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InPics: The 100 Most Powerful Arabs Under 40
Welcome to the 2015 Arabian Business Power List, our guide to the planet’s 100 most influential young Arabs
nSocial entrepreneur
nEgypt
nCulture and society
nAge: 33
n@jawadnabulsi
nAs Egypt’s leadership has violently chopped and changed over the past four years, various rights activists and humanitarians have changed course or fled the country. But not Jawad Nabulsi. He took a gunsho
2. Bader Al Kharafi
nDirector
nMA Al Kharafi & Sons Company
nKuwait
nIndustry
nAge: 37
nBader Al Kharafi is one of the most powerful men in Kuwait, as one of the heads of the family conglomerate MA Al Kharafi & Sons Company.
Established in 1956, the group is now estimated to be worth more than $8bn, with more than 135 registered companies operating in 28 countries, across sectors including construction, trading and manufacturing, investments and development, and travel and leisure. Al Kharafi took the helm as director of the group’s executive committee in 2012, following the death of his highly esteemed father, Nasser. He holds several high-profile roles within the family business, including as a board member of Gulf Bank, a board member of Foulath Holding (Bahrain Steel) and chairman and managing director of Gulf Cables & Electrical Industries. He was recently elected vice chairman of Zain Group, the telecommunications giant that operates in eight countries across the Middle East and North Africa, with about 44.3 million customers and $4.3bn in turnover.
nIn April 2014, Coutts, the wealth division of the Royal Bank of Scotland Group, announced it had appointed Al Kharafi to its Middle East Advisory Board.
nA keen advocate of youth development, he is also a board member for INJAZ, a non-government organisation that teaches students entrepreneurship and financial literacy at a time when the Gulf state is working to encourage more nationals into the private sector.
nWith ongoing plans to expand, Al Kharafi’s influence is only expected to continue rising.
3. Hassan Al Thawadi
nSecretary General
nSupreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy
nQatar
nSport
nAge: 37
n@DeliverAmazing
nHassan Al Thawadi is responsible for organising the most anticipated event in Qatar’s history — the FIFA World Cup in 2022. The Supreme Committee is coordinating everything required to host the international football extravaganza, from building state-of-the-art air-conditioned stadiums and a plethora of supporting infrastructure to dealing with international criticism of the treatment of construction workers and the timing of the event. The 37-year-old was appointed in March, 2011, after leading the country’s bidding committee that successfully brought the event to the Middle East for the first time. As the face of the 2022 World Cup, he has dealt with persistent allegations of corruption during the bidding process. In February, he told Al Jazeera: “I can’t say if there is a prejudice against Qatar, but what I can say is there is a clear bias.”
nThe Sheffield University law graduate also is general counsel at the country’s sovereign wealth fund, Qatar Investment Authority, and Qatar Holding, which have investments in Porsche, Volkswagen, Barclays Bank, the New York Stock Exchange and Harrods, not to mention countless high-end European properties.
4. Khaldoon Al Mubarak
nCEO and Chairman
nMubadala Development Company and Manchester City Football Club
nUAE
nBanking and finance
nAge: 39
n@mubadala
nSince taking over as chairman in 2008, Al Mubarak has transformed Manchester City FC from a backwater team into one of the wealthiest sporting clubs in the world that has obtained two Premier League titles and won both the League Cup and FA Cup.
nHis business prowess also is being used to guide Abu Dhabi’s economic diversification as CEO of Mubadala, the government’s investment and development vehicle with multi-billion dollar projects and significant stakes in companies including Ferrari, AMD, the Carlyle Group and General Electric.
nAl Mubarak is a key confidant of the emirate’s Crown Prince, holding the position of chairman of the Abu Dhabi Executive Affairs Authority and as a member of the Abu Dhabi Executive Council.
nHe is also the chairman of the Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation, the Abu Dhabi Media Zone Authority and Emirates Global Aluminium, and is a representative on numerous other government organisations covering areas from education to urban planning. In his role as chairman of Abu Dhabi Motorsports Management, Al Mubarak also was instrumental in bringing the Formula One Grand Prix and the FIFA Club World Cup to Abu Dhabi.
