AD Ports Group has appointed Dr. Afif Saif Al Yafei as Group Chief Executive Officer, the Abu Dhabi listed ports and logistics operator said in an announcement on 2 November 2026.
He succeeds Captain Mohamed Juma Al Shamisi, who has led the group since 2014 and oversaw its growth from an Abu Dhabi port operator into a diversified trade, industry and logistics business with operations across several continents. The announcement does not state what role, if any, the outgoing chief executive will take next, and it does not give an effective date for the handover.
Dr. Al Yafei arrives from TAQA Transmission, where he was chief executive, and has previously held senior leadership positions at Tabreed and at ADNOC Gas. The company describes more than two decades of executive experience spanning infrastructure, utilities and industrial sectors, covering business transformation, operational excellence, investment and international growth, alongside work in strategy, governance, corporate development, digital transformation and national talent development. He also sits on several corporate boards, which the announcement does not name.
H.E. Shadi Malak, Chairman of the group, said the incoming chief executive brings extensive experience leading major infrastructure and industrial businesses, and that his expertise will support the company as it builds on its strong foundations. The chairman framed the change as the operator entering its next phase of development.
The appointment lands at a point when the business has moved well beyond its original remit. The group now spans terminal operations, maritime and shipping, economic cities and free zones, digital trade services and a logistics arm, and it has spent recent years buying into terminals and shipping assets outside the United Arab Emirates. Running that portfolio is a different job from running a national port authority, and the board has reached for a candidate whose record sits in regulated utilities and large capital programmes rather than in shipping alone.
The three businesses on the incoming chief executive's record are instructive. Transmission assets, district cooling and gas processing are all long lived, heavily capitalised and closely regulated, and all three sit inside the Abu Dhabi state linked corporate complex that the ports operator belongs to. A chief executive drawn from that pool arrives already familiar with the governance expectations of a majority state owned listed company, with the rhythm of multi year capital approval, and with the way Abu Dhabi sequences its industrial strategy.
What the announcement leaves open matters as much as what it says. No start date is given, no statement from the incoming chief executive is included, and the board does not set out priorities for him beyond the chairman's general framing. Investors will look to the next results presentation for whether the capital programme, the acquisition pace and the dividend policy survive the change intact.
The outgoing chief executive leaves a group whose scale bears little resemblance to the one he inherited. Whether the next phase is consolidation of what has been bought or a continuation of the buying is the question the appointment does not yet answer.
