Trustees

Badr Jafar

Badr Jafar

Badr Jafar is CEO of Crescent Enterprises and President of Crescent Petroleum. He is also the Chairman of Gulftainer and Chairman of Pearl Petroleum.

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).

Consistent with his interest in promoting social entrepreneurship in the MENA Region, Badr is a Board member of Endeavor UAE, a member of the Synergos Arab World Social Innovators Program Board of Governors, and serves as a member on the Board of Advisors of Sharjah Entrepreneurship Center (Sheraa), MIT Legatum Centre for Development and Entrepreneurship and Gaza Sky Geeks.

Badr is actively engaged with a number of higher education institutions, serving as member of the Advisory Boards of Cambridge University Judge Business School and the American University of Beirut. 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.

Badr was recognised as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in 2011, is Co-Chair of the WEF Family Business Community, Champion of the World Economic Forum’s EDISON Alliance 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 (IISS).