Badr Jafar

Badr Jafar is the CEO of Crescent Enterprises and President of Crescent Petroleum. He also serves as Chairman of Gulftainer, the largest privately-owned container port and logistics operator in the world, and Chairman of Pearl Petroleum, a partnership between Crescent Petroleum, Dana Gas, OMV of Austria, MOL of Hungary and RWEST of Germany.

In 2010, Badr founded the Pearl Initiative, a non-profit organisation committed to promoting a corporate culture of transparency and accountability across the Gulf Region of the Middle East, in cooperation with the United Nations Office for Partnerships. He is a member of the United Nations Secretary General’s High-Level Panel on Humanitarian Financing, a member of the UNESCO International Commission on the Futures of Education and a member of the Board of Advisors of the International Rescue Committee (IRC).

Badr also co-founded the Arab World Social Entrepreneurship Program (ASEP) with Ashoka in 2014, is a member of the Synergos Arab World Social Innovators (AWSI) Board of Governors and a member of the Global Advisory Board of the MIT Legatum Centre for Development and Entrepreneurship. He serves on the Boards of Advisors of Sharjah Entrepreneurship Centre (Sheraa) and Gaza Sky Geeks, and is a Board member of Endeavor UAE, a network supporting high-impact entrepreneurship. 

Badr currently serves as a member of the Advisory Board of Cambridge Judge Business School, the International Advisory Council of the American University of Beirut and the Business Advisory Council of the American University of Sharjah. He is the Founding Patron of the Centre for Strategic Philanthropy based at the Cambridge Judge Business School, dedicated to enhancing the impact of strategic philanthropy both within and from the world’s fastest-growing economies, and Founding Patron of the New York University Abu Dhabi’s Strategic Philanthropy Initiative, the Gulf Region’s first Centre to study and promote high-impact philanthropy. He also serves on the Advisory Board of the US-based Milken Institute for Strategic Philanthropy.

Badr founded the non-profit Middle East Theatre Academy to encourage youth in the region to express their talents through writing, directing, producing and acting. He also co-founded the Global Gumbo Group with renowned producer Quincy Jones to bridge cross-cultural divides through entertainment. He is a member of the Guggenheim Middle Eastern Circle, the Artistic Director’s Circle of The Old Vic Theatre Trust, and The Kennedy Centre’s Centennial Circle. In 2014, Badr was awarded the Gold Medal in the Arts by the Kennedy Center International Committee on the Arts for his work to bridge cultures through music and theatre. Badr is a member of the Middle East Institute’s International Advisory Council, which is a non-profit, non-partisan think tank and cultural center in Washington, D.C., founded in 1946. 

Badr has been a member of the Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO) since 2005 and served as Chair of the YPO Emirates Chapter. He was recognised as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in 2011, is Co-Chair of the WEF Family Business Community and a member of the WEF Stewardship Board on New Economy and Society and the Stewardship Board on Digital Economy and new Value Creation. He is a member of the Advisory Council of The International Institute for Strategic Studies.

Mr. Badr attended Eton College and earned a Master’s Degree in Engineering from the University of Cambridge. He also holds a Master of Studies from the University of Cambridge’s Judge Business School.