Omar Karim
Group Chief Investment Officer
Omar Karim is the Group Chief Investment Officer of Dubai Holding and is responsible for driving the overall investment strategy and capital allocation for the Group as well as overseeing the execution and management of its strategic and financial investments.
In addition to this role, Omar is also responsible for the Group’s strategy and value creation mandate, a role which involves leading the Group’s strategy planning and development as well as the execution of Group-wide value creation initiatives and strategic projects.
Omar also leads Dubai Holding Investments as its Chief Executive Officer. Dubai Holding Investments is the Group’s investment arm that is dedicated to executing a range of strategic and financial investments through direct and indirect strategies, across asset classes and with a global mandate.
Omar has extensive experience in private and public transactions and has a proven track record of delivering meaningful impact across all asset classes. He has been instrumental in diversifying Dubai Holding’s portfolio across asset classes and sectors and in expanding the Group’s international footprint through cross-border investments, including top tier fund investments and co-investments with leading general partners.
Since joining the Group in 2017, Omar has successfully led several major transactions. In 2024, he led the landmark merger and integration of leading real estate developers Nakheel and Meydan into Dubai Holding and earlier in 2020 and 2021 he led the merger and integration of Meraas and DXB Entertainments respectively into Dubai Holding. DXB Entertainments was integrated after a precedent-setting capital markets transaction, resulting in its successfully being taken private and delisted from the Dubai Financial Market (DFM). Earlier in 2022, Omar led the successful initial public offerings of TECOM Group (developer and operator of strategic, sector-focused business districts across Dubai) and Empower (the world’s largest district cooling infrastructure platform) respectively.
During his tenure at Dubai Holding, Omar was also instrumental in concluding various other M&A transactions. Successful joint ventures included that with Brookfield Asset Management, in relation to certain key retail operating assets and development projects in Dubai, and a mixed-use real estate joint venture with Aldar Properties. Other landmark transactions led by Omar included the acquisition of a strategic stake in leading UAE real estate developer, Emaar Properties (as part of the sale of Dubai Holding’s stake in Dubai Creek Harbour to Emaar Properties), and in Emirates NBD, one of the region’s largest banks, with Dubai Holding becoming the second largest shareholder in each of those listed entities respectively, thus strengthening Dubai Holding’s position as a key shareholder in major listed companies.
In addition to leading the Group’s investment strategy and managing its global investments portfolio, Omar actively serves and has served as a member on the boards of several companies across multiple sectors. These currently include Emaar Properties (real estate) and TECOM Group (commercial and industrial real estate), both of which are listed on the DFM, Azadea Group (consumer retail), Certares Holdings (travel and tourism), Aurora Holding Company Limited (a mixed-use real estate joint venture with Aldar) and Merex Investment Group (a real estate private equity joint venture with Brookfield). Previous Board memberships included the Dubai Hills Estate Group (a mixed-use real estate joint venture with Emaar).
Prior to joining Dubai Holding, Omar worked as an investment banker at UBS Investment Bank, where he was responsible for the execution of a broad range of mergers, acquisitions and financing transactions with global clients. During his earlier career, he worked with KPMG in Australia as part of their corporate finance and valuations practice.
Omar holds a bachelor’s degree in Accounting and Finance from Monash University, Australia.