Richard Attias has built an unrivaled reputation for advising international leaders, corporations and nations on how to build their global influence, catalyze ideas, and mobilize populations. He has provided clients across private and public sectors with hands-on assistance in branding and strategic communications, the development of public-private partnerships, and investment in emerging markets.
Richard Attias’ talent for anticipating and managing the most pressing issues of our time, activating powerful networks and inspiring innovation, is based on the development and production of more than 2000 events over the past 30 years. The following are just a few examples of the leading platforms he has produced: World Economic Forum Annual Meeting at Davos, Clinton Global Initiative, Nobel Laureates Conferences, The New York Forum, The New York Forum AFRIC, UNESCO NGO Forum, One Planet Summit, Olympism In Action, Future Investment Initiative, Bloomberg New Economy Forum, The African Cup, The African Games, and multiple opening ceremonies. Attias currently serves as the CEO of the FII Institute, a new generation of not for profit foundation dedicated to empowering the world’s brightest minds to shape a brighter future for all, with all.
Prior to founding RA&A, Attias spent a decade at the media conglomerate Publicis Groupe, where he served as Executive Chairman of Publicis Events Worldwide. Attias began his career at IBM where a passion for innovation led him to establish several companies in the IT Industry and Global Communications fields. He also served as the CEO of the UAE Government entity Dubai Event Management Company.
Turqi Alnowaiser has served as a member of our board of directors since April 2019. Mr. Alnowaiser has served as Deputy Governor and Head of the International Investments Division at the Public Investment Fund of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds in the world, since June 2021, and previously served as Head of International Investments at the Public Investment Fund from October 2016 to June 2021.
Mr. Alnowaiser previously served as Senior Advisor at the Public Investment Fund from October 2015 to September 2016, prior to which he held several executive roles at Saudi Fransi Capital, a leading financial services firm based in Saudi Arabia, including as Head of Asset Management. Before his career at Saudi Fransi Capital, Mr. Alnowaiser specialized in developing, managing, and regulating various financial products across asset classes at Morgan Stanley, the Capital Market Authority of Saudi Arabia, and the Saudi Industrial Development Fund. Mr. Alnowaiser has served on the board of directors of Hapag-Lloyd AG, an international shipping and container transportation company, since February 2018.
Mr. Alnowaiser holds a B.A. in International Business from King Saud University and an M.B.A. from the University of San Francisco.
Professor Tony Chan assumed his role as the third president of KAUST in September 2018 after nearly a decade as president of The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST). He led a strategic planning process to lead KAUST into its second decade, including growing the faculty and students by up to 50%. He has expanded KAUST’s research emphasis from energy, water, food and environment to include digital and health, launching new initiatives in Artificial Intelligence and Smart Health. He is increasing investment and capacity in innovation, entrepreneurship and knowledge transfer to fulfill the second mission of the University. By positioning the University to leverage KSA’s ambitious Vision 2030 strategic plan, he is strengthening its engagement with the Nation. Finally, he is leading efforts to enhance the global and national visibility of KAUST.
Before joining HKUST, President Chan was Assistant Director of the Mathematical and Physical Sciences Directorate at the US National Science Foundation from 2006 to 2009. He taught Computer Science at Yale University before joining UCLA as Professor of Mathematics in 1986 and was Chair of the Department of Mathematics in 1997 and later Dean of Physical Sciences. He was a co-founder of the US NSF funded National Math Institute IPAM.
He received his Bachelor and Master of Science degrees in Engineering from Caltech and his Ph.D. in Computer Science from Stanford University. He is an elected member of the US National Academy of Engineering.
Recently named by Fortune as one of the “World’s 50 Greatest Leaders,” Peter H. Diamandis is the founder and executive chairman of the XPRIZE Foundation, which leads the world in designing and operating large-scale incentive competitions. He is also the executive founder of Singularity University, a graduate-level Silicon Valley institution that counsels the world’s leaders on exponentially growing technologies.
As an entrepreneur, Diamandis has started over 20 companies in the areas of longevity, space, venture capital and education. He is cofounder of BOLD Capital Partners, a venture fund with $250M investing in exponential technologies, and co-founder and Vice Chairman of Celularity, Inc., a cellular therapeutics company.
Diamandis is a New York Times Bestselling author of two books: Abundance – The Future Is Better Than You Think and BOLD – How to go Big, Create Wealth & Impact the World. His newest book in this series of exponential technologies —The Future is Faster Than You Think — released on January 28, 2020.
He earned degrees in molecular genetics and aerospace engineering from the MIT and holds an M.D. from Harvard Medical School.
Diamandis’ favorite saying is “the best way to predict the future is to create it yourself.”
Mohamed Alabbar is a global entrepreneur with active interests in real estate, retail, hospitality, e-commerce, technology, logistics, F&B and venture capital.
At the forefront of global real estate since 1997, he leads marquee real-estate development companies Emaar Properties and Eagle Hills. He has spearheaded the growth of Emaar Properties to attain an unmatched track record of successfully developing iconic residential, retail, entertainment, hospitality & leisure assets and transform the lifestyles of people globally though developing world-class mixed use projects across 20+ markets.
In addition, he has driven the growth of several regional players into world-renowned sector champions including Americana Group and e-commerce platforms noon.com and Namshi. More recently, he expanded holdings into China with leading mobile transportation platform Didi Chuxing and popular coffee chain, Luckin Coffee.
He is a trusted partner to strategic investors including sovereign wealth funds, family offices as well as public investors. He has successfully nurtured distinctive long term relationships with housing authorities, regional ministries, global and regional banks and tech companies.
Alabbar is a recipient of three Honorary Doctorates from Seattle University, London School of Economics and Sun Moon University in South Korea.