Badr Jafar, Co-Founder, Pearl Initiative
President, Crescent Petroleum

Amir Dossal, Co-Founder, Pearl Initiative.
Founder & Chairman, Global Partnerships Forum

Roland Rich, Officer-in-Charge, UN Office for Partnerships

Basil Moftah, Managing Director, Middle East, Africa and Russia, Thomson Reuters

Joseph Rizzo, UN Global Relationship Partner, PricewaterhouseCoopers

Amir Dossal and Hamid Jafar

Badr Jafar, Amir Dossal Mr. and Mrs. Hamid Jafar

Najla Al Midfa, Hamid Jafar and Imelda Dunlop, Executive Director, Pearl Initative

Zecki Dossal and George Khalaf, Director, Middle East
and North Africa, Synergos

Laura Clufo and Bawa Jain, Secretary General, World Council of Religious Leaders of The Millenium World Peace Summit

Matthew E. B. Brotmann, Esq., President/Founder, B4 Strategic Solutions, LLC and Christopher Ruth, Managing Partner,
Northern Gulf Partners

Joseph E. Murphy, JD, CCEP, Director of Public Policy,
Society of Corporate Compliance and Ethics

Debra I. Da Costa, Vice President Marketing,
United Nations Federal Credit Union

Karen Linehan Mroz, President Middle East Children's Institute

Joyce Brooks, Karen Linehan Mroz, Laura Clufo and Bawa Jain

Moderator:
Imelda Dunlop, Executive Director, Pearl Initiative

Fifty roundtable participants:
Business leaders from public sector and private companies,
 state-owned enterprises and family firms
GCC government leaders
GCC and other UN Ambassadors
 UN leaders
 Heads of NGOs and Foundations

Agenda
13.00 – 13.20
Welcome Badr Jafar, Co-Founder, Pearl Initiative
Amir Dossal, Co-Founder, Pearl Initiative

13.20 – 13.30
Opening Remarks Roland Rich, Officer-in-Charge,
UN Office for Partnerships

13.30 – 14.10
Sharing personal insight and experiences Basil Moftah,
Managing Director, Middle East,
Africa and Russia, Thomson Reuters
Joseph Rizzo, UN Global Relationship Partner,
PricewaterhouseCoopers (TBC)

14.10 – 14.30
A Vision for Corporate Accountability
 Adel Abdellatif, Chief of the Regional Progamme
in the Arab world Division,
Regional Bureau for Arab States at UNDP

14.30 – 15.00
Discussion and Q&A All participants
 

The Pearl Initiative
www.pearlinitiative.org,

developed in collaboration with the United Nations Office for Partnerships,is a GCC-based, private sector-led, not-for-profit organisation set up to foster a culture of transparency, accountability, good corporate governance and best business practices in the Arab world. It is a growing regional network of business leaders committed to driving joint action and sharing knowledge and experience.

Pearl Initiative Progress Update
May 2012
Since mid-2011, the Pearl Initiative has been driving tangible initiatives in areas such as anti-corruption, good
governance, ethics and integrity, integrated reporting and corporate disclosure within the GCC.

There are three streams of activity:

1. Collaborative Action and Dialogue Forums
The Pearl Initiative catalyses joint collaborative action between regional and global business leaders, international  institutions, government bodies, wider initiatives, and cross-sector partnerships.

Activities:
Anti-Corruption
 We launched a joint regional Partnering Against Corruption Initiative (PACI) with the World Economic Forum
at the Middle East Summit in October 2011. We encourage business leaders to sign the PACI Principles and
commit to countering bribery; reinforce and raise awareness of the business case for action against corruption; and provide a regional network through which organisations can gain knowledge, benefit from mutual support and share experiences

 We are working closely with UNDP to progress the regional anti-corruption agenda and engage the private secto
r in the reform process
 We held Roundtables on Corporate Good Practices in Anti-Bribery and Corruption – in Qatar and Bahrain on
13th and 14th March 2012. More than a hundred and eighty chief executives and senior finance, accounting, audit, compliance, legal, and governance professionals, from private and public companies and government institutions, participated in the interactive roundtable sessions. The aim was to share insights and learning
between organisations, and help improve policies and actions to mitigate the risk of possible corruption within organisations.

 Integrated Reporting
Our programme on Integrated Reporting is in collaboration with HRH The Prince of Wales’ Accounting for
Sustainability (A4S) Project. We are holding awareness-raising sessions around the region in order to introduce the
concepts and benefits of integrated reporting. We are also providing a regional network through which interested
organisations can gain knowledge, benefit from mutual support and share experiences.

