| Majid Jafar | |
| Native Name: | مجيد جعفر |
| Nationality: | Emirati Iraqi |
| Education: | Eton College |
| Alma Mater: | Cambridge University London University (SOAS) Harvard Business School |
| Occupation: | Energy sector |
| CEO Crescent Petroleum | |
| Spouse: | Lynn Barghout Jafar |
| Children: | 4 |
| Relations: | Dhia Jafar (grandfather) Badr Jafar (brother) |
Majid Hamid Jafar (Arabic: مجيد حميد جعفر; born 1976) is an Emirati businessman of Iraqi descent.[1] [2] He is the CEO of Crescent Petroleum, vice-chairman of the Crescent Group, and managing director of Dana Gas.[3] In 2021 Jafar was named among the 100 inspiring leaders in the Middle East by Arabian Business magazine.
Majid Jafar is the eldest son of Hamid Jafar, founder of Crescent Petroleum and chairman of the Crescent Group, and Sawsan Al-Fahoum Jafar, who serves as Chairman of the Board of the Friends of Cancer Patients charity in the UAE.
He is the grandson of Iraqi Dhia Jafar, politician and cabinet minister who served in the last decade of Iraq's monarchy, during the reign of King Faisal II until 1958.[4] The Jafar family is a notable Iraqi family that claims agnatic descent from Musa al-Kadhim.
Jafar attended Eton College and graduated from the University of Cambridge (Churchill College) with bachelor's and master's degrees in engineering (fluid mechanics and thermodynamics).[5]
He holds a master's degree in international studies and diplomacy with distinction from the University of London's School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS),[6] and an MBA from Harvard Business School.[7]
In his early career Jafar worked for Shell International's Exploration & Production and Gas & Power Divisions in London until 2004.[8]
In 2004, he joined Crescent Petroleum[9] at their headquarters in Sharjah, UAE. He became CEO of Crescent Petroleum in 2011.[10] [11]
Crescent Petroleum's business and exploration focus lies in the MENA region[12] with a special focus on Egypt and Iraq, from where the Jafar family originates.[13] In a 2018 licensing round Crescent Petroleum was awarded three concessions for gas fields in Diyala province and as well as the Khidhr Al Mai exploration block in southern Iraq.[14] [15]
Jafar was named as one of the 25 most powerful people in the Middle East oil and gas sector according to Oil& Gas Middle East. He is also a frequent commentator on the oil and gas sector[14] and energy policy[15] and has written on the economic challenges in the Arab World,[16] [17] [18] [19] and the geopolitics of oil and gas in the Caspian Region.[20]
Jafar is also a member of the board of the International Advisory Council of the Atlantic Council.[21]
Jafar is also a trustee of the Arab Forum for Environment and Development (AFED)[22] and a board member at the Iraqi Energy Institute,[4] a member of the Young Presidents Organisation[23] and of the panel of senior advisors of British think tank Chatham House.[24]
He has repeatedly stressed the importance of the expansion of the private sector to fully develop the potential of natural resources in the region.[25]
Jafar has championed the importance of the oil and gas industry in the low-carbon energy transition, highlighting the important role natural gas [26] will play in tackling carbon emissions particularly in the developing world.[27]
In 2017, Jafar co-chaired the WEF MENA Summit together with EU Commission President Usula von der Leyen and McKinsey managing partner Dominic Barton).[28] He was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum (WEF).[29]
In 2021, Jafar announced that Crescent Petroleum became one of the first companies in the oil and gas industry to achieve carbon neutrality across its operations after completing a series of projects to reduce carbon intensity and offset remaining emissions.[30] In December 2023, Jafar also committed Crescent Petroleum as a signatory to the Oil and Gas Decarbonization Charter (OGDC), a global industry Charter dedicated to achieveing net-zero operations by 2050 at the latest, and achieving near-zero upstream methane emissions and ending routine flaring by 2030.[31]
In 2021 Jafar was named as one of 100 inspiring leaders in the Middle East,[32] and was listed in the Dubai's 100: Most influential people in the Emirate, by Arabian Business.[33]
In 2023, Forbes Middle East magazine named him among the Middle East Sustainable 100 list.[34]
Jafar has written columns for the Financial Times,[35] and HuffPost[36] and is regularly interviewed on news channels like CNN and CNBC.[37]
Jafar previously served on the Middle East Advisory board of Carnegie Endowment and Harvard Business School,[38] and the board of the Queen Rania Foundation.[39] Jafar authored the opening chapter of Performance and Progress: Essays on Capitalism, Business and Society published in 2015 by Oxford University Press.[40]
In October 2020 Jafar was a signatory to the World Economic Forum's Principles of Stakeholder Capitalism for the Middle East and North Africa.[41] And in 2021 Crescent Petroleum partnered with Edraak to launch the Edraak Career Readiness programme to boost the employability skills of half a million young people across the MENA region.
2023 the company built on the success of the initiative with Edraak by launching the Career Compass Pathway course to teach interviewing and job hunting skills, targeting 1 million registrations across the Middle East.[42]
Jafar is the Co-founder[43] of the Loulou Foundation,[44] which he established together with his wife Lynn to address their eldest daughter Alia's rare disease (CDKL5 Deficiency Disorder).
Until 2022, the foundation supported 60 projects at 45 different institutions around the world, enabling the dedicated research of over 180 scientists.[45] Jafar and his wife were honored at the 2017 Finding A Cure for Epilepsy and Seizures (FACES) Gala in New York for their contributions to research towards better treatments for children who have epileptic seizures and other chronic conditions.[46]
Separately Jafar serves as Co-Chair of the Cambridge Children’s Hospital Fundraising Campaign and is a cornerstone donor to the pioneering hospital project, which will be one of the first hospitals designed to bring together treatment of mental and physical health, with an embedded University of Cambridge research institute.[47]
In 2020 the Jafars also established an endowed scholarship at Harvard Medical School to support medical students from the Middle East region.[48] Jafar is a member of the Board of Fellows and the Discovery Council of Harvard Medical School.[49]
Jafar's father, Hamid Jafar, supported the Jafar Research Professorship of Petroleum Engineering at Cambridge University.[50] In 2015, the Jafar Hall and the Jafar Gallery at Eton College was supported by the Jafar's family and was opened by the Prince of Wales .[51]
Jafar also sits on the board of trustees at the Kalimat Foundation for Children's books.[52]
Jafar is married to Lynn Barghout Jafar, daughter of businessman and philanthropist Bassam Barghout, who was awarded the Order of the Cedar with rank of Knight by the President and Prime Minister of Lebanon for his services to the country. [53] Her grandfather Khalil Al-Hibri served as a member of parliament, Chairman of the Water Board of Beirut, Minister of Public Works and then Prime Minister of Lebanon in 1958, heading the transitional government in response to the Lebanon Crisis. Her great-grandfather was Sheikh Toufik El-Hibri, a founder of the Scout movement in Lebanon and across the Arab World.
Majid and Lynn Jafar have four children (two girls and two boys).[54] Lynn Barghout Jafar founded and manages High Hopes Dubai, a pediatric therapy center, which was opened in November 2017 by HRH Princess Haya bint Hussein.[55] and further expanded in March 2023.[56] Majid and Lynn Jafar are patrons of the Dubai Collection for Art.