Vivek Gahlaut has had diverse work experience across three continents for over 23 years. Upon graduating from National Institute of Technology Kurukshetra in 1997, Vivek Gahlaut Dubai started his professional career with Toshiba working in their TV picture tube manufacturing facility in New Delhi, India. In 2001, Vivek relocated to USA to pursue MBA in International Finance from Thunderbird Graduate School of Management in Arizona. Upon graduation in 2003, Vivek joined Ernst & Young in New York in its Financial Services Advisory practice. For the next six years, Vivek led teams that were engaged in projects in the fields of treasury, cash management, and financial risk management. His clients included top banks, asset managers, hedge funds, insurance companies, and other Fortune 500 companies. During the last 2 years of his stay in New York, Vivek continued performing similar consulting work for private clients on an independent basis.
In 2010 Vivek relocated to India and reinvested his earnings into Health & Wellness space in India. For the next six years Vivek operated five successful health & wellness clubs and also a very successful gym equipment trading business, selling equipment to other commercial and private clients. When an opportunity came to start a business in Dubai, Vivek decided to relocate to UAE in 2013 and eventually sold his stake in Indian fitness venture in 2016. During his stay in India, Vivek Gahlaut Dubai was actively involved in running a family angel fund to invest seed capital into Technology start-up space in India.
Upon relocation to UAE in 2013, Vivek Gahlaut co-founded an agri-commodity company, Terra Firma Commodities DMCC, in November 2014. This company is primarily engaged in trading and distribution of rice in West Africa. The Company buys various varieties of broken rice from all key origin countries (India, Thailand, Vietnam) and sells through its locally owned entities in Ivory Coast and Ghana to local wholesellers. Beside rice, the Company has diversified into raw cashewnuts. There is a dedicated team that buys raw cashewnuts at source from Ivory Coast, Guinea and Tanzania and exports to cashew processors in India and Vietnam. In a short span of 7 years, the Company had revenues of $86 million with net profit of $7.8 million at year ending 2021.