H.E. Abdulla Balalaa

Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs for Energy and Sustainability | United Arab Emirates

H.E. Abdulla Balalaa is the Assistant Minister for Energy and Sustainability Affairs at the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) after working as the Special Advisor for the Foreign Minister for a year and a half. HE Balalaa handles a number of other portfolios in addition to his government job.

In January 2023, HE Balalaa was appointed Chairman of Masdar City board, the Mubadala flagship project on sustainable urban development, where he oversaw and drove Masdar City’s strategy, as well as its initiatives, partnerships and R&D clusters.
Since becoming chairman of Masdar City, HE Balalaa led the successful establishment of the first sustainable green Fund (Masdar Green REIT) in the MENA region with an initial asset investment of AED 2.8 Billion, enabling Masdar City to raise investment green capital more efficiently. He has managed the commercialisation and development of partnerships for large projects, including a range of asset monetisation, as well as bespoke sustainable development solutions.

H.E. also served as the Executive Director of Sustainable Real Estate Development and Asset Management in Masdar (2016-2020), where he was responsible for formulating and executing strategies to establish Masdar City as a global R&D hub.

Prior to Masdar, H.E. Abdulla Balalaa was the Commercial Director at Etihad Rail, where he oversaw commercial directorate activities from planning to the implementation of the first phase of the UAE track (first 267km). During the early stages of the Etihad Rail development, HE represented the UAE as a member of the GCC rail committee. He was instrumental in finalising the GCC rail alignments and unifying customs policies and railway project specifications.

In 2007, H.E. Balalaa joined the Abu Dhabi Urban Planning Council and worked as Division Manager of the Urban Development Review Department. In that role, HE managed Sustainable Urban Development portfolios, which consisted of mega strategic projects by applying, enforcing and implementing government policies through the planning & development review process, including establishing the Estidama program.

H.E. Balalaa serves on several boards of Directors in Abu Dhabi, which include the Abu Dhabi Free Zones Council, Ennovate LLC, Masdar EDF ESCO JV and Emerge Limited, including the Mohamed Bin Zayed Water Initiative (MBZWI). HE Balalaa is also a member of the COP29 Azerbaijan UAE Higher Committee and Loss and Damage (L&D) board member.

H.E. holds an Executive Education degree in Business Administration from Harvard Business School, a Master’s Degree in Sustainable Urban and Regional Planning from Paris Sorbonne University, a Leadership Excellence Applied Diploma (LEAD) co-validated by the University of Cambridge Abu Dhabi, and a Bachelor’s Degree in applied science Civil Engineering from the Higher Colleges of Technology in Abu Dhabi.