Mohammed Jameel KBE

Mohammed Abdul Latif Jameel KBE is the founder and chairman of Community Jameel, an independent, global organisation advancing science and learning for communities to thrive, through which Mr Jameel continues the tradition of community service established by his father.

A Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) alumnus, Mr Jameel has led Community Jameel to a longstanding and deep collaboration with MIT, with support to four major centres: the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL), whose co-founders Esther Duflo and Abhijit Banerjee, along with longtime J-PAL affiliate Michael Kremer, won the 2019 Nobel Prize for Economics; the Abdul Latif Jameel Water and Food Systems Lab (J-WAFS), which launched the Jameel Index for Food Trade and Vulnerability in 2022; the Abdul Latif Jameel World Education Lab (J-WEL); and the Abdul Latif Jameel Clinic for Machine Learning in Health (Jameel Clinic).

With MIT, Community Jameel has also created an undergraduate scholarship for students from Asia and the Middle East (since 1994); supported and mentored entrepreneurs in the Arab world through an annual startup competition (since 2005); and through MIT J-WEL pioneered innovative approaches to refugee education. Mr Jameel is an MIT Corporation life member.

Committed to improving healthcare for all, in addition to the Jameel Clinic at MIT, Community Jameel cofounded the Abdul Latif Jameel Institute for Disease and Emergency Analytics (Jameel Institute) with Imperial College London, to combat threats from disease worldwide, and which launched the Jameel Institute-Kenneth C. Griffin Initiative for the Economics of Pandemic Preparedness to help governments model the economic and epidemiological impact of public health response to outbreaks of infectious diseases. Mr Jameel’s father established the Abdul Latif Jameel Hospital in Jeddah, the first non-profit specialist facility for physical rehabilitation, and today a centre for advanced therapies.

In 2021, Community Jameel - together with the University of Edinburgh, Save the Children, the CGIAR International Livestock Research Institute and J-PAL - launched the Jameel Observatory for Food Security Early Action in Nairobi, Kenya. The Jameel Observatory harnesses the power of data science to monitor, forecast and enable early action against outbreaks of acute hunger and famine in the face of climate change.

In music, Community Jameel and the Andrea Bocelli Foundation, where Mr Jameel is a member of the advisory board, have cofounded a scholarship at the Royal College of Music in London to support students in need.

As founder and chairman of Bab Rizq Jameel, a job creation initiative in the Middle East and North Africa, Mr Jameel has helped hundreds of thousands of men and women improve their lives through work, with recruitment initiatives, microfinance programmes, and other innovative projects tailored to providing job opportunities for men and women in the Arab world.

As a patron of the arts, Mr Jameel supported Art Jameel to promote artists and creative communities around the world with programmes in learning, the arts and heritage.  These include the Jameel Arts Centre in Dubai; the Jameel Gallery and the Jameel Prize at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London; Hayy Jameel in Jeddah; and a network of centres and programmes preserving cultural heritage and supporting heritage-based creative industries in Egypt, Saudi Arabia and beyond.

Mr Jameel is also the chairman and chief executive officer of Abdul Latif Jameel, an international, family-owned and diversified business, founded in 1945, by his father, the late Abdul Latif Jameel.

Mr Jameel has been recognised with a number of honours, including the highest award in Saudi Arabia, the King Abdul Aziz Medal of the First Order, from HM King Abdullah in recognition of his personal contribution to job creation initiatives amongst young Saudi men and women; and an honorary knighthood (KBE) from HM Queen Elizabeth II for his philanthropic activities and support for the development of arts and culture.