Badr Jafar

Badr Jafar (Arabic: بدر حميد جعفر ‎) is an Emirati 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; corporate venture capital and business incubation. As of 2019, Crescent Enterprises has 22 operating subsidiaries in 18 countries and employs over 4,500 people.

He was named one of the 100 most powerful Arabs Arabian Business in 2019.

In May 2018, Badr Jafar joined The Giving Pledge, a campaign to encourage wealthy people to contribute a majority of their wealth to philanthropic causes initiated by Bill Gates, Melinda Gates, and Warren Buffett.

In May 2015, Badr Jafar was appointed by the United Nations Secretary General onto a committee for 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.

In May 2015, Badr Jafar was appointed by the United Nations Secretary General onto a committee for Humanitarian Financing, formed "to address the increasing gap between resources and financing for the world's ever-increasing humanitarian needs."

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.

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 February 2011, Badr Jafar launched the Middle East Theatre Academy (META), 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.

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 and a member of the Global Future Council on the Humanitarian System.

Badr Jafar was born and raised in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates. 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.