Mohammed Jameel KBE

Chairman Abdul Latif Jameel

Mohammed Abdul Latif Jameel is Chairman, Abdul Latif Jameel, a collective of independent international, family-owned and diversified businesses, founded in 1945 by his father, the late Abdul Latif Jameel.

Mohammed Abdul Latif Jameel is Chairman, Abdul Latif Jameel, a collective of independent international, family-owned and diversified businesses, founded in 1945, by his father, the late Abdul Latif Jameel.

Today, Abdul Latif Jameel’s core business areas include transportation and mobility solutions; financial services; residential real estate development; sustainable energy and water infrastructure solutions and wider environmental services; consumer products; advertising and media, and global health care.

Abdul Latif Jameel had grown significantly in its 75-year history, flourishing from its deep regional roots to be a truly global business with a presence in 30 markets over six continents, including Europe, Africa, Asia Pacific, North and South America, employing over 11,000 people from more than 40 nationalities.

Abdul Latif Jameel has always believed in ‘business with a purpose’ and sought to actively create value by competing not to be best in the world, but best for the community. This approach is also inherent in non-operational investment.

The Jameel Family’s global investment arm, ‘JIMCO’ (the Abdul Latif Jameel Investment Management Company) actively invests in innovative, early-stage and breakthrough ventures, business models and emergent technologies, aiming to positively shape the future of core industries driving the global economy.

These investments embrace medical and health industries – with a focus on increasing healthcare inclusivity in the ‘Global South’ through accelerating access to modern medical technology – and also in fields including fintech, insurtech, electric vehicles and sustainable future mobility solutions. The Jameel Family were founding shareholders in US-based electric vehicle manufacturer RIVIAN.

Mr. Jameel, together with other members of the Jameel Family, is also a major investor/developer of the Anjum Hotel in the Holy City of Makkah, Saudi Arabia. with 1,650 rooms in the first phase and a second phase (under construction) of 3 towers with 3,977 rooms. The Hotel offers a genuine Hijazi welcome to Hajj and Umrah visitors from across the world -uniting spirituality with hospitality while supporting and contributing to the continued growth of the local community.

Mr. Jameel and the Jameel Family are noted philanthropists, continuing a tradition started over three quarters of a century ago by Mr. Jameel’s father and the business’ late founder, Mr. Abdul Latif Jameel.

As Founder and Chairman of Bab Rizq Jameel, a job creation initiative in the Middle East and North Africa, Mr. Jameel has helped hundreds of thousands of men and women improve their lives through work, with recruitment initiatives, microfinance programs, and other innovative projects tailored to providing job opportunities for men and women in the Arab world.

As a patron of the arts, Mr. Jameel supports Art Jameel (founded by his son, Fady Jameel), now one of the world’s most significant NGOs with a focus on nurturing artists and creative communities.

Art Jameel’s expert team and innovative arts and learning programs are anchored in the UAE at the Jameel Arts Centre, Dubai’s contemporary museum, and in Saudi Arabia at Hayy Jameel, Jeddah’s home for the arts.

As a former trustee of The Prince’s School of Traditional Arts and now as an ambassador of The Prince’s Foundation, Mr. Jameel has worked with HRH The Prince of Wales’ charities, including the Jameel Houses in Cairo and Jeddah, and the forthcoming Jameel House in Scotland, on the Dumfries House estate.

Other long-standing Art Jameel partnerships include those with the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, home to the Jameel Gallery and a broad program that includes the Jameel Prize, the world’s premier award for contemporary art and design inspired by Islamic traditions.

Mr. Jameel is also Founder and Chairman of Community Jameel Saudi, a Saudi Arabian foundation that operates a considerable suite of philanthropically motivated social, entrepreneurial, and economic development programs for individuals and the community in the country. Its focus is governed by six main areas of development – competency development, women empowerment, entrepreneurship advancement, climate change, community wellbeing, and humanitarian initiatives – with one main goal: to create pathways to economic independence and so actively contributing to the development of the nation and its economy. Initiatives include the Abdul Latif Jameel Hospital in Jeddah, established by Mr. Jameel’s father as the region’s first non-profit specialist facility for physical rehabilitation, and today a center for advanced therapies.

Mr. Jameel is the Founder and Chairman of Community Jameel, an independent, global organization advancing science to help communities thrive in a rapidly changing world.

A Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) alumnus, Mr. Jameel has seen Community Jameel develop a longstanding and deep collaboration with MIT, with support to four major centers: the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL), whose co-founders Esther Duflo and Abhijit Banerjee, along with long-time J-PAL affiliate Michael Kremer, won the 2019 Nobel Prize for Economics; the Abdul Latif Jameel Water and Food Systems Lab (J-WAFS); the Abdul Latif Jameel World Education Lab (J-WEL); and the Abdul Latif Jameel Clinic for Machine Learning in Health (Jameel Clinic).

With MIT, Community Jameel has also created the Jameel-Toyota Scholarship for undergraduate students from Japan, Saudi Arabia and other countries in Asia and Africa (since 1994); supported and mentored entrepreneurs in the Arab world through an annual start-up competition (since 2005); and through MIT J-WEL pioneered innovative approaches to refugee education. Mr. Jameel is an MIT Corporation life member.

Committed to improving healthcare for all, in addition to the Jameel Clinic at MIT, Community Jameel cofounded the Abdul Latif Jameel Institute for Disease and Emergency Analytics (Jameel Institute) with Imperial College London, to combat threats from disease worldwide.

In 2021, Community Jameel – together with the University of Edinburgh, Save the Children, the CGIAR International Livestock Research Institute and J-PAL – launched the Jameel Observatory for Food Security Early Action in Nairobi, Kenya. The Jameel Observatory harnesses the power of data science to monitor, forecast and enable early action against outbreaks of acute hunger and famine in the face of climate change.

In music, Community Jameel and the Andrea Bocelli Foundation, where Mr. Jameel is a member of the advisory board, have cofounded a scholarship at the Royal College of Music in London to support students in need.

Mr. Jameel has been recognized with a number of honors, including the highest award in Saudi Arabia, the King Abdul Aziz Medal of the First Order, from HM King Abdullah in recognition of his personal contribution to job creation initiatives amongst young Saudi men and women; and an honorary knighthood (KBE) from HM Queen Elizabeth II for his philanthropic activities and support for the development of arts and culture.