Majid Jafar

Majid Jafar is the eldest son of Hamid Jafar, founder of Crescent Petroleum and chairman of the Crescent Group, and a grandson of Iraqi Dhia Jafar, a politician and cabinet minister in the last decade of Iraq's monarchy, during the reign of King Faisal II until 1958.[5] Jafar hails from a notable Iraqi family, that claims agnatic descent from Musa al-Kadhim.[6] He was born and raised in Sharjah.

Jafar attended Eton College and graduated from Cambridge University (Churchill College) with bachelor and master's degrees in engineering (fluid mechanics and thermodynamics). He holds a master's degree [7] in international studies and diplomacy with distinction[8] from the University of London's School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), and an MBA[7] with distinction[8] from Harvard Business School.[9]

Previous to joining Crescent in 2004, Jafar spent several years working at Shell with Shell International's Exploration & Production and Gas & Power Divisions in London.[10]

Jafar left Shell in 2004 to join Crescent Petroleum[11] at their headquarters in Sharjah, UAE.[12] He was appointed as the company's CEO in 2011.[13] Crescent's business and exploration focus lies in the MENA region[14] with a special focus on Egypt and Iraq/Kurdistan, where the Jafar family originally stems from.[15] In a 2018 licensing round Crescent Petroleum was awarded new development and production contracts for the Gilabat and Qumar gas fields in Iraq.[16][17]

Jafar has been named as one of the 25 most powerful people in the Middle East oil and gas sector.[18] He has also been a commentator on the oil and gas sector[19] and energy policy[20] and has written on the economic challenges in the Arab World,[21][22] the development of the UAE[23] and the geopolitics of oil and gas in the Caspian Region.[24] In 2013 Jafar was elected Vice-Chairman of the Global Energy Initiative,[25] He was listed among the top 100 business leaders from the Middle East and was awarded as "Visionary of the Year" at the CEO Middle East Awards in 2013.[26] He was also awarded as Energy CEO of 2013 by Amwal[27] and has been named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum (WEF).[28][29]

Jafar repeatedly stressed the importance of the expansion of the private sector[30] to fully develop the potential of natural resources in the Middle East.[31] He argued for an expansion of the private sector and cited the Sharjah region, the UAE base of Crescent's operations, as role model for possible developments.[32] Jafar is an advocate of balanced and sustainable energy development. He stated that the Arab world should keep the focus on their core strengths oil and gas whilst working on diversification and development of sustainable energy supply sources.[33]

He is a trustee of the Arab Forum for Environment and Development (AFED)[34] and a board member at the Iraqi Energy Institute,[7] a member of the Young Presidents Organisation[35] and of the panel of senior advisors of the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House) in London chaired by former UK Prime Minister John Major.[36]

He is also a member of the board at the Higher Colleges of Technology (HCT) industry advisory council[37] and of the International Advisory Council of the Atlantic Council[38] and serves as accredited director of the Institute of Directors.[7] Jafar is a member of the board of the Sharjah Chamber of Commerce (UAE), the Sharjah Expo,[39] and the Iraqi-British Friendship Society.[40]

Jafar was named as one of 100 inspiring leaders in the Middle East,[41] and was listed in the top 50 of Dubai's 100: Most influential people in the Emirate, by Arabian Business.[42] In 2017, Jafar co-chaired the WEF MENA Summit (together with other co-chairs like McKinsey's head and global managing partner Dominic Barton).[43] The summit was attended by over 1,200 government, business and civil society leaders from more than 60 countries.[44]

