Christmas Cheer

David Christmas, regional director, Middle East, DHL Exel

Although he hasn’t measured himself since he was 22, David Christmas says he stands at around 6 feet 4 inches. “I like being tall,” he says. “It gives you a bit of confidence.”

When asked if he believes the theory that tall people are more likely to be successful, he says he’s inclined to agree. “I think it’s probably true. I think confidence is important and I do think the way you look, the way you stand, the way you talk, helps.”

“In business, a lot of it is about impressions. You’ve got to have a lot beneath that first impression, but people do make judgments.”

“It doesn’t really seem logical,” continues the Henley on Thames native, “but I do believe being tall gives you that edge.”

At only 37 years old, Christmas is already standing tall with DHL Exel, as the company’s Regional Managing Director, Middle East. He spends his weekdays in cities such as Riyadh, Jeddah, and Muscat, and weeknights flying between those cities.

The weekends, he says, are devoted to family time with his wife Jo and eight year old son Sam who have enjoyed the expat social life of the UAE since they moved to Dubai two years ago.

In fact, Christmas was noticed at an early age. After university in London, Kuwait Petroleum took him on for their Graduate Training Programme, where he ran one of the company’s distribution companies. “At the age of 24, you’ve got your own fleet of oil tankers, your own sales people, your own administrators, you can buy and sell on the market.”

“It was a very good start,” says Christmas of his stint with Kuwait Petroleum. Since then, he says, he has headed half a dozen other businesses, including other divisions of Kuwait Petroleum and the European express service of British Royal Mail. He even did work for the Ministry of Health in Swaziland, helping to develop their emergency fleet.

His height and his career achievements are not the only things that stand out. Imagine having a last name like Christmas.

“At the first assembly at secondary school they would read out the register in front of 400 people,” he recalls. “They’d call out my name, ‘Christmas’, and I’d look at the floor and think ‘Crikey! Did they really have to call it out that loudly?’’

He laughs about waiting in line at the Jumeirah Beach Hotel to pick up a cooked turkey on Christmas Day. “There were 20 other people in the queue and the staff were shouting out names for people to pick up their turkey. I was hoping they would keep the noise level down, so people wouldn’t wonder why they were calling for ‘Christmas’.”

But he says his name can be useful. “There are 500,000 working for Deutsche Post, which owns DHL. A year or two down the road people will remember what company you worked for, but with a name like Christmas, they will also remember you personally.”

Christmas even made a friend from his name. A few months ago, another man named David Christmas, a Schlumberger employee living in Dubai, contacted him. “One day, he sent me a text message saying, ‘I hear you’re another David Christmas living in Dubai, fancy meeting up for a beer?”

The two Christmases met at the Hard Rock Cafe, but found each other only after they had ordered their drinks. The waitress brought two separate tabs to the table. “We both signed off as ‘David Christmas’,” he laughs. “It was quite funny.”