Speaker Biographies
THRIVE
Three days of market insight, investment discussion, founder-led exchange and hospitality experiences across Dubai.
Khaled Alfahim
Executive Chairman, Rmal Hospitality PJSC · Chairman, Abu Dhabi Family Business Council
Khaled Abdul Karim Al Fahim is Executive Chairman of Rmal Hospitality PJSC, a multi-brand restaurant group operating across the UAE, and a fourth-generation leader of the Al Fahim Group — one of the country's most enduring family enterprises, founded in Abu Dhabi in 1958.
He occupies a position that is rarer than it sounds: owner of a business with more than six decades of history, and active operator of a hospitality platform being built for the next one.
At Rmal, Khaled leads a portfolio that spans international brands and homegrown concepts — among them Wagamama in the UAE, Trader Vic's, Allo Beirut and CupBop — across eighteen locations.
His focus is deliberately unglamorous: unit economics, operating discipline, and the governance structures that allow a restaurant group to scale without losing control of its cost base. He also holds the international rights to the Marco Pierre White brand, which he is developing into new multi-format concepts for the region.
Beyond hospitality, Khaled serves as Executive Chairman of Ajyad Capital, the Bahrain-headquartered investment institution, and has chaired the Abu Dhabi Family Business Council (ADFBC) since June 2025 — the premier body representing family enterprises in Abu Dhabi. He holds board mandates at the Abu Dhabi Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Emirates NBD REIT, and the Abu Dhabi International Arbitration Centre (arbitrateAD), and previously represented ALFAHIM Group on the board of Blacklane GmbH, the global chauffeur platform.
Much of the Gulf's restaurant and hospitality sector is family-owned, and Khaled has become one of the Arab world's most credible voices on what that ownership actually requires. He argues that the survival of a family business is not a matter of luck or loyalty alone — it is a matter of structure, succession planning, and the courage to professionalise. Under his leadership the ADFBC has deepened its engagement with sovereign institutions, attracted international family offices, and advanced the Abu Dhabi International Family Business Hub, anchored by access to ADIA and Mubadala's co-investment ecosystems.
He brings a combination of owner-operator instincts and institutional discipline that is uncommon in either camp — he understands what it means to hold equity and governance responsibility at the same time. His seven-year chairmanship of the UAE Triathlon Federation, building the sport from grassroots to national profile, reflects the same conviction: that institutions are made, not inherited.
Khaled holds a Master's degree from the University of Westminster, London, and a Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration from American Intercontinental University, London. He is based in Abu Dhabi.