Colm McLoughlin

Colm McLoughlin was born in July 1943,[2] in Ballinasloe, County Galway, one of five children of Tadhg Mac Lochlainn and Mel Kelly. He is a brother of Ray McLoughlin, former Ireland international rugby player.

McLoughlin's intended career in dentistry took a back seat when he went to London in the early 1960s and began working in retail. He joined the high-street chain of Woolworths, where he worked his way up to become one of the youngest managers in the company. During a summer holiday back in Ireland in 1969, he responded to an advertisement for a manager at Shannon Airport Duty Free. He got the job and went on to become general manager of the duty-free operation. In 1983, at the request of the Government of Dubai, he was one of a team of ten from Aer Rianta (the Irish Airport Authority) contracted by the Dubai Government to set up Dubai Duty Free at Dubai International Airport.

McLoughlin has received many awards. These include the Frontier Lifetime Achievement award[3] which was presented in 2004 by Frontier magazine, making him only the second person after Brendan O'Regan, the founder of the airport duty free industry, to receive this accolade. In 2000, McLoughlin was the first non-UAE national at the time to receive the Most Distinguished Employee Award from the Dubai Government Excellence Awards while back in his home country, he was named as "Galway Millennium Man of the Year".[4]

In October 2014, McLoughlin was presented with the Irish Presidential Distinguished Service Award for Business and Education category.[5]

In 2017, McLoughlin received an honorary doctorate from Middlesex University Dubai.[6]

McLoughlin won awards such as the such as the "Charity Champion of the Year” at the annual Duty Free News International Global Travel Awards for Travel Retail Excellence held in London.[7] Colm was also named as one of the 50 Most Influential Expats in the UAE, in a list released by Forbes Middle East Magazine and was honoured with the “Lifetime Achievement Award” at The BURJ CEO Awards organised by CEO Clubs Network held in China[8] and the MENAA “Best Business Leaders Award” for the third time held in Dubai in December.[9]

In 2019, McLoughlin was awarded with “Outstanding Contribution to the Aviation Industry” at the annual Aviation Industry Awards held in Dublin. Colm was also honoured by Kildare County Council for his outstanding contribution to County Kildare through Dubai Duty Free's sponsorship of the Dubai Duty Free Irish Derby for the past twelve years and the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open held in the K Club in 2016, the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Middle East Hospitality Awards in September and the Asian Business Leadership Forum (ABLF) Awards and the Middle East Economic Digest (MEED) Awards for Male Leader of the Year in November.

Significantly, on 1 June 2019, McLoughlin celebrated 50 years in the duty free industry.[10]