5.Noura Al Kaabi
nCEO
nMedia Zone Authority-Abu Dhabi and twofour54
nUAE
nMedia
nAge: 36
nAs CEO of the Media Zone Authority-Abu Dhabi and its commercial arm, twofour54, Noura Al Kaabi has been instrumental in developing the UAE’s media and creative content scene across all mediums. The authority now has more than 240 media organisations on its campus and has launched the Abu Dhabi Film Festival, the Abu Dhabi Film Commission, and the Abu Dhabi Media Summit.
nAl Kaabi also is involved in government policy as a member of the Federal National Council, where she has particularly promoted measures to protect the rights of children. She also sits on the board of Abu Dhabi Media, Abu Dhabi Chamber of Commerce, Image Nation and the Abu Dhabi Sports Council. Al Kaabi spends what little spare time she has as a member of the Advisory Board for Abu Dhabi Music & Arts Foundation and a member of the Scientific Committee of the Sheikh Zayed Book Award.
nHer work has been recognised by prestigious media outlets internationally, including as the first Emirati to be ranked in Foreign Policy magazine’s ‘Top 100 Global Thinkers List’. She is regularly included in CEO Middle East’s 100 most powerful Arab Women list.
6. Iqbal Al AsaadnDoctor
nLebanon (Palestine)
nScience
nAge: 22
nWhen you graduate from high school aged 12, with biochemistry and algebra in your skillset, you are bound to do brilliant things. Iqbal Al Asaad certainly did, graduating as the youngest ever Arab doctor at 20, in 2013.
nThe child prodigy, who says she began learning as a toddler while listening to her father tutor her older brothers, grew up in a rural Lebanese village and was struck at an early age by the poverty she witnessed. Her visits to Palestinian refugee camps, where she often heard stories of sick children unable to get the medical care they needed, inspired her to become a paediatrician. Her dream caught the attention of Lebanon’s education minister, who secured her a medical scholarship under the Qatar Foundation and she joined Weill Cornell Medical College in Doha.
nShe is now furthering her credentials under the Cleveland Clinic Children’s Paediatric Residency Programme in the US.nBut Al Asaad’s dream to return to Lebanon and help the Palestinian refugees who inspired her career may be difficult because Palestinians are not allowed to work as doctors in Lebanon.
nWherever she ends up, the genius humanitarian is sure to make an impression in the Arab medical world for decades to come.
7. Fahd Al Rasheed
nCEO and managing director
nKing Abdullah Economic City
nSaudi Arabia
nIndustry
nAge: 37
n@kaec_saudi
nFahd Al Rasheed is coordinating the world’s largest construction project, King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC). The $100bn megaproject is being built from scratch about 100km north of Jeddah with an eventual capacity to host two million people.
nAt the centre of the city is King Abdullah Port, which is aiming to use its strategic location on the Red Sea, through which almost one-quarter of world shipping trade passes, to make it a game changer. Port manager Rayan Bukhari said in March it would steal trade from Dubai’s Jebel Ali, one of the largest in the world, by being cheaper and more efficient.
nThe city also includes an Industrial Valley, as well as residential communities, tech clusters, universities and hospitals. Haramain Station on the eastern side will link the city to Jeddah and the holy cities of Makkah and Madinah via Saudi Arabia’s latest high-speed rail network. A mega-mall also is being built near the station. KAEC already has provided about 12,000 jobs and more than 70 companies are in the process of setting up bases, including multinationals Mars, Pfizer and Danone, and local family giants Abdul Latif Jameel and the Naghi Group.
nWhen it is finished, not likely until at least the middle of the next decade, KAEC is expected to be as big as Washington DC. But in an interview with Arabian Business last year, Al Rasheed shrugged off the pressure to perform.
n“It’s fun — every day there’s something new, it fuels you,” he said. “This is my seventh year, and it’s amazing — I’m working harder than ever.”
8. Hashim Shawa
nChairman and General Manager
nBank of Palestine
nPalestine
nBanking and finance
nAge: 39
n@bankofpalestine
nIt was under difficult circumstances that Hashim Shawa took over the reins of his family bank. Aged 31 in 2007, succession plans were immediately fast-forwarded after the death of Shawa’s father. Gaza, where 20 percent of Bank of Palestine’s retail operations are generated, was enduring yet another conflict with Israel and the world was about to fall into the global financial crisis.
nBut eight years on and the Bank of Palestine, under Shawa’s guidance, has become the second-largest private sector employer in Palestine, with 1,300 employees across 54 branches. The bank is expected to post a record profit for 2014 when its results are released in April. Profit during the first three quarters of last year amounted to $27.6m, despite being forced to close its Gaza branches during the area’s seven-week war with Israel in July-August.
nShawa established his banking career with global leaders Citibank and HSBC, working in various European countries. Prior to returning to Palestine, he was director of HSBC Switzerland’s Middle East and North Africa business, with responsibility for developing the company’s private banking business in the Gulf and establish HSBC’s onshore presence in Kuwait.
nShawa also serves as chairman or on the board of several other financial firms and is a member of the Emerging Markets Advisory Council at the International Institute of Finance Washington, DC.
