John Rossant

I had the i have the the honor and the privilege and the pleasure, to know Mohammed Jameel and his family for many, many years.  In fact, when I was a very young journalist I went to Saudi Arabia and met Mohammed Jameel and his father, Sheikh Abdul Latif Jameel – who was an extremely impressive man – but Mohammed and I, roughly the same age, we struck a friendship that’s endured over decades.

What’s, I think, so incredible about the Jameel Family in the DNA.  I think there’s a real desire to make the world a better place and I know that sounds like sort of a cliché, but in this case it’s not.  And I think it’s very deeply held notion.  I remember maybe 25, 20, years ago, or so, Mohammed showing me in Jeddah, the work of Bab Rizq Jameel, which at the time was helping to train disadvantaged young Saudis, in ways to support themselves and make a living, and build their own businesses so they could provide for themselves and their families.  But then over the years I sort of saw this philanthropy elsewhere.

If I think of the support that Mohammed Jameel has given and his family have given to MIT, for example, throughout the years, with the Jameel Poverty Action Lab, I mean these are really important, deep, activities that are improving people’s lives, doing extremely positive things, who raise people out of poverty to look at ways to which families can create livelihoods.  That’s so important.  And if you look, also, on the business side, I think what’s been extraordinary is how Mohammed and his family really walk the walk and not only talk the talk.  I mean, they’ve, for years, been investing in a very, very smart way, in renewable energies, in zero emission transportation, in biotech.  In areas that will make the world a better place in the future and I have just enormous respect for that approach.

So, I really want to congratulate Mohammed his whole family Fady, Hassan, all the teams at Abdul Latif Jameel and Community Jameel for the wonderful and important work that they’re doing and I know it will continue, and expand, and bring a lot of good to the world.

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