Sam Ayyash
Founder & Chief Executive Officer, COON ME
Four decades of building asset-backed businesses across Australia, the Middle East and Asia — from a single Sydney equipment workshop in 1988 to a diversified group operating in eleven markets. Sam Ayyash founded COON ME and leads the Group's strategic direction today.
An operator first, an investor second.
Sam Ayyash — Samir Ayyash — is an Australian entrepreneur and the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of COON ME. His record is unusual among holding-group principals: almost every sector the Group operates in today is one he entered personally, built from the ground up, and ran before it became part of a portfolio.
That history shapes how the Group works. COON is an active holding platform rather than a passive investor, and the distinction is not a slogan — it reflects a founder who has manufactured, exported, contracted and quarried, and who expects the businesses under the Group to be developed rather than simply owned. It is a model now applied across the Group's five operating sectors.
- Full name
- Samir Ayyash, known professionally as Sam Ayyash
- Position
- Founder & Chief Executive Officer, COON ME
- Based
- Sydney, Australia · United Arab Emirates
- Nationality
- Australian
- Founded
- Petra Equipment & Petra Group, Sydney — 1988
- Sectors
- Energy, infrastructure, healthcare, hospitality, trading
- Group contact
- Sam@coon-me.com
- Languages
- English, Arabic
Thirty-eight years, built one sector at a time.
The pattern is consistent across four decades: enter a sector with a physical asset behind it, learn it properly as an operator, then use the relationships it creates to open the next one. Nothing in the portfolio arrived by acquisition alone.
Founds Petra Equipment, Sydney
Begins supplying commercial kitchen equipment to restaurants, hotels, hospitals, schools and Australian Defence Force facilities. The business later expands into turnkey delivery — fabrication, equipment, design and installation under a single contract.
Opens an export channel to China
Establishes Asian Galaxy, running container volume into China and, for a period, operating restaurants on the ground there. His first cross-border operating experience, and the foundation of the Group's Asian presence.
Enters entertainment production
Launches a production company, broadening the commercial base beyond equipment and export.
Moves into biotechnology
Founds CK Cell Technologies — later Endexome — entering stem cell research. The company becomes the first in Australia to manufacture and export proprietary stem cell–derived exosome products at scale.
Builds turnkey healthcare delivery
Establishes Galaxy Medical, combining facility construction, equipment supply, installation and ongoing maintenance for healthcare clients.
Enters mining and natural resources
Launches Galaxy Mining in Jordan, moving the Group into stone, minerals and licensed reserves — the foundation of what is now its largest sector by asset value.
Leads COON ME as Founder & CEO
Consolidates the operating businesses under a single UAE-headquartered holding platform, setting Group strategy across five sectors, ten portfolio companies and eleven markets.
Four principles the Group is run on.
Anchor value in something physical
Every business in the portfolio sits on a hard asset — a licensed reserve, a quarry, a production line, a delivered facility. Asset-backed positions take longer to build and are far harder to dislodge when conditions turn.
Expand along relationships, not spreadsheets
The China export line grew out of the equipment business. The Middle East resources position grew out of regional relationships. Each sector entry was adjacent to one the Group already understood.
Put governance in before it is needed
Board oversight, group executive management, sector leadership and portfolio execution are deliberately separated. Structure is installed ahead of scale, not retrofitted after it.
Stay in the operating seat
Capital alone rarely improves a business. The Group engages directly in building capability, optimising operations and scaling performance — which is what separates an active platform from a passive investor.
Ten companies, five sectors.
The businesses Sam Ayyash oversees as Founder and CEO span resources, infrastructure, healthcare, hospitality and trade — each one licensed, contracted or anchored by reserves. The largest by asset value sit in energy and natural resources.
Energy & Natural Resources
3 companiesAl Majarrah
Oil shale exploration and development in Jordan's Al-Lajjun region, under a memorandum of understanding with the Government of Jordan.
Great Zeolite
Natural zeolite mining and production under the Agrozeo brand, supplying agricultural, industrial and water treatment applications.
Galaxy Stone
Marble, granite and natural stone from licensed quarries in Jordan and Palestine, exported to the USA, Canada, Europe and China.
Infrastructure & Construction
1 companyAsian Galaxy LLC
Multidisciplinary contracting across the Middle East and North Africa — hotels, malls, stadiums, airports and renewable energy installations.
Healthcare & Biotechnology
2 companiesEndexome Ltd
First in Australia to manufacture and export proprietary stem cell–derived exosome products, produced at scale from iPSC-derived cell lines.
Galaxy Medical
Turnkey healthcare delivery since 2012 — facility construction, equipment supply, installation and ongoing maintenance.
Hospitality & Commercial
1 companyPetra Hospitality
The Sydney group he founded: Petra Projects for design and fit-out, Petra Equipment, Petra Kitchenware and Petra Food Truck.
Trading & Distribution
3 companiesCOON ME Commodity Trading
UAE-based structured trading in energy commodities, raw materials and industrial products, executed bank-to-bank.
MENA Vision Distribution
Consumer electronics distribution across MENA since 2000, with a Jordan branch and offices in China and Australia.
Luminous Commercial Brokerage
Jordan-based brokerage and strategic advisory covering industrial, infrastructure, energy and commodities transactions.
Present where the assets and the buyers are.
The Group's footprint spans the Middle East, Europe, Asia, North America and Australia — enabling cross-border collaboration, market access and scalable expansion across the portfolio. Enquiries in any of these markets are handled directly by the Group office.
- United Arab Emirates
- Jordan
- Australia
- Saudi Arabia
- Qatar
- Egypt
- China
- Europe
- Tunisia
- United States
- Canada
Our vision is rooted in building long-term value through strategic investments in sectors that shape real economies and future growth. We do not operate as passive investors — we actively engage in developing and scaling businesses to unlock their full potential.
Sam Ayyash online.
Current appointments and announcements are published on his LinkedIn profile. Industry News Australia maintains a longer-form background on his Australian operating history.
Talk to the Group.
For partnership, investment or supply enquiries, the fastest route is a direct message to the Group office.
Reach out now