Abdulla Hamad Al-Misnad is the Deputy CEO and Chief of Sector Development at the Qatar Free Zones Authority (QFZA). As Deputy CEO, he oversees QFZA’s business development and serves on the board of Doha Venture Capital (DVC), the global venture capital arm of Qatar Free Zones. He is also a member of Qatar’s Research Development and Innovation Council and serves on the board of Qatari Diar, a real estate company that manages projects including Lusail City, a 38 sq. km. smart city development.
Before joining QFZA, Abdulla served as Director of the Ministry of Finance’s Public Projects Department, overseeing the State of Qatar’s $200bn infrastructure budget. Prior to this, he worked for Shell leading carbon and energy efficiency projects.
Abdulla began his career as an engineer at ExxonMobil and a fellow with Qatar’s Science and Technology Park, and subsequently ran several successful startups in the energy and healthcare sectors. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering and Economics from Stanford University, and a Master of Science degree in Technology and Policy from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).