British entrepreneur gets into acting and voiceover

Published: Thursday, June 6, 2019

Former British military officer turned entrepreneur Gregory Gottlieb wears many hats—he’s a soldier, a professional skydiver, a private pilot, an author, a speaker, a moderator, a business executive and most recently, an actor and voiceover talent for TV commercials.

His face and voice had appeared on many TV commercials shot in Dubai and aired across the Middle East, inspiring him to try his luck even on movies.

“I enjoy acting because you meet a lot of interesting people. It’s quite fun,” Gottlieb who studied at Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, the Royal Military College of Science, Shrivenham and Goldsmiths University of London told Air Cargo Update. “I have also auditioned for a couple of movies.”

While in the British military, Gottlieb recalled he would, from time to time, command the Changing of Guards at the Buckingham Palace where about 5,000 people at any given day watch in awe the ceremony.

Gottlieb described that spontaneous live act as the beginning of his interest to perform and get into acting which he made possible late in life.

“I’m doing quite a lot of acting, TV commercials and voiceovers,” Gottlieb happily shared.

His 20-year-career in the British Army culminated in 1998 as the UK Ministry of Defence Officer responsible for all CT & SF aviation equipment requirements.

From the military, Gottlieb leaped into the corporate world of aerospace and defense, taking up a senior management role with a German group of companies in aerospace and logistics before moving to the Middle East  where he had been based for more than a decade now.

In the Middle East, Gottlieb worked as program manager for some of the best firms in aerospace and defense like the Abu Dhabi Autonomous Systems Investment, LLC (ADASI), a subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi government’s business entity Tawazun and the Prince Sultan Advanced Tech Research Institute in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia before embarking on his own independent consultancy firm where he provided technical and managerial support to government agencies and commercial enterprises in the US and the UK, including the provision of specialist third-party engineering services.

Gottlieb is today the founder and managing director of Airships Arabia, a Dubai-based startup offering consultancy services to government and commercial clients on aviation, logistics and general management with emphasis on airships, hybrids and aerostats.

Formed in 2016, the company’s interest extends across the Middle East with offices in the UAE and Saudi Arabia, aiming to eventually engage into airship operations, maintenance, repair, overhaul, and crew training enterprise in its own right, with focus on hybrid airships.

While success has come his way many times, Gottlieb remains grounded and firm in believing that it’s best to spread kindness and peace no matter what your status in life is.

“To manage and control our life, we have to go with the flow. Always be kind to people and avoid conflict at all costs,” said Gottlieb. “I became a soldier at age 18 because I believe in peace.”