Interviewing people with immense influence often reveals a fault line — a quiet tension between power and principle. With Faizal Edavalath Kottikollon, Chairman of KEF Holdings, that tension was conspicuously absent. Faizal arrived with ease at the courtyard of Paus Wellness Club in Dubai and began, unexpectedly, by thanking us for the interview. It was a small gesture, but it set the tone for everything that followed.
He looks you directly in the eye when he speaks—not in a performative way, not to assert dominance, but as though presence is simply his default state. His answers are warm yet precise, delivered without hesitation or embellishment.
KNOWLEDGE IS NOT TO SHOW. KNOWLEDGE IS TO GIVE.
The core truth about Faizal emerges soon enough – that he carries business, influence, and philanthropy not as opposing ideas, but as parallel truths, held together comfortably.
The beginning
Faizal’s journey began in 1995 as a modest trading venture in Ajman. From the outset, community was not a corporate strategy but the foundation of his life’s work. Trust within teams, clarity of purpose, and authenticity across hierarchies were non-negotiable long before such language entered management playbooks. “Most businesses fail,” he says, “because everything beneath the surface is a façade.”
As his organisation evolved, from scrap trading to foundry operations, from healthcare infrastructure to clinical wellness to newer global platforms, the principle remained unchanged: purpose had to be translated all the way to the last employee on the floor. By the time his foundry earned global recognition among the world’s leading manufacturers, the values that would later define his philanthropy were already in place.
Ahead of the curve
In 1997, at a time when sustainability was neither fashionable nor monetisable, Faizal built what is widely regarded as the world’s first sustainable foundry. The thinking was instinctive rather than strategic. If something could be done better, it should be. If it could be done responsibly, it must be.
Philanthropy, however, did not sit outside the organisation but rather grew from within it. In 2002, when the company was still a startup, Faizal made a decision that would later define its culture. Every worker, he believed, deserved more than wages. They deserved dignity. Food, clothing, shelter—khana, kapda, makan—were not benefits, but basics.
At a Glance
Founded : 1995
First Sustainable Foundry : 1997
Community Centre Established : 2007
Growth Post-Community Model : ~60% YoY
YOU DON’T KNOW WHERE YOUR BLESSINGS COME FROM—BUT YOU FEEL THEM WHEN YOU DO GOOD.
That belief took physical form in 2007 with the creation of a community centre at the heart of the organisation. “Every employee is required to spend 45 minutes there each day. The time is paid for by the company. There are no productivity metrics attached to it. People can play sports, read, train in something they enjoy, rest, or simply be,” he explains.
Quality improvement
What followed was not just goodwill, but measurable transformation. Employee wellbeing improved, emotionally and physically. Productivity rose sharply. Company growth shifted from a steady 7%–8% to nearly 60% year-on-year. Net margins climbed to 25%.
Faizal points to this growth graph in the KEF Holdings book, describing the growth curve as a hockey stick but speaks of it without triumph. For him, the lesson is obvious: taking care of people is not a diversion from success—it is a direct path to it.
When the company was eventually acquired in a deal valued at approximately $400 million, it marked a milestone, not a moral turning point. Growth followed, but so did a deeper commitment to community welfare. Business, in Faizal’s world, has never been purely transactional. Its purpose extends beyond balance sheets into the lives of the people who make it possible.
That thinking extends well beyond the workplace. Through the Faizal and Shabana Foundation, the couple has undertaken long-term social development work across India and beyond. In 2013, a single government school in Kerala was rebuilt in just 95 days—not as charity, but as a prototype. The results were decisive. Academic outcomes improved sharply, and the model was adopted by the state and replicated widely. Today, nearly 1,000 government schools follow what came to be known as the Nadakkavu Model, impacting 3 million students across India and Africa.
Money alone, Faizal insists, is not the solution. “Everybody gives money,” he says. “But money only solves part of the problem. Knowledge multiplies.” Education — particularly of the girl child—sits at the centre of the foundation’s work. “Educate a woman,” he says, “and families stabilise. Communities follow.”
In Krishnagiri, eight villages have been developed as a single system. Schools, livelihoods, healthcare, and local industry were built together to ensure that progress was sustained rather than symbolic. Income levels rose, sanitation improved, and self-sufficiency followed. Even global institutions, including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, have studied aspects of this model.
Healthcare, too, is approached differently. For Faizal, health does not begin in hospitals. It begins at childhood. Prevention matters more than treatment. Nutrition is medicine. Through school-based education platforms, health awareness is introduced early—shifting the focus from illness to wellness. “If you have a healthy mind, you have a healthy body,” he says, “and sometimes it works the other way around.”
A spiritual businessman
What surprised us most during the conversation, however, was not the scale of his work, but the depth of his spirituality. Faizal speaks about Vedanta not as an inherited belief system or intellectual exercise, but as lived practice. He and his wife, Shabana, have studied Vedanta for the past five years and now host a Vedanta academy within the Tulah premises, their integrated luxury wellness destination, focused not on religion, but on human intellect, ethics, and clarity of thought.
IF YOU EDUCATE A WOMAN, YOU EDUCATE AN ENTIRE FAMILY—AND THEN A COMMUNITY.
KEF IN NUMBERS
Education & Social Impact
• Government schools transformed: 966+ (Kerala)
• Model replicated across India & Africa
• Students impacted: 3 million+
• Villages adopted & developed: 8 (Krishnagiri)
Healthcare & Wellness
• Focus: Prevention, nutrition, school-based health education
• Philosophy: Illness to Wellness
• Global initiative: Tulah Clinical Wellness
• Flagship hospital: Meitra Hospital, India
Philanthropy Platform
• Foundation: Faisal & Shabana Foundation
• Core belief: Knowledge multiplies impact
PHILANTHROPY IS NOT A CHOICE FOR LEADERS. IT IS A RESPONSIBILITY.
Tulah itself is perhaps his most forward-looking initiative. Tulah Clinical Wellness is a $100-million luxury, integrated wellness destination located near Kozhikode in Kerala, India, designed to merge modern medicine with traditional Ayurveda, yoga, and sound therapy. Opened in 2025, it focuses on holistic health using a personalized ‘Tulah Index’ to measure longevity and wellness.
Throughout the conversation, Faizal returns repeatedly to the idea of erosion of trust. “We work in isolation,” he says. “That’s why the world feels fractured.” His philanthropic work, he says, is an attempt to add more spokes to the wheel to help it move faster, together.
When the conversation turns to legacy, his answer is disarmingly simple. “I just want to be known as a good human being.”
Coming from a man of his stature, the statement feels neither rehearsed nor aspirational. It feels factual and believable.
There is a lightness to Faizal that is hard to miss. He laughs easily and does not carry the intensity of one moment into the next. When the meeting ends, it ends cleanly. He stands, shakes hands—firm, grounded—and leaves without ceremony.
Later, off the record, I ask him how he decides whom to trust. His answer is practical. Why over-intellectualise people, he asks, when observation reveals enough? Invite someone for breakfast. See how they live. That, too, tells you who they are.
BUSINESS, IN FAIZAL’S WORLD, HAS NEVER BEEN PURELY TRANSACTIONAL. ITS PURPOSE EXTENDS BEYOND BALANCE SHEETS.
