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SITTING proudly on the seventh floor of the Unitag building in the heart of Manama, opposite the busy Bab Al Bahrain, the view is pleasing.
For 35 years Jamil Amin Wafa has not only been witnessing the changing contours of the island but has also been an integral part of its development and progress.
The co-founder and group chairman of the Unitag Group of companies is today one of Bahrain's renowned, established and respected businessmen.
Mr Wafa said: 'My first office in 1950 was in a tent and now I am sitting here in this beautiful office - people don't know how this man reached here.
'I have been through a lot in all my years - bitten by scorpions, stranded at airports, operated from a tent, denied a state ... and much more.
'I say this, for whoever reads this article, especially the young and upcoming generation, to realise that life is not a bed of roses - you have got to have guts to move forward.'
Born a Palestinian, Mr Wafa's journey began at the age of 17 when he was evicted from his country during the Palestine-Israel war.
Having lost both his parents at a very young age, his only source of comfort was his half-brother and sisters whom he followed to Egypt.
He was travelling on a British passport which had expired due to the termination of the British mandate in Palestine.
'While crossing to Egypt an officer looked at me and said, 'Son, you have no visa and your passport is invalid.' I began weeping and he patted me saying it's OK and allowed me in,' Mr Wafa explained.
In Egypt, he started to learn how to type, write shorthand and book-keep so that he could try to secure a job.
He met up with other Palestinians and helped them to exchange their money into Egyptian currency. 'I got myself an income by keeping some commissions out of this,' he said.
On an invitation by a cousin, who lived in Kuwait since 1938, Mr Wafa moved in 1949 to Kuwait after 18 months in Cairo. In transit, by his good fortune he made contact with a renowned Palestinian lawyer John Asfur, who was managing director of Al Ghanim Group in Kuwait, one of the country's most prominent business families at the time.
'Mr Asfur had a letter to be delivered to the owner Yusuf Al Ghanim and I said I would take it for him. Subsequently, Mr Asfur offered me a job,' Mr Wafa explained.
'He said I would be an assistant to his secretary and would be typing in Arabic and English, also managing a big switchboard telephone box.'
In two years, he got the chance to work for the group's travel agency that represented the BOAC (British Overseas Aviation Company, the present day British Airways). He was later promoted and given more responsibility and gained a wide knowledge of the travel and aviation field.
The year 1956 was a period of 'rebirth' for Mr Wafa after he was granted Kuwaiti nationality.
'I couldn't believe it, I kissed the floor,' he said. 'People who have a nationality can never understand what it feels like. There have been times I was offloaded from an aircraft to allow commercial passengers to take my rebated ticket seat.
'Once I was offloaded at Rome airport for 36 hours and was left stranded with no visa and little money. Thus, the new Kuwaiti nationality injected new life into me.'
In 1961, he decided to settle in London but the regional manager of BOAC offered him a job in Lebanon - to be the first non-English sales manager recruited by the company.
'I moved to Beirut. The budget was then £69,000 when I took charge of the sale and by the time I left, in May 1971, I topped £7 million.'
For the work related to tourism in Lebanon, Mr Wafa was decorated with the 'Order of the Cedar' by the late president of the republic, Sulaiman Franjieh.
As well as his career flying high in Lebanon he also met the love of his life and wife, Haya Mounla.
Shortly after hosting a reception for the BOAC chairman Sir Giles Guthrie, Mr Wafa received a letter saying he had been shortlisted for 'management' training.
'We were under strict questioning and observation on our social and interactive skills,' he explained.
'Along with the men, the wives were interviewed as well to see how socially proactive they were. They watched every movement - how you spoke, how you sat, how you ate, how you held your glass - everything
'I was the first Arab to have attended such an important management course. I was in competition with university graduates and the like.'
Despite his concerns about a lack of a formal university education his star quality shone through and he was one of only four selected for the nine months of intensive training in the UK.
'It was a feather in my cap,' he said - proud to this day.
The next stop was the US where he was taken on as an intern at leading organisations in Dallas, Houston, Hawaii and New Orleans for four weeks and he reported back to the company chairman in London.
