The Al Thani name doesn’t guarantee success, as certain branches of the family may be kept on the margins by the ruling branch, away from power and opportunity, to avoid coups or dissent. For those close to the Emir’s line the name is “a ticket to opportunity,” said Gray, as local and foreign businesses prefer working with a royal.

“The businesses that do best are those led by, or connected, to the key players, which can include royals, established merchant families, even some favored foreign firms and individuals” he said.

Al Thani, who is a distant relative of the current Emir, Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, is one of the most prominent Qatari businessmen bearing the Al Thani name. Most of Qatar’s other diversified, family-owned businesses, such as Doha-based Alfardan Group and Darwish Holding, are owned by non-royals.

Building Boom

One of Al Faisal’s largest subsidiaries is Aamal, a Doha- based manufacturing and real estate group listed on the Qatar stock exchange that had 2.12 billion riyals ($582 million) in revenue in 2013. Al Thani controls 66 percent of Aamal directly and through Al Faisal, according to company documents.

Al Thani controls other commercial real estate properties outside of his interest in Aamal, including more than a dozen residential and office buildings and three hotels in Doha, according to Al Faisal’s website. He has eight more hotel properties under construction in the capital, part of a city- wide building boom ignited after it won the rights to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

The government plans to spend $45 billion -- about what Russia spent on the Sochi Winter Olympics -- over the next 15 years in a bid to boost its annual visitor count more than five- fold, according to a February report by the Qatar Tourism Authority.

The influx of tourists, many passing through Doha on Qatar Airways flights, lifted occupancy rates 6 percent in 2013, according to data compiled by TRI Hospitality Consulting.

Diversifying Abroad

Qatar’s transformation from a fishing and pearl-diving village to a skyscraper-packed metropolis is something Al Thani witnessed first-hand. Born in 1948, nine years after Qatar began exporting oil, Al Thani started his first business venture in 1964, a small auto-parts distributor called Gettco Trading.