Jafar has served as the vice-chairman of the World Economic Forum's Global Agenda Council on Youth Unemployment[3] and the founder of the "Arab Stabilization Plan" (ASP), which focuses on job creation through critical infrastructure investments to achieve economic stability and prevent instability.[45] The plan detailed the creation of up to 11 million jobs in a five year time frame.[46] The framework was designed as Arab-led initiative with most investments coming from the private sector. Total investments of around $60 and $185 billion are targeted, focusing on job creation in large-scale infrastructure projects.[47][48] Jafar has written a number of articles on social and economic issues affecting the Arab world, including in the Financial Times,[49] the Daily Telegraph[50] and HuffPost[51] and was interviewed on news channels like BBC[52] and CNBC.[53] In 2014, he was listed among the world's 100 most powerful Arabs and amongst the leading "Thinkers" by Arabian Business.[39]

In March 2014 Jafar co-launched the Centre for Economic Growth (CEG) in Abu Dhabi in partnership with the INSEAD business school. He serves as the founding chair of the CEG Business Council.[54] He sits on the Middle East Advisory board of Carnegie Endowment[55] and Harvard Business School, and the board of the Queen Rania Foundation [56] and is a founding patron of the Prince's Trust International in the UK.[57]

In the acceptance speech for the Visionary of the Year award in 2013 Jafar spoke about the challenges of youth unemployment.[58] Jafar repeatedly spoke about youth unemployment publicly and is a founder and co-developer of the Youth Unemployment Principle Pledge Framework with the World Economic Forum.[59] He called for strategic infrastructure investments, to play a critical role in supporting the much-needed growth and development in the region in order to tackle the major challenge of youth unemployment.[58] Jafar also calls for economic stability as a priority in the Middle East and for the private sector and job creation as essential ingredient for political stability.[60]

In September 2014, he was co-chair of the World Economic Forum Special Meeting in Istanbul on 'Unlocking Resources for Regional Development'. He was also chairman of the March 2016 'Change in the Middle East: new lines in the sand?' conference held by the Ditchley Foundation.[61]

Jafar authored the opening chapter of Performance and Progress: Essays on Capitalism, Business and Society published in 2015 by Oxford University Press.[62]

The Jafar family has supported the Jafar Research Professorship of Petroleum Engineering at Cambridge University[63] and the Jafar Centre for Executive Education at the American University of Sharjah. In 2015, the Jafar Hall and the Jafar Gallery were opened by the Prince of Wales at Eton College.[64] Jafar also sits on the Board of Trustees at the Kalimat Foundation for Children’s Empowerment.[65]

He is the co-chair[66] of the Business Backs Education campaign,[67][68] which aims to motivate companies to increase their CSR spending, in order to close a $26bn gap which is required to help countries offer basic schooling.[69] The campaign was launched in cooperation with UNESCO and backed by former US President Bill Clinton.[70]

Jafar is also active as a parent advocate in medical philanthropy in the rare disease field, and is the Co-founder[71] of the Loulou Foundation,[72] which he established together with his wife to address their eldest daughter Alia's rare disease (CDKL5 Deficiency Disorder).[73] He was a participant and speaker at the 3rd European CDKL5 Research Conference,[74] the 4th International CDKL5 Congress[75] and spoke at the EURORDIS Summit in Vienna in May 2018.[76] With the Loulou Foundation the Jafars have supported the research of over 120 scientists at universities in Europe and the United States. Until 2018, the foundation supported 31 projects in 41 laboratories at 30 different institutions.[72] In March 2017, Lynn and Majid Jafar were honored at a Finding A Cure for Epilepsy and Seizures (FACES) gala in New York for "research efforts towards finding a cure for a rare genetic disorder called CDKL5, as well as better treatments for children who have epileptic seizures and other chronic conditions".[77] In 2020 the couple also established an endowed scholarship at Harvard Medical School to support medial students from the Middle East region.[78]

Jafar is a member of the Board of Fellows[79] and the Discovery Council of Harvard Medical School.[78]

He is married to Lynn Barghout Jafar, and they have three children (two girls and 1 boy).[80][81] His wife founded and manages High Hopes Dubai,[82] a pediatric therapy center, which was opened in November 2017 by HRH Princess Haya bint Hussein.[83]