Riad Kamal

Company: Arabtec Holding

Position: Chief executive officer (CEO)

Biography: Riad Kamal is the founder of Arabtec Construction, part of the contracting consortium building the Burj Dubai.

The company is one of the largest contracting firms in the UAE and has been involved in many of the country’s most high-profile projects, including Jumeirah Beach Residences, Lake Hotel at Downtown Burj Dubai, Emirates Palace Hotel and the Burj Dubai.

The contractor has also worked on projects in Saudi Arabia, such as Riyadh’s  Princess Noura bint Abdulrahman University for Women, and is working on the Okhta Centre Tower in St Petersburg, Russia.

Kamal began his career in London in 1966 as a civil engineer, before working on construction projects in Jordan and Spain.

In 1974, Kamal moved to Dubai and started Arabtec, which 30 years later became the first private company to go public in the UAE, listing on the Dubai Financial Market in 2004.

Contact: (+971) 4 340 0700; http://www.arabtecholding.com/