We held a workshop on Integrated Reporting in Dubai, in collaboration with the Dubai Chamber of Commerce,
on 29th November 2011
We held a Roundtable on Integrated Reporting in Abu Dhabi on 14th February 2012, along with the
Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) and the Abu Dhabi Sustainability Group. More than fifty
CEOS, senior finance, accounting, compliance, sustainability and governance professionals participated in the
interactive roundtable session – with the aim of facilitating the sharing of insights and learning between
organisations with experience and interest in greater levels of sustainability and financial reporting.

 Good Governance
As part of our Good Governance Programme, we are leading a series of tailored leadership roundtable sessions
focused on peer-to-peer exchange of knowledge, issues faced and experiences.
We brought Peter Eigen, the Founder of Transparency International to the region in December 2011 to
facilitate sessions in Dubai and Riyadh.
 We held a CEO Summit on Ethical Leadership in Abu Dhabi on 1st May 2012, under the patronage and in the
presence of His Excellency Sheikh Nahayan Mabarak Al Nahayan, Minister of Higher Education & Scientific
Research and Chancellor of the Higher Colleges of Technology, UAE. Professor Muhammad Yunus (the so called
‘father of modern microfinance’, founder of the Grameen Bank, and winner of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize) gave a keynote address. Seventy business leaders engaged in a wide-ranging roundtable discussion of emerging best practice in business ethics, and ideas for how the Pearl Initiative can continue to promote this
in a way that goes beyond words alone, but rather pursues measurable, concrete deliverables for all stakeholders

2. Knowledge creation
The Pearl Initiative fosters greater understanding and appreciation of the business case, issues and trends associated
with transparency and accountability through the generation of new data, research, analysis and insight across the region.

Activities:
 GCC Family Firm Research
We are carrying out, in collaboration with a partner consulting firm, the research and analysis to create the first ever
report on governance and transparency practices in family firms in the GCC. We aim to publish this report in December 2012

 “Beyond Compliance” GCC Good Practice Case Studies
A team of 5 MBA students from the University of Cambridge Judge Business School, UK and the American University
of Sharjah, UAE carried out an intensive 4-week project on good practice experiences within organisations in the
region, researching case study examples of “beyond compliance” within GCC companies in the areas of:

 Effective Board Processes
The implementation and embedding of Ethics and Integrity-related policies – covering areas such as ethical
labour practices, anti-bribery & corruption, human rights, supply chain, and responsible investing
- Integrated Reporting – the combination of financial, environmental, social and governance reporting.
The student team presented their project findings to an audience of 50 business leaders on 22nd April 2012, followed
by dinner. The full reports will be published by July 2012.

3. University Collaborations
University collaborations help build the capacity of future leaders to make a difference in creating a culture of
transparency and accountability. The Pearl Initiative is collaborating with the American University of Sharjah and other
leading Universities across the region to forge greater links with the private sector in teaching and research in areas of
ethics, integrity, corporate governance and sustainability.

Activities:

 University Workshops
We are holding workshops in regional universities in which private sector leaders help bring the ethics and integrity
topics to life with students though interactive discussion on real-life scenarios and case studies

 Curriculum Development
o From 2nd-5th March 2012, the American University of Sharjah, along with the Pearl Initiative, hosted the TIRI
Arab Integrity Education Network. This is a network of professors from Universities across the Arab world working together to develop meaningful and empowering courses in Arabic that help students build values, integrity and a toolkit for implementation in future working life. This meeting was a working group of 28
Professors coming together to develop a full-semester course curriculum on ethics in Arabic.

The Founding Patron of the Pearl Initiative
 is
His Highness Dr Sheikh Sultan Bin Mohamad Al-Qasimi,
Member of the Supreme Council of UAE and Ruler of Sharjah.

The Board of Governors of the Pearl Initiative
 includes:
Honorary Chairman – His Excellency Sheikh Nahayan Mabarak Al Nahayan, Minister of Higher Education, UAE
Chairman - Hamid Dhiya Jafar, Cresent Group
Vice-Chairman - Abdulaziz H. Aljomaih, Aljomaih Group
Vice-Chairman – Riad Al Sadiq, Al Habtoor Leighton Group
Abdulla Mazrui, Mazrui Holdings
Arif Naqvi, Abraaj Capital
Amir Dossal, Global Partnerships Forum
Badr Jafar, Crescent Group
Fadi Ghandour, Aramex
Fahad Al Turki, ATCO Group
Helal Saeed Almarri, Dubai World Trade Centre
Jamal Fakhro, KPMG
Khalid Al-Rajhi, Rajhi Partners
Dr. Khalid Bin Thani Bin Abdulla Al-Thani,
Qatar International Islamic Bank
Rashad M. Al Zubair, Zubair Corporation
Samer Khoury, CCC
Varouj Nerguizian, Bank of Sharjah
Warwick Hunt, PWC

www.pearlinitiative.org

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