Playing the Long Game

A recruited athlete, attending St. John’s University was a turning point. After weighing several golf scholarship offers, Mr. Ayton chose St. John’s for its proximity to New York City. 

“I knew New York was the home of business and energy,” he said. “I remember my dad went there on business trips in nice pinstriped suits. Part of me knew, no matter what happened with golf, I could fall back on New York City.” 

The friendly campus was a good fit, even when his demanding athletic schedule and academic coursework took precedence over social opportunities. Mr. Ayton enjoyed his classmates’ attention to his British accent, and especially appreciated that “everyone said hello as you were walking by,” which, he noted, might not happen as often in London. 

He formed special bonds with fellow student-athletes as they caught up on schoolwork in the workout room. “We helped one another,” he reflected. “That’s what this University is all about.” 

A team leader and winner of the John T. “Doc” Gimmler Golf MVP Award in 2015, Mr. Ayton developed the skill of efficiency, which would be key to his success from his college days through today. Thanks to the student-athlete grind in college, he was used to longer workdays that extended past the average nine-to-five. 

Managing early morning workouts and a full day of classes, followed by practice and evening classes, taught him essential time management—and perhaps even pushed him toward an entrepreneurial career. “I could multitask and work while traveling on planes since I was always on the move,” he explained. 

After graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree in Sport Marketing, his interest in golf continued—as did his unofficial education. Working as a caddy on Long Island, NY, he absorbed how business gets done, sometimes subtly, and often socially, on the golf course. 

“I learned how to be around ultra-high net worth individuals, and today that’s kind of the business I’m in,” he shared.

Mr. Ayton’s education at St. John’s encouraged him to take risks and seize opportunities. “I spotted an emerging market in the United Arab Emirates,” he explained, which drove him to make another courageous move, as he had done when he decided to attend college in the United States. “Once again, I went to a foreign country with nothing given to me, but all the opportunity in the world to make something happen.”

His risky shot has paid off. Today, Mr. Ayton’s Dhabi Hold Co and its subsidiaries are tremendously successful in investing in and driving the growth of promising new business ventures. He owns both an audit firm under the Ministry of Finance and an accounting company, where he explains that its regulation under the federal tax authority “shows that you work hard and you’re serious. Maybe that is from my St. John’s days—working hard to tick the boxes is important for longevity.” 

Additionally, he runs Family Office Summit, the leading private wealth events company in the UAE. The company has hosted seven international summits. “We’ve had lots of success and we’re growing,” he said.

Mr. Ayton’s adventures have taken him across the globe; travel and a multicultural perspective have informed his approach and enhanced his success—and it all began on the Queens campus of St. John’s, itself once a former golf course.

“St. John’s will always be quite special to me; that campus has its own magic,” he said. “The mix of cultures is amazing. New York is filled with people from around the world, and you won’t get that at any other university. I think that’s what makes St. John’s what it is.”