How can sustainability ambitions be translated into tangible economic and business outcomes, and what role can free zones like Masdar City play?
It began with a question: could a city actually run on sustainable systems, not just be designed around them on paper? Nearly two decades later, I can answer with numbers rather than intentions. In 2024 we cut energy use intensity by 22.7 percent and saved water equivalent to 12.4 Olympic swimming pools, independently verified.
For an investor or an occupier, that is the moment ambition turns into economics: a building that costs less to run and holds its value as standards tighten. Masdar City Free Zone is where that evidence becomes something a business can step into, with an ecosystem of entrepreneurs building tomorrow’s businesses, a one-stop shop for licensing, and an address where the standard is already built in.
Masdar City Free Zone has grown into a diverse business ecosystem. What has been key to attracting startups, SMEs and global companies?
Businesses come to Masdar City Free Zone for practical reasons, but what makes them stay is the community they become part of. Today, more than 2,800 companies from over 90 countries call it home, from early-stage startups to established global names, working alongside researchers, founders and institutions such as MBZUAI and Biosphere Labs, the region’s first shared laboratory.
Getting started is simple, with licensing through our One-Stop Shop from Dh7,000 and access to more than 1,200 business activities. We’ve made it easy to set up. The real value lies in the people, ideas and opportunities that surround you once you’re here. That standing now carries global recognition.
At the fDi Global Free Zones of the Year Awards 2026, the most authoritative benchmark in our industry, Masdar City Free Zone was named among the Top 10 Free Zones in the World, and Highly Commended as a Knowledge Zone of the Year, both globally and across the Middle East.
For a free zone built around innovation, the knowledge-zone recognition is the one that means the most, because it reflects exactly what we set out to do: make this the place where ideas become businesses.
Which principles have guided the delivery of Masdar City over two decades?
I learned most of what I know about delivery before Masdar City, building projects like NYU Abu Dhabi and the Four Seasons, and later shaping developments at Abu Dhabi’s Urban Planning Council.
Three principles carried over. The first is to set the design standard at the start, because what you fix in the master plan is almost free, and what you retrofit never is. Shade, orientation and wind went into our plan from day one, so 92 percent of our walkways are shaded, and parts of the city feel up to ten degrees cooler than their surroundings, something you notice walking through at midday.
The second is to apply that standard everywhere: Estidama, LEED and WELL guide every home, workplace and public space, not only the flagships. The third is to measure it and report it independently, every year.
You have helped shape landmark projects. Which achievements have most influenced the leader you are today?
Throughout my career, I have been privileged to contribute to the delivery of many remarkable projects across diverse sectors, from commercial and residential developments to hospitality, healthcare, and infrastructure.
However, one achievement that holds a special place for me is the completion of Masdar City Park. Unlike conventional developments, its significance goes beyond buildings and financial returns. It was about creating a meaningful space that brings people together, enhances everyday life, and gives something back to the community.
That experience reinforced my belief that the true measure of successful development is not simply what we build, but the positive and lasting impact it has on the people it serves. This philosophy continues to shape my leadership approach today.
As clean technology, AI and smart urban solutions accelerate, how is Masdar City positioning itself as a platform where innovation can move from concept to commercial impact?
Innovation moves faster when the right organisations are close enough to work together, and our six clusters, AI, agritech, life sciences, energy, smart mobility and space, are built on that principle.
In life sciences, a researcher can move between a sample, a lab bench and an AI model without leaving the city, with the region’s first Biobank, Biosphere Labs and MBZUAI’s research in one ecosystem.
The fields are converging too: agritech alone now draws on AI, clean energy, water and life sciences at once. The route to market is built in. The Catalyst helps scale what gets validated here, and in mobility, our Level 4 autonomous vehicle programme and the planned Abu Dhabi Autonomous Vehicle Test Hub give manufacturers somewhere to test, certify and commercialise in one place.
What is the next phase for Masdar City and its Free Zone, and what impact do you hope to make on the UAE’s sustainable economic growth?
The next phase takes what the city has proven to a wider audience. We will keep expanding the ecosystem and building new space for global partners, with the Free Zone as the gateway. That now reaches into China, where we have representative offices in Suzhou, Shanghai and Shenzhen, in direct support of Abu Dhabi’s Falcon Economy and the UAE’s diversification beyond oil.
The impact I hope for is practical. After nearly two decades as a living test bed, Masdar City has become a greenprint, a framework others can adapt rather than copy.
If cities and developers build differently because of what was proven here, and the companies that start with us grow into real contributors to the UAE economy, then the city will have done exactly what it was built to do.