New Murabba Development Company, the Public Investment Fund-owned developer behind one of Riyadh's largest urban giga-projects, has named Sabah Barakat as its acting Chief Executive Officer. He replaces Michael Dyke, who had led the company since the start of 2024.
Barakat is a senior executive within the Public Investment Fund and concurrently serves as acting Group Chief Executive of ROSHN Group, another fund-backed real estate developer. He brings an engineering and management background to the role, holding accreditations from the Institution of Civil Engineers and the Chartered Management Institute alongside an MBA. His appointment places an experienced fund operator at the head of a project central to Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030 development agenda.
New Murabba is building a $50 billion downtown district covering roughly 14 square kilometres in northwest Riyadh, planned around 18 communities and centred on The Mukaab, a 400-metre cube-shaped landmark first unveiled by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in early 2023. The scheme is one of a cluster of giga-projects intended to reshape the Saudi capital and diversify the economy away from oil.
The leadership change comes at a testing moment for the Kingdom's largest developments. The Public Investment Fund has been reprioritising capital across its portfolio, with several giga-projects rephased and, in some cases, scaled back as costs and timelines are reassessed. Installing an executive who already runs another major fund developer signals a preference for tight coordination across the fund's real estate holdings and for leadership that understands how to deliver within revised budgets and schedules.
Barakat's dual mandate, leading both New Murabba and ROSHN on an acting basis, also concentrates responsibility for two of the fund's flagship property vehicles in a single pair of hands, at least for now. That points to an emphasis on continuity and financial discipline over expansion, and it leaves open the question of whether the acting arrangement becomes permanent or whether the company recruits a dedicated chief executive once its near-term priorities are settled.
For New Murabba, the immediate task is to keep a complex, long-dated development on track while the wider giga-project programme is recalibrated. Barakat inherits a project whose completion horizon has already moved out to 2040, and his early priorities will centre on sequencing delivery, managing cost and sustaining momentum on a scheme that remains a centrepiece of Riyadh's transformation.
