Razan Khalifa Al Mubarak

Al Mubarak was born in 1979 in Abu Dhabi.[7] She is the daughter of Khalifa Ahmed Abdulaziz Al-Mubarak,[8] a former UAE ambassador to France who was assassinated in 1984 in Paris by the Abu Nidal Organization terrorist group[9] and Sameera Al Khamis. Al Mubarak's grandfather was the Ahmed Abdulaziz Hamad Al-Mubarak, former judge and chairperson of the Shari'a Judicial Department in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi.[10] Al Mubarak has three siblings: Rasha; Khaldoon Khalifa Al Mubarak, Managing Director of Mubadala Investment Company; and Mohamed Khalifa Al-Mubarak, Chairman of Abu Dhabi Tourism & Culture Authority.

Al Mubarak holds an MSc in Public Understanding of Environmental Change from the University College London, UK and a BA (Hons) in Environmental Studies and International Relations from Tufts University, Massachusetts, in the United States.[11][12]

Al Mubarak is married to Badr Jafar, a prominent Emirati business executive and social entrepreneur.[13]

The EAD has played a key role in reintroducing the Scimitar horned oryx into the wild in Chad. Pictured here is one of the first calves born in the wild after almost two decades.

In 2001, Al Mubarak helped establish Emirates Nature–WWF (EN–WWF)—a UAE affiliate of the WWF.[14] She is currently its Managing Director.[14]

In 2008, she became the founding Managing Director of the Mohamed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund (MBZ Fund) – a UAE–based philanthropy supporting direct species conservation worldwide.[7] Since its inception in 2008 to November 2019, the MBZ Fund has supported more than 2,041 projects in 150 different countries benefiting 1,341 different species and subspecies and made a significant impact on species conservation globally.[7]

Al Mubarak is currently the Managing Director of the Environment Agency - Abu Dhabi (EAD).[1][15] Employing over 1,000 people, the EAD is a government agency responsible for environmental regulation, conservation and promotion of sustainable development in the emirate of Abu Dhabi.[16] Appointed in 2011,[14] she was the first woman[17] to serve as Secretary General and was promoted to its Board of Directors in 2018 by the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.[18]

Under Al Mubarak, the EAD played a key role to reintroduce the Scimitar-horned oryx into the wild in Chad.[5] In 2000, the Scimitar-horned Oryx was officially declared Extinct in the Wild by the IUCN Red List.[19] Beginning in 2016, efforts by the EAD together with the Sahara Conservation Fund, Zoological Society of London, Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, and the Government of Chad have successfully released 200 oryx that were bred in Abu Dhabi into the wild in Chad.[20] In 2017, the reintroduction effort reported a number of successes including the first calves born in the wild in decades.[21]

Along with the Scimitar-horned oryx, the EAD has also undertaken a successful captive breeding programme and reintroduction efforts to reintroduce the Arabian oryx back into the wild.[22] The Arabian oryx has moved from "Endangered" to the less-serious category of "Vulnerable" in the latest Red List of Threatened Species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). In an interview with UK's The Guardian newspaper Al Mubarak has mentioned:[22]

To have brought the Arabian oryx back from the brink of extinction is a major feat and a true conservation success story, one which we hope will be repeated many times over for other threatened species.

It is a classic example of how data from the IUCN Red List can feed into on-the-ground conservation action to deliver tangible and successful results.

Razan Khalifa Al Mubarak serves on the board of environmental organizations in the UAE, including the Federal Authority for Nuclear Regulation and as Chair of the Board of Directors of the International Center for Biosaline Agriculture.[23][24] In addition, she serves as an Advisory Board member of the Rockefeller Foundation Economic Council on Planetary Health,[25] the Cambridge Conservation Initiative,[26] the Emirates Diplomatic Academy,[27] a board member of Panthera,[28][11] a charity devoted to conserving 40 species of wild cats and their habitats, and the Women in Sustainability, Environment and Renewable Energy Initiative (WiSER). Razan also serves as Board Member to the Abu Dhabi Music & Arts Foundation (ADMAF) that organises the Abu Dhabi Festival - an annual arts festival.[29]

In 2013, the Abu Dhabi American Chamber of Commerce awarded Al Mubarak the "Women in Business" award for "demonstrating exemplary leadership and accomplishment by pushing barriers, overcoming challenges and setting an example of perseverance and professionalism."[30][31]

In recognition of her global role in the field of environment and conservation, in 2018 the World Economic Forum selected her as one of the top 100 young sector leaders who contribute to building a more sustainable future for humankind, appointing her as Young Global Leader of the Forum.[2][3]

Al Mubarak and her husband, Badr Jafar, are signatories to Bill and Melinda Gates' and Warren Buffett's "The Giving Pledge".[13] They have publicly committed more than half of their wealth to philanthropy.[13][32]

Al Mubarak together with the advisory board of the MBZ Fund published an article in the journal Current Biology about the importance and benefits of species which argued that species cannot be evaluated based on their economic value alone and should be understood for their cultural and inherent value as living organisms.[33]

• Gascon, Claude; Brooks, Thomas M.; Contreras-MacBeath, Topiltzin; Heard, Nicolas; Konstant, William; Lamoreux, John; Launay, Frederic; Maunder, Michael; Mittermeier, Russell A.; Molur, Sanjay; Al Mubarak, Razan Khalifa (2015-05-18). "The Importance and Benefits of Species". Current Biology. 25 (10): R431–R438. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2015.03.041. ISSN 0960-9822. PMID 25989087.

• Official website