• More than 40 regional and international CEOs resolved how to advance the MENA region’s growth agendas in partnership with governments in the region.
  • Close engagement between policymakers and business leaders enabled the event to translate into tangible next steps that can build investor momentum and accelerate long-term resilience across the region and beyond.
  • Majid Jafar, CEO of Crescent Petroleum: “The UAE was the ideal place for the CEO Dialogue 2026, connecting East and West, developing and mature markets, energy producers and energy consumers, capital exporters and capital destinations.”

DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES — FEBRUARY 9, 2026 — The Atlantic Council convened more than 40 regional and global CEOs on February 2 for the Atlantic Council CEO Dialogue 2026, in partnership with and support from Crescent Petroleum.

The CEO Dialogue included keynote addresses by H.E. Omar Sultan Al Olama, the United Arab Emirates’ minister of state for artificial intelligence, digital economy, and remote work applications, and Jihad Azour, director of the Middle East and Central Asia department at the International Monetary Fund. These discussions reinforced the event’s global stature and focus on advancing the Middle East and North Africa region’s prosperity and growth agendas with governments in the region as part of the World Governments Summit in Dubai.

Titled “Charting a Path to Prosperity in a Fragmented Era,” the CEO Dialogue 2026 gathered senior business leaders, investors, and policy experts to focus on three main forces shaping the region’s economies: human capital in an age of fragmentation and AI; trade and investment flows in a rebalancing global system; and energy systems and infrastructure amid rising global and local demand. The one-day roundtable discussion was designed in close collaboration with public-sector stakeholders from across the region to ensure alignment with national priorities and address practical needs on the ground.

The Dialogue aimed to move beyond the diagnosis of regional challenges to arrive at a call to action focused on practical outcomes centering on co-investment with governments, partnership with regional institutions, and pursuing scalable solutions tailored for the region.  

Majid Jafar, CEO of Crescent Petroleum and member of the Atlantic Council’s International Advisory Board, said: “The UAE was the ideal place for the 2026 CEO Dialogue. The nation connects East and West, developing and mature markets, energy producers and energy consumers, capital exporters, and capital destinations. Throughout the dialogue, our aim was to translate high-level discussions into strategic outcomes capable of building investor momentum, creating jobs, and accelerating long-term resilience across the region and beyond.”

Participants at the CEO Dialogue 2026 represented more than 15 sectors and underscored the importance of inclusive growth as essential to building resilience and sustaining long-term prosperity amid global fragmentation.

“Today’s dialogue was a perfect example of the Atlantic Council’s mission of ‘shaping the global future together,’” said Frederick Kempe, president and CEO of the Atlantic Council. “Hearing from business leaders across the Middle East and North Africa demonstrates that these executives, their companies, and the region as a whole, aren’t just participating in the future, they’re leading it.”

Insights from CEO Dialogue 2026 will be compiled into a brief that will be released in the coming weeks to provide a summary of the key discussions, insights, and recommendations from the CEO Dialogue. The brief will be written for policymakers, investors, and partners and serve as a practical reference point to inform future convenings, providing a roadmap for collective thinking, collaboration and policy action from some of the region’s most influential private sector leaders.

About Crescent Petroleum

Crescent Petroleum is the first and largest private oil and gas company in the Middle East, with more than 50 years of experience as an international operator in numerous countries including Egypt, Yemen, Canada, Tunisia, and Argentina, in addition to its continuing operations in the United Arab Emirates and Iraq.

Headquartered in the UAE, Crescent Petroleum has international offices in the UK and three locations across Iraq, as well as affiliated offices in Egypt. Crescent Petroleum is also the largest shareholder in Dana Gas, the Middle East’s first and largest regional private-sector natural gas company. www.crescentpetroleum.com

About the Atlantic Council

The Atlantic Council promotes constructive leadership and engagement in international affairs based on the Atlantic community’s central role in meeting global challenges. The Council provides an essential forum for navigating the dramatic economic and political changes defining the twenty-first century by informing and galvanizing its uniquely influential network of global leaders. Through the papers it publishes, the ideas it generates, the future leaders it develops, and the communities it builds, the Atlantic Council shapes policy choices and strategies to create a more free, secure, and prosperous world.