Badr Jafar

Badr Jafar

Badr Jafar at the United Nations in 2010
Born (1979-08-09) August 9, 1979
Sharjah, UAE
Nationality United Arab Emirates
Alma mater Eton College
Cambridge University
Relatives Majid Jafar (brother)
Jafar Dhia Jafar (uncle)

Badr Jafar (Arabic: بدر حميد جعفر‎) is an Emirati business executive and social entrepreneur based in the United Arab Emirates. He is the Chief Executive Officer of Crescent Enterprises, a multinational diversified business with operations in sectors including ports and logistics; power and engineering; aviation; healthcare; private equity and business incubation. He is also the President of its sister company Crescent Petroleum, a privately owned oil and gas company headquartered in the United Arab Emirates. Jafar is Chairman of Pearl Petroleum, a five-member international consortium for the development of natural gas assets in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, and Chair of the Executive Board of Gulftainer, a global ports company.[1]

Badr Jafar is known to advocate high-impact entrepreneurship and corporate governance, having established a number of organisations and initiatives within these fields. He launched the Pearl Initiative in September 2010 at the United Nations, a private sector-led initiative to promote corporate governance, accountability and transparency as a key driver of competitiveness within the Gulf Region of the Middle East.[2][3] In 2011, Jafar was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum[4][5][6] and currently co-chairs the Forum's Family Business Council. He is also a Trustee of their Global Agenda on Economic Growth and Social Inclusion. Named one of the top 20 most influential Arabs by Arabian Business in 2016,[7] Jafar has received a number of recognitions and awards for his work in business and philanthropy.[2]

Early life and education

Badr Jafar was born and raised in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates. He is of Iraqi Shia background.[8][9] In 1994 he continued his education at Eton College, and graduated in 1999 from Cambridge University with a Masters degree in engineering and additional studies in astrophysics. In 1996, Harvard University awarded Jafar the Harvard Book Award, presented to students who "display excellence in scholarship and high character, combined with achievements in other fields." Jafar subsequently attended the Cambridge Judge Business School at the University of Cambridge.[10]

Badr Jafar is currently a member of the International Advisory Board of the Cambridge Judge Business School, and is Chair of its Alumni Advisory Council.[1] He serves on the Advisory Board of the School of Business and Management at the American University of Sharjah.[11]

Entrepreneurship

Badr Jafar is a staunch advocate of the role of social enterprise and impact entrepreneurship in addressing socio-economic challenges across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).[12] In 2014, he launched the Arab World Social Entrepreneurship Program in partnership with Ashoka, a social entrepreneurship organisation to identify and help scale the region's most promising social businesses.[13]

Jafar is a Founding Board Member of Endeavor UAE,[14] and a member of the Global Board for Education for Employment,[10] a Washington DC-headquartered organisation which works to train and upskill the youth of the MENA region to empower them for employment. In 2015, he joined the Gaza Sky Geeks Board, a start-up movement to transform Gaza's most talented youth into tech entrepreneurs.[15]

Social initiatives

Badr Jafar has launched a series of projects using the arts as a means to empower youth and promote cultural diplomacy. In 2014, the Kennedy Centre honoured Jafar with a Gold Medal in the Arts in recognition of his efforts with cultural diplomacy to build closer ties between nations and regions.[16]

In May 2011, Jafar and music producer Quincy Jones produced a charity single titled Tomorrow/Bokra,[17] featuring 26 Arab artists, to raise funds for educational arts projects for displaced youth in the Middle East.[18] The proceeds went towards the development of arts programs for over 430,000 children in partnership with Save The Children. In February 2011, actor Kevin Spacey and Jafar launched the Middle East Theatre Academy (META), a non-profit theatre academy to provide a platform to nurture young actors, directors, and producers from the Middle East, and help them to showcase their talent internationally.[19]

In May 2015, Badr Jafar was appointed by the United Nations Secretary General onto a High-Level Panel on Humanitarian Financing, formed "to address the increasing gap between resources and financing for the world's ever-increasing humanitarian needs."[20]

References

  1. 1 2 Hope, Bradley (3 December 2009). "Crescent's Badr Jafar has world at his feet". The National. Retrieved 15 July 2010.
  2. 1 2 "Badr Jafar named Young CEO of the Year 2009". MENAFN (MENAFN Press). 29 September 2009. Retrieved 15 July 2010.
  3. ↑ "Biography of Mr. Badr Jafar". Growth Gate Capital Corporation. 2007. Retrieved 15 July 2010.
  4. ↑ "Middle East Gulf Region Governance Initiative Launched at UN". MarketWatch (MarketWatch). 20 September 2010. Retrieved 7 October 2010.
  5. ↑ "Badr Jafar". Pearl Initiative. 20 September 2010. Retrieved 7 October 2010.
  6. ↑ Zopf, Yann (9 March 2011). "World Economic Forum Announces Young Global Leaders 2011 (Middle East/North Africa)". World Economic Forum. Retrieved 11 March 2011.
  7. ↑ "Revealed: 100 Most Powerful Arabs Under 40". Retrieved 11 April 2016.
  8. ↑ Robert Windrem (24 Oct 2003). "A man with a foot in multiple worlds". NBC News. Retrieved 25 April 2016. The Jafar family is part of a network of cosmopolitan Shiite families in Baghdad, with links to Iraq’s and other countries’ ruling elites that go back to the turn of the century.
  9. ↑ Tamsin Carlisle (5 September 2010). "Magnate with more in sight than oil in his homeland, Iraq". The National. Retrieved 6 February 2016. Both men [Ayad Allawi and Badr's father] are secular Shiite Muslims who have lived outside Iraq, which means they may have similar outlooks.
  10. 1 2 "Badr H. Jafar". Bloomberg. Retrieved 29 April 2016.
  11. ↑ "Judge Business School". University of Cambridge. Retrieved 29 April 2016.
  12. ↑ "In Pictures: 100 under 40: The world’s most influential young Arabs 2016". Gulf Times. Retrieved 12 April 2016.
  13. ↑ "Ashoka launches Gulf platform for social entrepreneurship". 2014-04-09. Retrieved 29 April 2016.
  14. ↑ "Badr Jafar". Endeavor.
  15. ↑ "Gaza Sky Geeks Board". Gaza Sky Geeks. GSG. Retrieved 29 April 2016.
  16. ↑ "Kennedy Centre honours Quincy Jones, Badr Jafar for "bridging cultures"". eSeoulpost. 2014-04-04. Retrieved 29 April 2016.
  17. ↑ "Quincy Jones and UAE entrepreneur form joint venture". LA Independent. 7 March 2011. Retrieved 11 March 2011.
  18. ↑ "Kennedy Centre Honours Quincy Jones, Badr Jafar for "Bridging Cultures"". UAE Interact. Retrieved 14 February 2015.
  19. ↑ Rachel Lee (6 February 2011). "Kevin Spacey Plans Middle East Academy". New York Times. Retrieved 25 February 2011.
  20. ↑ "Secretary-General Appoints High-Level Panel on Humanitarian Financing". Retrieved 11 April 2016.

External links

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