle East and North Africa Area Chairman of the Young Presidents' Organization.

Ghandour is passionate about social entrepreneurship. He is the founder of Ruwwad for Development, a regional private sector-led community empowerment initiative that helps disadvantaged communities overcome marginalization through youth activism, civic engagement and education, and is a Member of the Board of the National Microfinance Bank in Jordan. He has also served as Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Jordan River Foundation for over 10 years.

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Early years

In 1912, he entered Hangchow University (later its major part merged into Zhejiang University) preparatory through examination. He was there only for a short period before he was expelled for participation in a student strike.

He then moved to Japan, where he studied economics at the Tokyo Imperial University between 1913 and 1922, where he met other Chinese intellectuals (namely, Guo Moruo, Zhang Ziping and Tian Han). Together, in 1921 they founded the ''Chuangzao she'' 創造社 ("Creation Society"), which promoted vernacular and modern literature. One of his earlier works ''Chenlun'' 沉淪, also his most famous, published in Japan in 1921. The work had gained immense popularity in China, shocking the world of Chinese literature with its frank dealing with sex, as well as grievances directed at the incompetence of Chinese government at the time.

In 1922, he returned to China as a literary celebrity and worked as the editor of ''Creation Quarterly'', editing journals and writing short stories. In 1923, after an attack of tuberculosis, Yu Dafu directed his attention to the welfare of the masses.

In 1927, he worked as an editor of the ''Hongshui'' literary magazine. He later came in conflict with the Communist Party of China and fled back to Japan.

Second Sino-Japanese war

In 1942 when the Imperial Japanese Army invaded Singapore, he was forced to flee to Sumatra. Known under a different identity, he settled there among other overseas Chinese and began a brewery business with the help of the locals. Later he was forced to help the Japanese military police as an interpreter when it was discovered that he was one of the few "locals" in the area who could speak Japanese.

In 1945, he was arrested by the Kempeitai when his true identity was finally discovered. It is believed that he was executed by the Japanese shortly after the surrender of Japan.

Works

His most popular work, breaking all Chinese sales records, was ''Jih-chi chiu-chung'' "''Nine Diaries''", which detailed his affair with the writer Wang Ying-hsin. The most critically acclaimed work is ''Kuo-ch'u'' or "''The Past''", written in 1927.

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Category:1896 births Category:1945 deaths Category:Chinese expatriates in Japan Category:Hangzhou High School alumni Category:People from Hangzhou Category:Republic of China poets Category:University of Tokyo alumni Category:Zhejiang University alumni