While in higher education he co-founded the Tawfiq Allawi Cable & Electric Wire Factory which manufactured various raw materials including marble, concrete and PVC.

Allawi went on to found a cereal bar factory and a software company in England and to work in property development in Lebanon, Morocco and the real estate market in the UK.

[4] Allawi joined Interfaith International, a Swiss based NGO that supported the human rights of Muslim minorities during the Yugoslav Wars.

[4] He is a cousin of Ayad Allawi who founded the opposition Iraqi National Accord and went on to be the interim Prime Minister of Iraq from 2004 to 2005.

After fifteen months he withdrew from the government, citing the Prime Minister's practice of making appointments on a sectarian basis.