Member Details

Special Envoy of the Minister of Foreign Affairs for Business and Philanthropy and Managing Director, Crescent Group.

H.E. Badr Abdulhamid Jafar is a leading business executive, social entrepreneur and philanthropist from the United Arab Emirates. He is the Chief Executive Officer of Crescent Enterprises and President of Crescent Petroleum, the Middle East’s first independent and privately owned petroleum company. He also serves as Chairman of Gulftainer, the world’s largest privately owned container port operator, and Chairman of Pearl Petroleum, the largest natural gas producer in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.

H.E. Badr Jafar serves as the UAE’s Special Envoy for Business and Philanthropy. In this role, and as COP28 Special Representative for Business and Philanthropy, he chaired the inaugural COP28 Business and Philanthropy Climate Forum, which mobilised USD 7 billion in new commitments in support of the global climate action agenda. In recognition of his contributions, he was awarded the First-Class Order of Zayed II in May 2024.

H.E sits on a number of international boards and advisory committees, including the Advisory Committee for ENACT (Energy Action), which focuses on shaping the future of energy to advance global sustainable prosperity and progress. He is a Board Member of the Dubai International Chamber and serves on the Advisory Committee of the UK–UAE Business Council. His international engagements also include roles with organisations focused on governance, development and humanitarian action, such as the United Nations Secretary-General’s High-Level Panel on Humanitarian Financing, the International Rescue Committee (IRC), the International Peace Institute (IPI) and the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS).

In 2010, H.E. Badr Jafar founded The Pearl Initiative, a private sector-led organisation established in cooperation with the United Nations Office for Partnerships to promote transparency and accountability across the Gulf region. He also co-founded the Arab World Social Entrepreneurship Program (ASEP) in partnership with Ashoka, and continues to support entrepreneurship ecosystems through advisory roles, including with the Sharjah Entrepreneurship Centre (Sheraa).

In the field of strategic philanthropy, he is the Founding Patron of the Centre for Strategic Philanthropy at the University of Cambridge and the author of The Business of Philanthropy, which examines the evolving role of philanthropy through insights from leaders across business and development sectors.

A strong advocate for the role of the arts in innovation-led economies and cross-cultural dialogue, H.E. Badr Jafar founded the non-profit Middle East Theatre Academy and has contributed to several leading international cultural initiatives. In 2014, he was awarded the Gold Medal in the Arts by the Kennedy Center International Committee on the Arts in recognition of his efforts to bridge cultures through music and theatre.

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