Majid Jafar
Majid Hamid Jafar (Arabic version مجيد حميد جعفر ), born in 1976, is a United Arab Emirates (UAE) businessman of Iraqi origin. He is the CEO of Crescent Petroleum, the Middle East's oldest private oil and gas company, headquartered in the UAE and with offices in the UK and internationally. He is also Vice-Chairman of the Board of the Crescent Group of Companies, his family's business group, which includes interests in the energy, transportation, logistics, private equity and real estate sectors, and the Managing Director of the Board of Dana Gas (PJSC), the first regional, private sector integrated natural gas company in the Middle East, in which Crescent Petroleum is the largest shareholder. He has been named one of the world's 50 most influential Arabs by Middle East Magazine.Crescent Petroleum began its activities in the early 1970s and was the first regional, independent, privately owned Middle Eastern petroleum company to engage in the acquisition, exploration and development of petroleum concessions; and the production and sale of crude oil, petroleum products and natural gas. Together, Crescent Petroleum and Dana Gas have invested over $1bn in the oil and gas sector in Iraq's Kurdistan region, producing over 340 million cubic feet of gas and 15,000 barrels of condensate per day, enabling almost continuous electricity in the main cities in Iraq's Kurdistan region.Jafar is seen as a leading expert on Middle East oil and gas exploration and production, including the challenges facing production growth in Iraq and has been named as one of the 25 most powerful people in the Middle East oil and gas sector. He has also been a commentator on the oil and gas sector and energy policy in the Gulf region and has written on the economic challenges in the Arab World, the development of the UAE and the geopolitics of oil and gas in the Caspian Region. In 2013 Jafar was elected Vice-Chairman of the Global Energy Initiative, the international NGO headquartered at UN Plaza in New York that is focused on sustainable development through tackling climate change and energy poverty across the world.He has been listed among the top 100 business leaders from the Middle East and as Energy CEO of 2013 by Amwal.Previous to joining Crescent Petroleum and the Crescent Group of companies in 2004, Jafar spent several years working at Shell with Shell International’s Exploration & Production and Gas & Power Divisions in London.Majid Jafar is actively involved in promoting the social and economic development of the Arab world and is seen as a thought leader in this respect. An advocate of tackling youth unemployment through investment in the region, Jafar is the Vice-Chairman of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Youth Unemployment and the founder of the “Arab Stabilization Plan”, which focuses on job creation through critical infrastructure investments to achieve economic stability and prevent instability. Jafar is a regular commentator and has written a number of articles on social and economic issues affecting the Arab world, including in the Financial Times and the Daily Telegraph. He was named “Visionary of the Year” of the Year at the CEO Middle East Awards for his work to tackle youth unemployment in the region. He has also been listed among the world's 100 most powerful Arabs and amongst the leading "Thinkers" by Arabian Business.In March 2014 Jafar co-launched the Centre for Economic Growth (CEG) in Abu Dhabi in partnership with the INSEAD international business school as a unique collaboration between the private sector and a business school to provide research and publications on the key economic issues for the Middle East, including enhancing economic growth and job creation. He serves as the Founding Chair of the CEG Business Council.Jafar has also been named co-Chair of the Business Backs Education campaign launched by former U.S. President Bill Clinton with the GEMS Foundation at the annual Global Education and Skills Forum to encourage greater commitments by the private sector to education worldwide, with five regional summits planned across the world including one in October 2014, hosted by Mayor of London Boris Johnson.
