Ali Adnan Haider Darwish: the founder behind Mithaq
Ali Adnan Haider Darwish is the founder and CEO of BHD Group, the Muscat company that builds Mithaq. BHD Group (Bin Haider Darwish L.L.C.) was founded in 1894 and carries the name of Ali's grandfather. Ali leads it as founder and CEO. He also sits on boards himself, and that mix of board work and company building explains why Mithaq exists and how it works.
From one federation board to a product
Mithaq started inside a single board. The Oman Fencing Committee ran its board work on a workspace that BHD Group built for fencing.om. Ali has been a board member of the committee since 2023. In 2026, BHD Group turned that workspace into Mithaq, board management software for any organisation. The committee was the first board to run on it. Its story is on the Oman Fencing Committee customer page.
Today Mithaq connects meetings, decisions, action items, signing records and document control in one product. It works in Arabic and in English. Buyers can evaluate it as hosted software at mithaq.om, on a custom domain, or as a single-tenant on-premise install on infrastructure they control.
"Mithaq connects meetings, decisions, actions and supporting records in one product, with Arabic and English workflows that buyers can evaluate against their own governance requirements."
A career in strategy and governance
Ali began his career in 2017. He worked at the Central Bank of Oman, EY, Oman Aviation Group and Oman Broadband. From November 2021 to June 2023 he was Head of Business Environment at the Oman Vision 2040 Office. There he built the Invest in Oman centre. He also worked on the National Investment Strategy, which narrowed 43 sectors to 8 priority sectors.
Since February 2025 he has been Head of Strategic Planning at ITHCA Group, Oman's sovereign technology fund. Since October 2023 he has also been Secretary to the Board of DataOm, ITHCA Group's submarine cable company. Agendas, minutes, decisions and follow-up actions are the daily material of a board secretary. They are also the records that Mithaq keeps in one place.
BHD Group, the company behind Mithaq
BHD Group is Bin Haider Darwish LLC, named for Ali's grandfather. It started with BHD Printing & Designing in Muscat. It now has 14 companies in printing, technology, software platforms and sovereign AI. Mithaq sits next to Hosn, Cardify, Dardasha, Paper & Pen, ReachScreens, Q+, arabian.ceo and Splitty. Ali is also a co-founder of The Flower Bar.
Education and recognition
Ali is a doctoral candidate in Innovation and Management at the University of Central Lancashire. He holds an MSc in Sustainability, Entrepreneurship and Design and a BSc in Economics and Management, both from Brunel University London. He earned the IB Diploma at The Sultan's School.
In November 2025 he won the Family Business Council Gulf Next Generation Award. He was the first Omani to win it, as the FBCG awards record shows.
Read more
Ali publishes essays on strategy, governance and business in Oman on his own site, alizaabi.om. His career history, roles and education are on his biography page. For Mithaq logos, fact sheet and boilerplate, see the press kit.
Published by the Mithaq newsroom. Mithaq is built by BHD Group in Muscat.