He was shortly offered the chance to manage the marketing in the Gulf region which included Bahrain, Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, Saudi Arabia and the Trucial States (now UAE).
'They gave me the option of choosing an office - Jeddah in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain or Amman in Jordan. I chose Bahrain because of my love affair with Bahrain which started in 1958 when I visited it during the time I lived in Kuwait.
'I was the roving ambassador of BOAC in the Gulf region travelling between the Gulf states. I was instrumental in creating the Arab Passenger Profile - we wanted to know what the passenger wanted in this region.'
Lady luck shone brightly once more upon Mr Wafa when he met in Beirut, the late Shaikh Mohammad bin Khalifa Al Khalifa, son of the Prime Minister of Bahrain.
They discussed plans to strive and create a company in Bahrain which they would name - Unitag.
'Shaikh Mohammad was brilliant, dignified and a prince of all his peers. I say it with modesty and all honesty.'
Sadly, Shaikh Mohammad died at the age of 22 in June 1974 and his father asked Mr Wafa to carry on his son's wish. Mr Wafa was blessed with the Bahraini nationality and started the company shortly after with an office leased in the former Al Hilal building in Manama.
Unfortunately, just a year after opening, the office was destroyed in a fire.
'Friends of mine said this was the end of Jamil Wafa's stay here and that he would pack his bags and leave,' he said. 'You only accept defeat if someone puts a gun to your head.'
Mr Wafa got down to business and temporarily moved his operation to Bahrain Airport until he was able to rent premises in Bab Al Bahrain Building. Now his offices are located in the modern Unitag House, still at Bab Al Bahrain.
The group today operates in various sectors including trading, travel, supply of medical equipments and services, consultancy, financial services amongst other things and has 850 employees. He is also group chairman of Magnum Holdings, the parent company of Magnum Events and Exhibitions Management MEEM, the organisers of BITE - Bahrain International Travel Expo. Mr Wafa also played a pivotal role in building the InterContinental Regency Hotel in Manama.
'With a number of airlines we needed 110 bedrooms per night so I went to the owner of the land which at the time was covered in water and discussed the idea. I travelled to Europe and the US for finances and COFACE of France agreed to extend the loan of $34 million to build the hotel which was completed in a record period of 30 months.'
The total cost of the hotel with seven years interest was $54 million.
Mr Wafa helped develop Bahrain's French connection by sponsoring 500 French nationals for the kingdom's first dewatering plant to create the dry dock and other projects. The French government has since awarded him with the 'National Order of Merit' in recognition for his business links with France.
At the age of 44, he enrolled himself to undergo a short MBA course in Stanford University, California.
Aside from his business interests, Mr Wafa was instrumental in creating a number of associations and committees including the National Council of Tourism in Bahrain, the Marina Club, the Bahrain Travel Agency Association, the Golf Club and the Five Star Hotel Committee, the IAA Chapter to Bahrain. He chaired the Bahrain Airport Services and also launched the Dilmun Lounge at the Bahrain International Airport - an exclusive lounge that has won three international awards.
In 1986 the Bahrain International School was awarded the Excellence Award for Education at the White House in Washington DC by the late President Ronald Reagan of the US. Mr Wafa was very active at the Bahrain School being the president of the Parents Teachers & Students Association for seven years alongside being a member of the board of the island's American school.
He is also a devoted family man with three grown up children and four grandsons. They all meet regularly and particularly for an annual summer holiday together in the south of France.
'I may be a bit of a tyrant in business but I am very emotional when it comes to family matters - maybe that's because I lost my parents at such an early age.'
Mr Wafa, 76, lives in Adliya, and recently published his biography Struggle for Identity - a collection of his 55 years of working experiences, memories and achievements.
'I am very proud of what I have done and where I have reached today. At one time I couldn't even write a simple letter. My first love letter (at the age of 17) was written by a friend who I asked to help me. Obviously, now I write my own letters!
'Everything I address, I do so personally and am totally satisfied with what I am doing and naturally I owe this to Bahrain - this is my adopted country.'
