A new type of architecture is emerging in the glittering heart of the United Arab Emirates, where aspirations become tangible and dreams become skylines. Glistening facades and ceremonial ribbon-cutting are used to make announcements. It functions in the shadow of those towers, in the strategic choreography of resources, in the meticulous calibration of capital flows, and in the quiet assurance that every dirham invested now has been mapped to a future vision. This financial mastery architecture is just as crucial to realizing ambition, despite being less obvious than steel and concrete.
The UAE’s construction landscape tells a story of relentless transformation. But scratch beneath the surface of every successful project, and you’ll find something unexpected: the real foundation isn’t poured concrete; it’s financial acumen. In an industry where margins evaporate under the desert sun, and a single miscalculation can cascade into catastrophe, survival belongs to those who can read the invisible patterns. This is the realm where Anwar Sammour has built his reputation. As Chief Financial Officer of Intermass Engineering & Contracting Company L.L.C, he represents a rare breed of financial leader- one who understands that numbers tell stories, spreadsheets contain strategy, and the true measure of financial leadership lies not in preserving capital but in deploying it with vision.
When Crisis Becomes Compass: The Unexpected Path to Purpose
Some destinies announce themselves early. Others reveal themselves only when the ground shifts beneath your feet. For Anwar, the path to financial leadership began with a detour that would define everything that followed.
The early 1980s carried certain unspoken truths for ambitious young Arabs. Engineering wasn’t just a profession; it was a promise of security, respect, and a future you could measure and predict. Anwar believed in that promise when he enrolled at Louisiana State University, ready to master the formulas that built the physical world.
Then 1985 arrived, bringing an economic downturn that didn’t respect borders or certainties. While classmates remained absorbed in their engineering coursework, Anwar found himself pulled toward different questions. He watched industries contract and expand, observed how financial decisions rippled outward, touching lives continents away. A fascination took root: How could abstract financial choices possess the concrete power to reshape entire economies?
This wasn’t idle curiosity. It was the recognition of a calling. Encouraged by his late father, a man whose counsel had already guided pivotal moments in his life, Anwar made a decision that seemed radical. He shifted his major to Finance and Accounting. What appeared as a sudden pivot was, in truth, the moment his authentic path finally revealed itself.
The years at Alico Aluminum and Mannesmann Dematic FZE became his crucible. Anwar didn’t just learn financial principles; he watched them breathe life into struggling operations and unlock potential in overlooked opportunities. Theory met practice, and in that collision, a financial leader was forged.
Nearly two decades ago, Anwar joined Intermass Engineering & Contracting. What began as a career move evolved into something more profound- a partnership between leader and organization, each shaping the other through seasons of growth, challenge, and transformation.
Beyond the Balance Sheet: A Philosophy Forged in Experience
Early in his career, Anwar subscribed to a common belief: financial leadership meant precision above all. Get the numbers right. Deliver flawless reports. Maintain impeccable compliance. Experience taught him that true leadership demands something more expansive.
Today, integrity anchors everything he does. At Intermass, trust isn’t corporate wallpaper—it’s the organization’s DNA. Anwar has cultivated a culture where transparency flows through every financial process. This commitment extends far beyond satisfying auditors. It reflects a foundational conviction: sustainable success can only grow from bedrock trustworthiness.
Empowerment forms the second pillar. Anwar rejects the outdated model of the CFO as financial gatekeeper. Instead, he sees himself as an enabler who helps talented people grow into strategic thinkers. He pushes his financial team to view themselves as strategic partners integral to every significant decision Intermass makes.
Vision completes the foundation. A CFO must protect today’s performance while anticipating tomorrow’s opportunities. This dual focus requires embracing emerging technologies, preparing for industry disruptions, and ensuring financial strategies build long-term resilience rather than simply optimizing quarterly metrics.
His commitment to strong governance and ethical practices is demonstrated by his recent professional development. He has just completed the Directors Development Program by HAWKAMA where he will be certified as an Executive Board Member candidate for such positions if they become available. This solidifies his commitment to strong governance and ethical practices of management and strategies of such companies.
Constructing Resilience: Financial Strategy in an Unforgiving Industry
The construction sector doesn’t forgive weakness. Margins hover razor-thin. Unforeseen complications can transform profitable projects into financial sinkholes overnight. For Intermass operating in this environment, conventional financial management isn’t enough.
Anwar’s strategy begins with liquidity, the lifeblood that keeps operations flowing when external conditions turn hostile. He prioritizes robust cash cycles and negotiates payment terms that cushion the company against economic turbulence. This strategic positioning ensures Intermass can pursue opportunities precisely when cash-strapped competitors must retreat.
Technology amplifies this advantage exponentially. Anwar championed the development of a fully customized Enterprise Resource Planning system. Not generic software, but a purpose-built platform integrating real-time operational and financial data across the entire organization. This system provides visibility that transforms decision-making from reactive firefighting to proactive strategy. Risks get identified early. Resources flow to highest-value uses. Cost control operates with surgical precision.
Foresight completes the framework. Anwar’s team regularly stress-tests financial models, simulating market shifts, price volatility, and regulatory changes before they materialize. This forward-looking discipline ensures Intermass remains agile when conditions shift and competitors scramble to adapt.
The Crucible Moment: Strategic Vision Withstands a Global Storm
Every leader faces defining moments when decisions carry consequences that echo through years. For Anwar, one such crossroads emerged in 2018. Rising costs squeezed margins across the construction sector. Competition intensified. Many companies responded with hope disguised as strategy.
