Watch Keya Bayramova, a Turkmen Expat Who Has Succeeded as a Businesswoman in the UAE

Her vision, coupled with hard work over the past three decades, has led her to become a successful businesswoman building businesses in the construction, restaurant, general maintenance, and construction industries. ‘immovable.

With her partner Shyam Lala, she set up a labor supply company that recruits, accommodates and feeds the workers right up to the site. At one point, she was running the company with 2,700 employees working on flagship projects.

Having thrived in the highly competitive and male-dominated construction industry, Keya has also pioneered a unique concept to welcome and help expatriate families settle in the UAE through Parent Concierge Services. The service not only helps migrant families complete their paperwork to move in, but also assists them with a myriad of services – from finding properties to rent or buy, placing children in schools, enrolling them in sports clubs, buying a car, hiring a driver and nanny, starting a business, arranging laundry services and much more.

Complementing the one-stop-shop concierge, a real estate service (Green Home Real Estate) also helps families find homes in the UAE and plant trees with every transaction to champion a green cause in association with development companies landscaped.

With two of her three sons suffering from allergies, Keya founded Professional Line Building Maintenance (Proline) in response to green cleaning services and supplies that would benefit the environment of families like hers.

A recipient of Canada’s Brilliant Minded Women’s Award, what sets this single mom apart as a businesswoman is her passion for supporting women in her various endeavors. When she finally achieved her dream of becoming a businesswoman in Dubai, she always prioritized hiring women and empowering their families. The reason: She wants to help women become independent, which is what her father had done to her and her three sisters.

As she shared her story with Gulf News while sipping coffee from a “magic mug” that has a beautiful painting of her father, Keya said, “That’s how my dad raised us, four sisters. He has always wanted us to be independent.

Having been orphaned, her father had lived with the pain of not seeing her parents, not to mention the warmth of their love and care, Keya recalls.

“He had to rely on himself all his life. And he used to say – the responsibility of my mother and I is to educate you girls. How you want to go on with your life is up to you. But remember, nothing is impossible.

“We used to hear that from mom and dad almost every day: you have to do it yourself. There’s no help. That’s how we grew up.”

Because of this, Keya said she wonders why people ask a habitual question when they first meet her at home.

“Apart from my name, they would immediately ask whose daughter I am. I always wondered why. I didn’t want to tell people that my dad is a famous artist. I just wanted to say my name. I always wanted to have my own identity and be independent. That’s why I came to Dubai.

The first six months were difficult, she recalls. Homesick, she would call her older sister and cry almost every night. But when her sisters and mother asked her to come home, she decided to pursue her dreams.

“I worked at the hotel for four years. Then I had the opportunity to open my own business in the field where I was. So I opened a general trading company specializing in food products. Then I had my first son and I was on hiatus. A friend of mine offered me a marketing position in a labor supply company. Later, I realized that I could start my own business in the field of recruitment,” Keya said, describing how her entrepreneurial journey began.

Even after starting various businesses, she said she “came out of her cocoon” after her father passed away in 2014.

Although she was doing well in business and her economics degree had served her well, she had hardly used her arts degree to do anything important. She had earned an arts degree to carry on her father’s legacy, as had her sisters, though all were free to pursue careers in their chosen fields.

Although art has been around her all her life, it was after her father’s death that Keya did something big related to art. She joined her sisters in establishing a foundation and an art museum in her memory – the Durdy Bayramov Art Foundation and the Bayramov Museum in Toronto, Canada.

Now it is her wish to establish a Central Asian museum named after her father in Dubai, the place that is now her home and which made her an investor.

“This is my life goal. It can become the cultural home of all Central Asian countries. And I want it to happen here in Dubai, my favorite city. I love Dubai very much, which gave me opportunity to grow and made me who I am today.