Dubai moved to end the negative publicity swirling around one of its most prominent companies by appointing a new leadership team to ports group DP World. Essa Kazim was today named as the group’s new chairman and Yuvraj Narayan as its CEO, replacing Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem who had held both roles and who had come under pressure over his links to Jeffrey Epstein.
In recent days both Canada’s second-largest pension fund La Caisse and UK development finance agency British International Investment said they would not make any new investments with DP World until action was taken.
The new leadership at DP World is drawn from the emirate’s business elite but also provides institutional continuity. Kazim is chairman of Borse Dubai and governor of the Dubai International Financial Centre, while Narayan has been chief financial officer of DP World since 2005.