Samer Kamal is an environmental entrepreneur & impact investor who has been developing sustainable ventures in North America, the Middle East and Africa for over 20 years. He now serves at the Chief Strategy Officer of Minus Global Holdings.
Starting his career in the technology industry in Canada in the 1990s, Samer has gone on to found a number of sustainability and environmental companies including Bee’ah, the largest recycling company in the Middle East. From 2007 to 2011 Samer grew the team from 3 people to 2,000, while leading fund-raising of over $ 250,000,000 and managing USD $1.2 billion in municipal infrastructure assets. He also oversaw the design, procurement, construction and operation of a series of state-of-the-art waste treatment facilities including a 4 sq. Km landfill receiving 17,000 tons of waste per day, 3 sorting facilities generating and trading in recyclables including 40,000 tons per annum of plastics, Hazmat, Waste Oil Recovery, Compost and a medical waste venture (Wekaya). Operating a fleet of over 300 collection vehicles and 80 street sweepers, and servicing over 1,100,000 people, Bee’ah was twice named the “Best Waste Management Company in the Middle East” under Samer’s management. The company now has over 10,000 employees working in 4 countries in the Middle East.
He has since established a number of green infrastructure ventures including the first private wastewater recycling facility in Dubai and the first food-grade PET recycling company in the Middle East in partnership with Veolia.
Samer is now focusing his attention on advancing the circular economy through a focus on first-mile recovery of discarded resources. This includes is leadership role at Minus Global, a company focused on eliminating garbage trucks and recovering food waste as well as his role as chief advisor to Nadeera – a digital recycling engagement app driving recycling rates across emerging markets.
Samer holds a Bachelor of Science from the University of Toronto in Pharmacology & Toxicology and is firmly established as a regional thought leader on the future of sustainability in business. He is also an advisor to a number of private equity funds and start up incubators. Samer is a columnist on sustainability it the Gulf for Gulf News and was recently named one of the top UAE sustainability leaders driving change in the region alongside the President Designate of COP28, Sultan Al Jaber and the CEO of Masdar and the UAE representative to the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA).