Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, PhD, MSc
Dr. Ben Hadj Hassine
The Doris Duan-Young Autism Center (DDY)
Dr. Ben Hadj Hassine, CEO and Managing Director in DDY, has over 30 years of extensive experience in business development and entrepreneurial management across Europe. Dr. Ben is an innovative entrepreneur and results-driven leader focused on achieving exceptional results in highly competitive environments that demand continuous improvement. Astute strategist with an extensive record of building and aligning organizations to achieve excellence, unparalleled client service and skilled relationship builder. He lives with a positive aura, always thinking positive.
As someone who likes to lead by example, Dr. Ben Hadj is a firm believer in capacity building and empowerment of all people. For him, good leadership is not always about being in charge. It’s about empowering and encouraging others to dream more, learn more, do more, and become more. He takes care of his employees and inspire his team in becoming the best version of themselves.
Driven by his passion to build and enable a better quality of life for individuals on the autism spectrum, Dr. Ben established The Doris Duan-Young Autism Center (DDY) as one of the leading and most reputable specialized therapeutic service providers in the field of autism and a wide range of other developmental disorders in 2014. Under his insightful leadership, DDY further gained recognition, not just in the GCC, but also across the globe. Today, the center is proudly catering to more than 300 families, many of whom have specifically came to the UAE to receive treatment from DDY and have been successfully enrolled in mainstream schools after the treatment. Through Dr. Ben’s leadership style and value centric approach, a client shares, “People admire his positivity, tenacity, constancy and emotional intelligence. When he comes into your life, he turns you into a better person, you can’t help it.” Such testimonials undoubtedly give a clear picture of how his people describe him as a leader.
Guided by Dr. Ben’s exemplary leadership, strong values, customer-oriented philosophy and with a strong belief in this statement, “If a child can’t learn the way we teach, maybe we should teach them the way they learn!” DDY and himself has been awarded on multiple occasions and by notable magazine companies including:
- DHCA Excellence Awards 2020 – Winner of Outpatient Clinics Award, 1st Place in Rehabilitation Center Category
- DHCA Excellence Awards 2019 – Winner of Healthcare Innovation Award, 2nd Place in Outpatient Clinics Category
- Al Khaleej Times 2020 – “Gulf Leaders 2020” Dr. Ben was featured as one of the leading CEOs and leaders in the Gulf region
- Gulf Entrepreneur 2022 – “10 Most Dynamic Healthcare Entrepreneurs from Gulf” Dr. Ben was recognized as one of the healthcare entrepreneurs who have demonstrated the ability to lead the healthcare industry to its new era of patient empowerment
In honor of winning the Excellence Awards for two consecutive years, Dr. Ben Hadj said that “This is a proud moment for us as it took us almost five years to reach this platform. Five years of hard work and many success stories. We feel so blessed to have the opportunity to make a difference in the lives of so many gifted children.”
With strategic growth plans, value-added service, and commitment to helping people share who they are with the world, Dr. Ben Hadj, together with his amazing DDY Team is set to prove that DDY is surely an Expertise That Cares.