9. Amal Clooney
nBarrister
nDoughty Street Chambers
nUK (Lebanon)
nLaw
nAge: 37
nAmal Clooney (nee Alamuddin) has been defending high-profile clients in international legal cases for years but it was the announcement of her engagement to Hollywood actor George Clooney in April 2014, that really brought her under the spotlight.
nThe lawyer, activist and author is now also somewhat of a style icon, featuring in fashion and gossip magazines worldwide. However, the highly intelligent barrister, who has degrees from Oxford University and New York University’s School of Law, had already begun gaining notoriety for handling some of the most contentious human rights cases in recent years, including that of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and Al Jazeera journalist Mohamed Fahmy.
nIn February, she publicly ridiculed the Canadian government for failing to do more to assist its citizen, Fahmy, who was on bail awaiting retrial after more than a year behind bars in Egypt on terrorism-related charges. Clooney remarked that Canada’s “sheepish whimpers are woefully inadequate”.
nShe has also served on the International Court of Justice, worked in the Office of the Prosecutor at the UN Special Tribunal for Lebanon, advised UN Special Envoy Kofi Annan on Syria, represented Ukraine’s former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko and is an advisor to Bahrain’s King Hamad Bin Issa Al Khalifa, among other accomplishments.
nIn August 2014, she turned down an offer to join the UN’s three-member commission investigating possible war crimes during last year’s Israel–Gaza conflict, citing her consistently heavy workload.nClooney was born in Beirut but her family emigrated to the UK in 1980 during the Lebanese Civil War.
10. Maher Zain
nIslamic music star
nSweden (Lebanon)
nCulture and society
nAge: 33
n@MaherZain
nWith 23.5 million Facebook fans, there is no disputing the global popularity of Islamic musician Maher Zain. In only six years since releasing his first album, the R&B singer has amassed a following from Morocco to Malaysia.
nZain, whose family emigrated to Sweden when he was just eight, entered the music industry as a producer working alongside Grammy award-winning music executive RedOne, famous for his work with the likes of Lady Gaga, Nicki Minaj and Jennifer Lopez.nBut in 2009 he returned to his Islamic roots and focused on writing and singing his own contemporary R&B music with a strong Muslim influence. His first album, ‘Thank You Allah’, was released on November 1, 2009, by Awakening Records. It became the highest-selling album of 2010 in Malaysia and went multi-platinum in Malaysia and Indonesia, where he has had his biggest successes. His second album ‘Forgive Me’ released in April, 2012, also went multi-platinum in Malaysia.
nZain sings mainly in English but has released some of his most popular songs in languages such as French, Arabic, Turkish, Malay and Indonesian.
nHe also supports UNHCR — the UN Refugee Agency and last year visited Syrian refugee camps in Lebanon, where he performed a concert.
11. Ahmad Belhoul
nCEO
nMasdar
nUAE
nTechnology
nAge: 37
n@ahmad_belhoul
nDr Ahmad Belhoul is spearheading the development of one of Abu Dhabi’s most significant projects. Masdar City, which is in the process of being built outside the UAE capital, is billed as being the world’s first sustainable eco-city. It already features the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology, a research institute focused on clean energy, as well as the headquarters of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA). But Masdar is about much more than the city; it is also building and investing in clean energy projects all over the world.
nPrior to joining Masdar, Belhoul was the CEO of strategy and tourism sector development at Dubai’s Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM). During his tenure at DTCM, he played a leading role in developing Dubai’s Tourism 2020 strategy. He also serves on the board of Emirates Development Bank, a financial institution set up by the UAE government to promote economic growth in the country through the provision of funding to small and medium-sized companies, industries of strategic importance and key housing developments.
nBelhoul has a PhD from Sir John Monash University in Australia, an MSc from the University of Melbourne and a BSc from Khalifa University in the UAE.
