Arif Naqvi, Founder and Group Chief Executive Officer of Abraaj Capital, has been appointed to the Board of the Global Compact by the United Nations Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon. Mr. Naqvi joins 13 business leaders from across the world and is the only Board member from the private equity industry. The new appointments complete the Board composition, whose members represent all regions of the world and a wide range of industry sectors.

The Global Compact Board is the UN’s highest level advisory body involving business, civil society, labor and employers’ organizations. The United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) is a strategic policy initiative designed to mobilize businesses which share a commitment to ten universally accepted principles, which encompass human rights, labor, environment, sustainability and anti-corruption.

The appointment of Mr. Naqvi to the Global Compact Board is a reflection of Abraaj Capital’s track record of embedding a stakeholder approach in the markets and communities in which it operates. This approach has been underpinned and driven by the Abraaj Sustainability and Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET), a dedicated stakeholder focused engagement program within the Firm. In keeping with international best practice, Abraaj Capital introduced its first integrated sustainability report last year and was amongst the few private equity firms globally to do so.

The next meeting of the Global Compact Board will take place on 21 June in Rio de Janeiro, in connection with the UN Conference on Sustainable Development and the Global Compact’s Rio+20 Corporate Sustainability Forum, where Abraaj Capital will be represented as a panelist.