Badr Jafar


Badr Hamid Jafar is an Emirati-Iraqi business executive and social entrepreneur based in the United Arab Emirates. He is the Chief Executive Officer of Crescent Enterprises, a diversified global business with operations in several sectors including ports and logistics, power and engineering.
Jafar is also the President of Crescent Enterprises' sister company Crescent Petroleum, a privately-owned oil and gas company headquartered in the United Arab Emirates. He is Chairman of Pearl Petroleum, a five-member international consortium for the development of natural gas assets in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, and Chairman of the Executive Board of Gulftainer, a global ports and logistics company.
He launched the Pearl Initiative in September 2010 at the United Nations, a private sector-led initiative to promote corporate governance, accountability and transparency within the Gulf region of the Middle East. In 2011, Jafar was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum and is co-chair of the Forum's Family Business Community, a member of their Stewardship Board on Economic Progress.
In May 2015, Badr Jafar was appointed by the United Nations Secretary General onto the High Level Panel on Humanitarian Financing, formed "to address the increasing gap between resources and financing for the world's ever-increasing humanitarian needs." In September 2019, he was appointed to UNESCO’s Future of Education International Commission. The Commission aims to re-examine and reimagine how knowledge and learning can contribute to humanity.
He was named one of the 100 most powerful Arabs Arabian Business in 2019.

Early life and education

Jafar was born to Hamid Jafar, son of Iraqi statesman Dhia Jafar. Jafar hails from the intellectual Khirsan family, that claims agnatic descent from Ibrahim al-Mujab. He was born and raised in Sharjah.

Education

In 1994, he continued his education at Eton College, and graduated in 1999 from Cambridge University with a master's 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.
Jafar serves as member of the Advisory Boards of Cambridge University Judge Business School, American University of Beirut and American University of Sharjah. He is an appointed Foundation Fellow of Eton College.

Entrepreneurship

Badr Jafar is Chairman of Endeavor UAE, and is on the Board of Advisors for Sharjah Entrepreneurship Centre and Gaza Sky Geeks, the leading startup accelerator and technology education hub in Gaza.
In 2014, Jafar 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.

Social initiatives

In February 2011, Badr Jafar launched the Middle East Theatre Academy, 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. In May 2011, Jafar and music producer Quincy Jones produced a charity single titled Tomorrow/Bokra, featuring 26 Arab artists, to raise funds for educational arts projects for displaced youth in the Middle East. The proceeds went towards the development of arts programs for over 430,000 disadvantaged children in partnership with Save The Children.
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. He is now an appointed member of Kennedy Centre's Centennial Circle.
In May 2018, Badr Jafar joined The Giving Pledge, a philanthropic initiative launched by Bill Gates, Melinda Gates, and Warren Buffett.
Launched in 2020, Badr Jafar is 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.
Jafar serves as a member of the Board of Overseers of the International Rescue Committee and the advisory board of the US-based Milken Institute for Strategic Philanthropy.