Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, has appointed Saeed Mohamed Al Mazrouei as Chairman of the Endowments and Minors Funds Authority, known as Awqaf Abu Dhabi, under a resolution issued on August 19, 2026. The appointment places a seasoned investment leader at the head of an authority that manages the emirate's charitable endowments and safeguards the funds of minors, two responsibilities that carry substantial fiduciary and social weight.
Saeed Mohamed Al Mazrouei is Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Abu Dhabi Investment Council, one of the emirate's principal investment institutions. His elevation to the Awqaf chairmanship signals the government's intent to apply institutional investment discipline to the stewardship of endowment and trust assets. He also holds board positions at Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, Mubadala Capital, the Abu Dhabi Retirement Pensions and Benefits Fund, and EDGE Group, giving him a rare vantage point across the emirate's banking, sovereign investment, pensions and industrial portfolios.
The Endowments and Minors Funds Authority oversees the administration and investment of waqf assets, the Islamic endowments whose returns fund religious, educational and charitable purposes, alongside the protection and growth of funds belonging to minors and legally incapacitated persons. Sound governance of these pools requires religious and legal compliance as well as professional asset management, and the choice of an investment-industry executive to chair the authority reflects a wider push in Abu Dhabi to professionalise the management of public and semi-public capital.
The appointment comes as Abu Dhabi continues to consolidate oversight of its investment and endowment institutions under experienced leadership. Observers will watch whether Al Mazrouei introduces the reporting, risk and allocation frameworks common to sovereign investors into an authority historically governed by more conservative mandates. His concurrent duties at the Abu Dhabi Investment Council raise reasonable questions of bandwidth, though such parallel chairmanships are common among the emirate's senior figures and typically rest on strong executive teams beneath the chair.
For an authority whose beneficiaries include minors and charitable causes, the emphasis on capital preservation will remain paramount even as the mandate modernises. No transition timeline for the previous leadership was disclosed, and the resolution takes effect immediately.
