Why Abdul Latif Jameel Thinks Like a Start-Up After 80 Years in Business

Hassan Jameel calls Abdul Latif Jameel a “75-year-old start-up.” The phrase is partly self-deprecating, but it points to something real about how the company makes decisions.

Founded by Hassan Jameel’s grandfather in Jeddah in 1945 as a single gas station, the business has grown into a privately held global operation with a presence in more than 35 countries across six continents, employing more than 11,000 people of over 65 nationalities. Yet the family’s described approach to entering new industries has remained consistent: move carefully, understand the sector before committing fully, invest over years rather than quarters, and give people room to try things that might fail.

“Our chairman, our father, has always been very entrepreneurial, and he has given us, as the next generation, chances to make mistakes,” Hassan Jameel said in a McKinsey interview. “And we have made mistakes. It’s essential for leadership to take chances.”

The Rivian investment illustrates the method. Abdul Latif Jameel became the electric vehicle manufacturer’s first major investor in 2012, nine years before Rivian’s IPO. Rather than announce the investment publicly, the family kept it quiet for eight years while the company developed. Hassan Jameel traveled to Detroit regularly to work closely with Rivian’s founder and CEO, R.J. Scaringe. The investment was structured in tranches, tied to milestones, and built on a relationship of mutual trust.

The same long-arc thinking has shaped Abdul Latif Jameel’s more recent moves in transport. Hassan Jameel has spoken publicly about the future of mobility at a high-profile congress in Riyadh, laying out a view of how traditional automotive businesses must rethink their role as electrification, autonomy and shared transport reshape the market.

Fady Jameel, who oversees the company’s international operations, has described a shared rule for entering new industries: you have to be able to picture the market 20 years out and honestly assess what you do not know. Renewable energy followed that logic. Abdul Latif Jameel acquired the Madrid-based solar company Fotowatio Renewable Ventures, known as FRV, with a pipeline target of 7.5 gigawatts by 2024. Water treatment followed a similar path, with Almar Water Solutions established in Madrid in 2016.

Neither brother was trained as a traditional corporate executive. Hassan Jameel holds a degree in International Economics from Sophia University in Tokyo and an MBA from London Business School. Fady trained in Australia. Both were shaped by years spent working in Japan, absorbing a business culture that treats long-term thinking not as a luxury but as an operating standard.

That willingness to commit personally, not just financially, extends to how Hassan Jameel spends his own time. He completed the 2026 Dakar Rally — 7,900 kilometers over two weeks across Saudi desert terrain — describing it as the toughest experience of his life. For a business leader who has long argued that you cannot manage from an office, the act of putting himself through the same physical test as the motorsport athletes his company supports is, in its own way, consistent.