Obediah Ayton, chairman of the Family Office Summit: Each week, My Morning Routine looks at how a successful member of the community starts their day — and then throws in a couple of random business questions just for fun. Speaking to us this week is Obediah Ayton (LinkedIn), chairman of the Family Office Summit. Edited excerpts from our conversation:

My name is Obediah Ayton and I moved to the UAE in 2017, bought my laptop and set up a bunch of businesses. I own two accounting companies here — one is an audit company regulated by the Finance Ministry, and the other one is regulated by the Federal Tax Authority. I’ve also founded the Family Office Summit, which started off as a marketing company that I eventually turned into an event brand.

I’ve never had a proper job. I went to university and never even created a CV, but I met a few people along the way that I shadowed and worked with a bit. They were family businesses, and I actually met them on the golf course, so I started to build a social brand around the concept of the “family office” because that’s what I was learning about and took a vested interest in.

The family office brand was quite niche at the time, though now it’s grown to be quite large. There is a growing number of entrepreneurs that have had successful exits, typically in tech, so the increase of family offices has gone through the roof.

I think a lot of companies, rather than investing in digital ads, should invest a little bit more in people. I think we’ve gotten a little bit lost in the world of “digital” and we’ve forgotten to invest in hosting. I decided to start building a community by just paying for people’s food and drinks, and funny enough, we started building a community quite fast.

I was nervous about building a brand around family offices, because the whole purpose of a family office is to be discreet. I thought about it for years and then went for it in 2022. The turning point, for me, was a need for international attention, because everything I was doing up until then was very local.

Our most recent event was in Abu Dhabi. We do events in both Dubai and Abu Dhabi. The main difference between the two is Abu Dhabi is a little bit more institutional with all of its sovereign wealth funds — I call it a little bit more suit and tie, as opposed to Dubai’s polo shirts and trousers.

At this past event, I wanted to understand how the next generation sees the future — everybody wants to understand this, because Mom and Dad — and Grandma and Grandpa — have become successful in almost every industry in this country now, so what’s left for the next generation? So the main topic was, of course, technologies. And the main question is: Is there anything left locally, or is what’s next all international?

I think there’s also more pressure around regulation now. A family structure is now under pressure to become more public because it has to disclose certain records to the regulator. It’s under pressure to hire different people for different divisions. It’s under pressure to give certain assets to sons and daughters because the taxman wants to start charging corporate tax. They’re also under pressure from international brands and firms coming in and competing in industries in which they’re already dominating.

But the good thing about regulation is, from a foreign direct investment standpoint, if the books are public and all the accounts are filed and audited, assets that might previously have not been viewed as investable become investable. I think a lot of families have had a lot of assets in their portfolio that were not investable because there’s never been any kind of public disclosure. There is a bit of a battle between the private and public world when it comes to family offices, still.

We do three or four events a year, and I also have my other businesses running in the background. My Whoop will tell me that I sleep very badly on a Sunday, because all I’m thinking about is my to-do list.

I’m usually woken up by my two rescue cats to tell me they want food. I usually jump straight to work because I’m more efficient between 6am and midday — I can get most of the day done then. Like anybody, I’m on and off on the fitness side of things, but it does help me get through the week.

The issue I have is the events business is very personable, and the reason we’re doing so well is because I speak to everybody. I’m the point of contact for all the speakers — around 250 people come to our events — and I’m the person who designs the topics and moderates the panels.

It’s not because I want to — I actually don’t particularly like being center-stage, but I care about the people, and these people have jobs they want to protect. Going on stage could threaten that, so I have to understand the person, as well as what to ask and what not to ask. I also care about the quality of the audience — I’ve been to a lot of events that take loads of money and don’t deliver, because they just care about how many sponsors they have and how many people they get through the door. I care a lot about giving value, so we actually cap the amount of partners we have, and we invite people one by one.

So my weeks are chaotic, but I’m very UAE-focused, because I think the opportunity is here and now, and I have to make the most of it. I’m not just trying to build a business, I’m also trying to make a bit of a difference, and in doing that, you have to put yourself out there.

One thing I do everyday is I call my mom. It’s kind of the only time I stop. If it’s not my mom, it’s one of my brothers or my dad or little sister. That allows me to refresh and come back and get on with things.

I’m also one of those crazy golf people. I play in July. The good thing about it is you actually get to know the people around you, and when business arises, that’s great.

Another way I like to switch off is — weirdly — watching videos of people playing computer games. I also love cooking.

Dubai puts you under that pressure to be sociable, but I wouldn’t say I’m very sociable. When starting your own business — you kind of embed it in yourself that when you have spare time, you work on your business. You have a vested interest in it and it changes you as a person.

One of the biggest learnings for me also came from the golf course, when I was with a high net-worth gentleman and he asked if I could bring him a chocolate croissant. I went and asked one of the workers inside to get it, and it never arrived. He asked me later if I had handed the request to another person, and it was kind of a message for me to take full responsibility and never rely on other people.

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