Working in close partnership with executive leadership, he embraced a five-pillar framework targeting operational efficiency, client trust, competitive pricing, disciplined execution, and enhanced quality assurance. This meant renegotiating key contracts, streamlining processes, cutting overheads, yet also investing selectively in high-potential sectors like hospitality and real estate.
The transformation strengthened Intermass at precisely the moment history needed it most. When COVID-19 swept across the globe in 2020, supply chains fractured, and projects froze. Intermass, fortified by the restructuring two years earlier, faced the pandemic from a position of surprising strength.
While competitors contracted or collapsed, Intermass doubled its turnover. Major contracts came to a company that could still deliver with precision when others couldn’t. This wasn’t luck. It was the direct dividend of disciplined preparation, strategic foresight, and the courage to make difficult decisions before crisis demanded them.
Finance as Strategic Engine: Fuelling Long-Term Vision
Intermass has earned its reputation through consistent delivery and unwavering quality. Anwar ensures financial strategy supports every layer of the company’s long-term vision, built on excellence, diversification, and sustainable growth.
Strong, predictable cash flow enables Intermass to pursue emerging opportunities while delivering consistently on existing commitments. Disciplined cost-benefit evaluation protects margins without sacrificing quality. Anwar filters every financial decision through a crucial lens: Does this strengthen our ability to deliver exceptional results?
Strategic reinvestment drives diversification. Under Anwar’s stewardship, Intermass has expanded beyond traditional contracting into real estate, hospitality, and manufacturing. This diversified portfolio builds resilience, allowing the company to navigate varied economic cycles without dangerous overdependence on any single sector.
The Transparency Imperative: Making Clarity a Competitive Weapon
Anwar has made transparency non-negotiable at Intermass. The company maintains rigorous internal controls, enforces a “no surprises” culture, and conducts regular external audits through Deloitte, ensuring full compliance with International Financial Reporting Standards.
This commitment transcends regulatory box-checking. Anwar understands that transparency actively enhances performance. When financial systems operate with crystal clarity, capital allocation improves, project financing becomes more refined, and efficiencies reveal themselves early. Profitability strengthens through operational excellence made visible via rigorous financial clarity.
Positioning for Tomorrow: Reading the Regional Landscape
The UAE’s infrastructure landscape continues its remarkable evolution. Anwar sees abundant opportunities in mixed-use developments integrating residential, commercial, and hospitality components- complex projects demanding precisely the integrated expertise Intermass has cultivated.
Rather than simply reacting to market conditions, Anwar positions Intermass proactively, aligning financial strategy with national development trends. This approach places Intermass at the forefront of the UAE’s next development era, not as a follower, but as a leader helping define what comes next.
Cultivating Legacy: Developing Tomorrow’s Leaders
Leadership legacy grows through the people developed along the journey. Anwar invests heavily in mentoring his financial team, pushing them to see themselves as strategic architects rather than support staff. He reinforces this culture through continuous training, cross-functional collaboration, and personalized coaching, leading by example with transparency, innovation, and composure.
The Future of Financial Leadership
Anwar envisions CFOs undergoing a fundamental role transformation, from stewards to strategic architects. The future belongs to financial leaders who leverage predictive analytics, real-time forecasting, ESG integration, and comprehensive digital transformation. For Intermass, this means using financial insight as a definitive competitive advantage, positioning the company to lead rather than follow industry evolution.
Strategic Priorities: Charting the Path Forward
Anwar’s priorities center on diversifying revenue streams, driving operational excellence through technology, and maintaining robust liquidity that enables ambitious growth. As CFO, he continues shaping capital strategies that enable expansion while ensuring every investment aligns with Intermass’s long-term vision. Market leadership will belong to organizations that merge strategic ambition with operational excellence, requiring financial foundations built for both resilience and dynamism.
The Invisible Architecture: A Legacy Measured in Transformation
When Anwar reflects on legacy, he speaks of pairing rigorous financial discipline with genuine empathy. Within Intermass, he envisions his legacy as helping transform the company from a respected contractor into a diversified, future-ready enterprise defined by resilience, innovation, and uncompromising integrity.
But the story extends beyond corporate transformation. Anwar is committed to developing the next generation of financial leaders, ensuring Intermass continues operating with ethical decision-making and strategic clarity long after he’s moved on. Across the wider financial community, he hopes to demonstrate that finance can catalyze meaningful, responsible progress, not as extraction or short-term optimization, but as the strategic discipline that strengthens organizations and shapes industries toward sustainable growth.
In an industry defined by visible monuments, towers that pierce clouds, infrastructure that moves millions, Anwar’s most enduring contribution may be the invisible architecture he’s constructed. The financial wisdom embedded in systems. The ethical leadership modelled through decisions. The strategic foresight that ensures today’s bold projects become tomorrow’s foundations.
The UAE’s skyline will continue rising, each new structure a testament to ambition made tangible. But behind those achievements, leaders like Anwar are building something equally remarkable: the financial architecture that ensures soaring ambitions rest on unshakeable foundations. His legacy won’t be measured in any single building or quarterly result, but in the transformed organization he leaves behind and the generation of leaders equipped to carry its mission forward, with confidence, purpose, and the wisdom to know that true leadership serves something larger than itself.
This is financial leadership reimagined. This is the architecture of lasting impact. This is Anwar’s ongoing contribution to an industry, an organization, and a vision of what responsible business leadership can achieve.
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