M. A. Yusuff Ali

Yusuff Ali was born on 15 November 1955 at Nattika, Thrissur, in the erstwhile State of Travancore–Cochin. He studied at St. Xavier's High School in Karanchira. He holds a diploma in Business Management and Administration.

After his studies, he left India in 1973 for Abu Dhabi, where his paternal uncle, M. K. Abdullah, the chairman and the founder of the LuLu Group of Companies, was doing business. He developed the import and wholesale distribution of the group and ventured into the supermarket business by launching the Lulu Hypermarket.

Yusuff Ali started his first LuLu Hypermarket in the 1990s, a time when the UAE's retail sector witnessed a major change, with the traditional groceries and supermarkets yielding place to large neighbourhood stores and hypermarkets. While the entry of Continent (now Carrefour) in 1995 changed the face of retail business in Dubai, Yusuff Ali took charge of Abu Dhabi's retail sector by rolling out LuLu Hypermarket.

He is married, with three children, and lives in Abu Dhabi. His elder daughter Shabeena is married to billionaire businessman Shamsheer Vayalil. His second daughter Shafeena is married to Adeeb Ahamed who runs Lulu Financial Holdings and Twenty14 Holdings, a hospitality investment firm. Youngest daughter Shifa is married to Sharoon Shamsudheen who is into successful IT businesses.

In April 2021 the helicopter in which Yusuff Ali, his wife and three others (including the pilots), were travelling, crash landed in a swamp near Panangad (in Kochi). Ali and his wife were uninjured and were taken to a nearby hospital for first aid. The private helicopter owned by Ali had suffered a technical glitch due to adverse weather.

Yusuff Ali is involved in many social, charitable and humanitarian activities both in India as well as in the Arab states of the Gulf. He has done various philanthropic activities. As part of its Global CSR policy, the LuLu Group joined hands with Dubai Cares and adopted schools in Gaza and Nepal. Yusuff Ali contributed and took initiative to open a multi-faith funeral centre for the Indian community in Sharjah that spread across 8.3 acres. He also took initiative to sell and promote organic products grown by the special needs community in UAE through LuLu Hypermarkets Yusuff Ali donated to the Gujarat earthquake, Tsunami Relief Fund in Asia, and Typhoon and flood relief in other parts of the world. He also donated ₹9.5 crores for relief and rehabilitation of Kerala flood victims in August 2018. He is also actively involved in ensuring the social, economic and religious welfare of expatriate Indians in the Persian Gulf region. He played a major role in finding land for the Christian community in the region to build churches, and secure cremation grounds for the Hindu populace in the Gulf region. Yusuff Ali also extended help to Indians during the amnesty period in the Persian Gulf when hundreds of Indians lost their livelihood. He helped rehabilitate people who lost their livelihood in the Kozhikode market fire as well. Yusuff Ali had pledged to donate Rs 50 million for the flood-hit south Indian state of Kerala in the event of the 2019 Kerala floods.