Dubai Properties in management shake-up

After a planned merger with Emaar was cancelled, the company has replaced several executives, including its chief financial officer.

Dubai Properties Group, owned by the Ruler of Dubai's holding company, has replaced several executives, including its chief financial officer. The action comes after the cancellation this month of a planned merger with Emaar Properties, the UAE's largest developer, which Emaar deemed was no longer commercially viable. Dubai Properties is one of the largest owners of development land in the country, with projects that include the Jumeirah Beach Residence development of high-rise towers, and the vast Dubailand leisure project that was intended to combine theme parks with luxury housing developments. The management reshuffle represents the latest step in the group's consolidation process after Tatweer, Sama Dubai and Dubai Properties, all subsidiaries of Dubai Holding, were merged in August. David Anderson, the former chief financial officer at Tatweer, will be the group's chief financial officer, while Amjid Javaid Sheikh, formerly head of compliance at Tatweer, takes on the role of senior manager for compliance and risk management. Fareda Abdullah, who previously worked for Arab Bank and United Arab Emirates University, has been named chief operating officer and Jayne O'Brien, who was previously at Tatweer, has been appointed chief marketing officer. In other moves, Arif Mubarak, formerly vice-president at Bawadi, a project planned for Dubailand, will assume the role of chief real estate officer and Dominic Pilkington, who was previously with the law firm Galadari and Associates, has been appointed the executive director of legal. Mohammed Al Habbai is now chief executive of Dubailand. He was formerly the senior vice president at that venture. Billy Daly will remain the chief executive officer of Dubai Asset Management, while Saeed Bushalat continues as the chief executive officer of Salwan, the property management service company of Dubai Properties Group. "I am confident our team of dedicated professionals will together lead this company through to its next phase of growth," said Khalid al Malik, the group chief executive of Dubai Properties Group. The shake-up at Dubai Holding follows consolidations and management reshuffles this year at Dubai's two other government-owned conglomerates, Dubai World and Investment Corporation of Dubai (ICD). Dubai World, which is currently in talks with creditors over a proposed debt restructuring, in October announced it was cutting about 12,000 jobs as part of a plan to save US$800 million (Dh2.93 billion) over three years. A month later, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, removed several prominent businessmen from the ICD board. The changes at Dubai World, ICD and now Dubai Holding come as the emirate wrestles with a debt load estimated at $85bn. The reshuffles and consolidations have been cast as efforts to pare redundant operations and increase efficiencies to better take on challenges presented by the financial crisis. "There has been movement across the board at a high level in Dubai," said Joseph Morris, the Middle East director of Strutt and Parker, a property consultancy. "Going forward, it's about the creation of a new image for the emirate. People have to regain confidence in Dubai, and that's the most important thing for 2010."