Naoum Barakat

As Senior Director of Human Capital at Majid Al Futtaim – Development, Naoum Barakat is an integral member of the leadership team, overseeing all five core communities, including the company’s flagship lifestyle destination, Tilal Al Ghaf.

Reporting directly to the Chief Executive Officer, Barakat is responsible for shaping robust development schemes, building corporate infrastructure, empowering employees, and fostering the business’ high-performing, dynamic culture. Maintaining a proactive and high standard of talent management is core to Barakat’s leadership approach and instrumental to ensuring the company’s mission of delivering ‘great moments for everyone, every day’ is mirrored within its internal structure.

In his role, Barakat employs time-proven, actionable strategies for leadership development, employee engagement, and human resource planning, all strongly backed by talent data, HR analytics, and workforce trends. Given the nature of the real estate industry, these strategies include systemic models designed to drive employee engagement, morale, and performance in an environment experiencing both significant external and internal organisational change.

Barakat is also responsible for defining a lean organisational structure and capabilities that support the growth and direction of the business, in addition to spearheading the business’ Diversity and Inclusion practices and Emiratisation initiatives. His unrivalled regional employment law expertise, coupled with top human capital best practices, are leveraged across the business to attract and retain high-potential talent, while continuously evolving the culture to aid each team in exceeding corporate objectives through various economic cycles.

A longstanding member of Majid Al Futtaim over the past five years, Barakat initially joined as Human Capital Business Partner for the company’s Corporate and Hotels business unit before transitioning into his current role. Prior to Majid Al Futtaim, Barakat held leadership positions at various global multinational corporations including MARS, LaFarge, and Al Tayer Group.