Special Envoy of the Minister of Foreign Affairs for Business and Philanthropy

Special Envoy of the Minister of Foreign Affairs for Business and Philanthropy

H.E. Badr Jafar is a business executive and social entrepreneur from the United Arab Emirates. He is the CEO of Crescent Enterprises, a diversified business operating across nine industry sectors in 17 countries, and the President of Crescent Petroleum, the first independent and privately-owned petroleum company in the Middle East. He serves as Chairman of Gulftainer, the largest privately-owned container port operator in the world, and is also the Chairman of Pearl Petroleum, the largest natural gas producer in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.

As COP28 Special Representative for Business and Philanthropy, H.E. Badr Jafar chaired the inaugural COP28 Business and Philanthropy Climate Forum. He is an Advisory Committee member for ENACT (‘Energy Action’), which aims to advance global sustainable prosperity and progress through shaping the future of energy. Badr also serves as a Board Member for the Dubai International Chamber and on the Advisory Committee for the UK UAE Business Council.

H.E. Badr Jafar is actively engaged with a diverse range of non-profit organisations and initiatives focused on humanitarian aid and international development, strategic philanthropy, corporate governance, entrepreneurship, education, and the arts, including serving as a member of the Kings Trust International Committee, United Nations Secretary General’s High-Level Panel on Humanitarian Financing, Tony Elumelu Foundation Advisory Board, and the UNESCO International Commission on the Futures of Education.

H.E. Badr Jafar also serves on the Board of Trustees for Zayed University, the International Council of the American University of Beirut, as well as on the Advisory Council of Development and Outreach for the American University of Sharjah.

In 2010, H.E. Badr Jafar founded the Pearl Initiative, a non-profit, private sector-led organisation committed to promoting a corporate culture of transparency and accountability across the Gulf Region, in cooperation with the United Nations Office for Partnerships. He is also the Founding Patron of the Centre for Strategic Philanthropy based at the University of Cambridge, which is dedicated to enhancing the impact of strategic philanthropy both within and from the world’s fastest growing economies; and is the Founding Patron of MENA’s first Strategic Philanthropy Initiative at NYU Abu Dhabi to study and promote high-impact philanthropy in the region.

H.E. Badr Jafar holds a Master’s Degree in Engineering from the University of Cambridge and a Business Degree from the Cambridge Judge Business School.