GAMAL MUBARAK
Gamal Mubarak is the modern face of Egypt's creaking government and economy. Suave, sophisticated, trained in business and economics, he speaks the language of modernization and "reform". He has long been hailed as his father's heir apparent to the presidency, and recent developments within Egypt have heightened expectations of a rise to power for the 42-year-old.
Gamal is increasingly influential within the Byzantine structures of the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP), and his economic liberalization agenda is being tentatively pursued through the new government of Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif: cutting income taxes, tariffs and duties, privatizing parts of the private sector and promoting the US-inspired "Middle East Free Trade Zone".
He remains at the vanguard of a new generation of NDP politicians who are looking to cultivate international relationships and adopt neo-liberal solutions. He himself remains head of the NDP's main policy committee, and has used his position and connections to the president to exert leverage domestically. The US, in particular, has been impressed by his rhetoric and the intent, if not the scale, of recent economic reforms. Hopes are high for this "Gorbachev of the Nile", as the Washington Post dubbed him.
President Hosni Mubarak's decision to permit, admittedly very limited, contestation of the next election suggests that, should Gamal be manoeuvred into position as the NDP's candidate in 2011, he will be able to claim a much greater democratic mandate. The Egyptian elite remains very sensitive to accusations of becoming a hereditary republic but by the next election, it seems that Gamal will be presented as a fully-fledged political figure in his own right.
But Gamal's commitment to institutional reform remains very limited: it is, after all, a system that currently sustains him. "The NDP is the only party qualified to lead Egypt at the present time," he claims. Egyptians are suspicious of this mantra – they've already heard it from the elder Mubarak for over two decades.
MUHAMMAD ALI ALABBAR
Chairman, Emmar Properties
In downtown Dubai, what will be the world's tallest building is rapidly climbing the sky. The "Tower of Dubai" is a breathtaking symbol of success for Emaar Properties, and its chairman Muhammad Ali Alabbar. Since its foundation in 1997, Emaar has generated assets of over $8 billion, and annual gross sales have exceeded $1 billion. It has delivered 10,000 homes to new owners in the first half of this year alone, and now accounts for 70% of the Dubai financial market.
Little is known about the personal motivations of the man at the helm, but he is inevitably tied to the networks of patronage surrounding the royal family. The Dubai government holds a 30% stake in the joint stock company, and has consistently supported Emaar's ambitious plans.
But Ali Alabbar has nevertheless proved himself a shrewd operator, providing the vision and technical expertise required to transform Dubai's real estate market. Having studied finance and business administration in Seattle, Ali Alabbar spent the next two decades in the UAE's vast public sector, including a stint as general manager of Al Khaleej Investments, a company owned by the government of Dubai with significant real estate interests in Singapore. Since going private with Emaar in the late 1990s, he has continued to act within the government as director of the Department of Economic Development and as a member of the Dubai Executive Council.
He sees the problem of "development" in the Middle East as primarily within the hands of Arab peoples: "We do not need to depend on outside influences in order to improve our record on governance, women's empowerment and access to the knowledge economy."
And now Emaar is going global: building in Morocco, Egypt, India and Pakistan; while a new subsidiary is moving into hotels and resorts in the United States. Indeed, a more significant development than the Burj Dubai is Emaar's new $800 million complex in Lahore, Pakistan. Emaar's development model looks set to expand across the Muslim world.
IBRAHIM DABDOUB
CEO, National Bank of Kuwait
Ibrahim Dabdoub joined the National Bank of Kuwait (NBK) in 1961 and has been CEO for the last 20 years. He nevertheless remains a tireless reformer at the heart of the Middle East banking sector.
The NBK is in rude health, filing record profits in the first half of 2005 and continuing to expand its reach into Bahrain, Jordan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Iraq, with plans in the pipeline for a move into China too.
Dabdoub came to international prominence during the first Gulf War, when he ensured the NBK remained in operation, the only Kuwaiti bank to do so, throughout the occupation. In the aftermath, the NBK played a crucial role in the country's reconstruction, financing multi-billion dollar loans to the Kuwaiti Government. Since then, it has cemented its reputation as the Middle East's highest-rated bank.
More impressive has been the ability of the NBK to adapt to the changing market and regulatory forces that are reshaping the industry: Dabdoub has stressed the importance of regional expansion, investment banking and the upgrading of existing services.
As a board member of the Centre of Arab Studies at Georgetown, and the Council on Foreign Relations, Dabdoub has been a prominent voice in advocating the educational, institutional and political reforms required to reinvigorate development in the Middle East. He is optimistic about the changes the banking sector can help to promote: "Arab banks have begun to attract part of the Arab and foreign capital traditionally invested in industrialized countries, providing the strongest evidence that the tide is turning in the region."
He finds it hard to imagine a future outside the bank he has dedicated his life to. Besides, as he freely admits, his love for fishing and reading can only take up so much time: "I fear I will be involved with the NBK until I die!"
NIDHAL AL ASHKAR
Ashkar confessed herself "heartbroken" when her beloved Beirut theatre closed down in 2003 due to lack of funds. For years she had struggled to realize her dream of creating and sustaining a cultural space in the centre of Lebanon's capital. Her greatest fear was that Beirut would be "turned into one big restaurant" – a reference to Rafiq Hariri's post-war redevelopment plans, which focused almost entirely on cafes and boutiques in the business district.
It has been largely down to her tenacity and relentless campaigning that Masrah al-Madina ("The City Theatre") reopened this year, in a new location in the Hamra district. She has again had to seek private sponsors and use the attraction of regional and world stars to pull in sponsorship. It has been Ashkar's remarkable achievement to combine the roles of fundraiser-in-chief, impresario and artistic director.
It helps, of course, that she is herself one of the most famous actresses in the Middle East. Since training at London's renowned Royal Academy for the Dramatic Arts in the 1960s, Ashkar has appeared in countless plays, television series and films. Her determination to use art as a tool for social change was forged in the collective national traumas of civil war and foreign invasion. It has been reinforced by the assassination of Hariri and the political instability of recent months in Lebanon: "Civil society is worth fighting for. For forty years we worked for civil society. If we can't make a difference now, then it won't have been worth it," she says.