Sultan Al Jaber

A native of the UAE, Al Jaber was born on 31 August 1973 in Umm Al Quwain, UAE. He holds a BSc in Chemical Engineering from the University of Southern California, a PhD in business and economics from Coventry University, and an MBA from the California State University at Los Angeles. His education in the United States was financed by a scholarship provided by ADNOC.

Masdar

Al Jaber was the founding CEO of Masdar, beginning in 2006, and was appointed chairman in March 2014. Under his leadership, Masdar expanded its investment in renewable energy to diversify the country's dependency on oil and gain diplomatic clout. By the end of 2022, Masdar had invested in 40 countries. Under his chairmanship Masdar underwent a restructuring that brought in TAQA, ADNOC and Mubadala as shareholders in 2022.

Abu Dhabi National Oil Company

Al Jaber began his career as an engineer at ADNOC. He was appointed as the CEO of the company on 15 February 2016. Since that time Al Jaber has publicly listed several ADNOC businesses, while also attracting some US$26 billion in international investment from companies such as BlackRock, Eni, and KKR.

In February 2019 Al Jaber signed a US$4 billion agreement with BlackRock and KKR to invest in the development of midstream oil pipeline infrastructure. A consortium of six companies signed an agreement in July 2020 to invest US$20.7 billion in ADNOC infrastructure assets. It was the single-largest energy infrastructure investment ever in the Middle East, and the largest in the world for 2020 at the time. Al Jaber led the first IPO of an ADNOC business, ADNOC Distribution. in 2017.

In December 2023, the BBC reported that ADNOC, under Al Jaber, was seeking to increase its output of crude oil from 3 million barrels of oil a day in 2016 to 5 million by 2030. The New York Times noted that ADNOC was one of few oil companies still making large investments in raising production in 2021. Financial Times wrote that Al Jaber's attempts to increase oil output was "particularly stark" given that he holds the role of climate tsar in the UAE and given that fossil fuel industries are under pressure to reduce output in order to mitigate climate change. Financial Times wrote in 2023 that ADNOC was set to invest US$150 billion in expanding its oil and gas production while only setting aside US$15 billion for low-carbon expansion over a longer period.

Al Jaber has tried to position the UAE as a leader on environmental issues, and himself as an environmental advocate. Under Al Jaber, ADNOC has invested in carbon capture and green hydrogen projects, while also committing to power its operations with renewable energy sources. However, critics say these investments pale in comparison to Al Jaber's expansion of gas and oil production and are part of a greenwashing campaign. Stanley Reed, an energy journalist for the New York Times, commented that these announcements were in part "image-burnishing", and that while Abu Dhabi's government sought to diversify its economy, it also aimed to maintain a significant future market for its oil reserves.

Dr. Sultan Al Jaber unveiled the world's first renewable energy facility capable of providing uninterrupted power at the Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week 2025. This project combines 5.2GW of solar PV with 19 GWh of battery storage to produce 1GW of continuous baseload renewable energy.

Early in the U.S.-Iranian war, he called for a ceasefire, calling for the unconditional opening of the Strait of Hormuz. "“The Strait was not built, engineered, financed or constructed by any state. It is a natural passage governed by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which guarantees transit as a matter of right; not a privilege to be granted, withheld or weaponized,” H.E Dr Al Jaber said, adding: “Conditional passage is not passage. It is control by another name. The Strait must be open — fully, unconditionally, and without restriction," he wrote on LinkedIn.

Sultan Al Jaber is married and has four children.