The co-founder and CEO of the leading document printing solutions provider in Middle-East and Africa, Dr. Sassan Dieter Khatib-Shahidi’s keen interest towards ‘creating something from nothing’ led him to lay the foundation of the legacy called German Imaging Technologies.
A well-groomed and well-informed personality, Dr. Sassan Dieter Khatib-Shahidi is a man brimming with confidence and zest to attain laurels in every venture he steps into. What drives his glorious persona is his vision to look ahead and only ahead. He doesn’t carry regrets with him as he believes that mistakes help a person learn and grow. He says, “The mistakes we make and what we learn from them makes us who we are and if we hadn’t made those mistakes, then we wouldn’t be the kind of people we are.”
Having drawn his expertise from time spent studying, living, and working in Germany, the United Kingdom, the United States, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, Dr. Sassan knows how to play his cards well. He has a hawk’s vision towards the market needs and trends which makes him one of the most successful entrepreneurs of the present time.
LIFE OF A VICTOR
Born to a German mother and Iranian father, Sassan’s family migrated to England from Iran in 1978 when the Islamic revolution broke out. After spending a short period of time in a boarding school in Shareborne, England, he relocated to Germany where he finished his education and obtained his law degree and doctorate (magna cum laude) from the University of Konstanz. Following that Dr. Sassan Dieter practiced law in Frankfurt at some of the leading firms including Heuking, Kuehn, and Wojtek. He also worked as a source of legal and expert opinion on Middle Eastern laws on banking, arbitration, and investments.
After working as a lawyer for around 10 years, Dr. Sassan decided to foray into the entrepreneur’s domain. His frequent visits to Dubai pertaining to his area of expertise being the Middle East while practicing law gave him a fair idea of the market. The lucrative and promising market conditions propelled him to choose Dubai as the location for GIT and he set the firm along with two other co-founders in 1999. Initially, the company faced hard times when its single German client broke away due to insolvency, but this did not dampen his spirits. Rapidly adapting to this situation in an agile turnaround, he fought back with full vigor, driven by a clear vision and passion for the company’s purpose. Today his company is counted among the best printing solution providers globally.
MORE THAN BUSINESS
Married to Founder and CEO of the Diva Group of Companies, Nicole Rodrigues, Dr. Sassan is a complete family man. Father of three adorable children, he loves spending time with them and believes that he has learnt love and passion from his kids. “They teach us how important it is and keep reminding us to not forget the important things in life. It is very easy to forget in a busy work life what family, love and sharing means to us. It is the kids that inevitably bring us back to these important values” he remarks.
Dr. Sassan is a travel buff and an adventurer as well and loves to explore new places. Nothing enthralls him more than the thrill of exploring new places and attaining new experiences. For him his traverse on Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania has been the most beautiful experience of his life. The money which he earns is thus never spent on unnecessary luxuries but on newer escapades. He believes that it is because of his sense of adventure that he has made an identity of his own in the challenging business sphere.
“Rapidly adapting to this situation in an agile turnaround, he fought back with full vigor, driven by a clear vision and passion for the company’s purpose.”
