Mahmoud Hesham El Burai is Senior Advisor, Real Estate Regulatory Agency Dubai and Chairman of the Middle East Sustainable Development Institute. Mahmoud has also been the Vice President of the International Real Estate Federation, FIABCI UK, since January 2011 and sits on the Board of the Association of Real Estate License Law Officials (ARELLO), the International Real Estate Society (IRES) and the Middle East North Africa Real Estate Society (MENARES). Mahmoud has served as the FIABCI representative to the United Nations Economic Commission for West Asia (UNESCWA) since January 2012. Recently, Mahmoud was selected to be the only member from the Middle East North Africa (MENA) region on the United Nations Global Compact/RICS steering committee mandated to apply Global Compact Principles to the real estate industry.

Prior to his Managing Director role with the Dubai Real Estate Institute, Mahmoud worked for three years as the Senior Director of Real Estate Sector Development at the Real Estate Regulatory Authority of Dubai and also worked as a Development Associate Manager at Dubai Holding. Mahmoud completed his Bachelor’s degree in engineering at the American University before continuing on to earn his Master’s degree in Real Estate from the National University of Singapore. Mahmoud completed his MBA in Finance from his alma mater, the American University of Dubai, in 2010. In January 2014, Mahmoud was selected to join the Sheikh Mohamad Bin Rashid Leadership Program, which is designed to train top government decision makers.