“If you find the right people, honest people, they make good partners.”
Mohamed Hadid
About
Mohamed Anwar Hadid is a Palestinian-American developer, hotel visionary, and artist whose work spans luxury hospitality, large-scale commercial development, and some of the most iconic private residences in the world. Born in Nazareth and a refugee at just nine days old with his family, he spent his early childhood in Syria, Lebanon, and Tunisia before immigrating with his family to the United States in 1964.
Hadid first rose to prominence on the East Coast, where he developed more than 8.8 million square feet of Class A commercial space, including major projects in Washington, D.C., Arlington, and McLean, Virginia. In the 1980s, he became the first private owner of six of the eight Ritz-Carlton five-star hotels in the United States and later developed 11 additional Ritz-Carlton properties, helping shape the brand’s early identity and expansion.
In Aspen, Hadid once owned nearly 80% of all undeveloped land, built the Ritz-Carlton and Ritz-Carlton Residences, gifted the city’s ice-skating rink, and donated 45 acres to the Aspen Institute, including The Meadow, the Music Tent, and academic pavilions.
Hadid later became known internationally for creating some of the largest and most celebrated luxury estates in Bel Air and Beverly Hills, including Le Belvedere, The Crescent Palace, and the Strada Vecchia Bel Air estate. Internationally, he designed Qatar’s first five-star hotel—the Doha Sheraton in 1978—and is currently developing major residential projects in Egypt and Greece, including a Guinness World Record–recognized development: the largest single mixed-use building in Cairo, and a landmark project in Zehra on Egypt’s North Coast.
An accomplished artist and painter, Hadid also represented Jordan in speed skiing at the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville, France.
His work has been featured in Architectural Digest, Forbes, and Vanity Fair, and he is the father of globally renowned models Gigi, Bella, and Anwar Hadid.
Why Should You Listen
to Him?
What You’ll Learn
How heritage shapes ambition, how adversity builds vision, and how to think beyond scale into legacy.
Why You’ll Love Him
He embodies global success rooted in identity - a story many in the region will see themselves in.
What’s Unusual
Hadid proves that luxury isn’t excess - it’s storytelling, boldness, and belief.
Designing the Extraordinary: Vision, Resilience and the Art of Building Dreams
From visionary architecture to bold reinvention, Mohamed Hadid has built more than landmarks, he built a life defined by risk, creativity, and perseverance. In this conversation, he reflects on what it means to dream at scale, create spaces that embody identity and emotion, and lead through cycles of success and reinvention. His story explores how beauty, purpose and courage intersect in a rapidly changing world, and what leadership looks like when vision becomes both business and art.
How vision, resilience and identity shaped a remarkable path of global influence.
Mohamed Hadid’s life offers a distinctive view of leadership shaped by resilience, imagination and the courage to reinvent. From a childhood marked by displacement to becoming a developer, hotel pioneer and artist with projects across the world, his story reflects a rare ability to transform challenge into vision. He built commercial landmarks, helped define the modern identity of luxury hospitality and created some of the most celebrated residences in Beverly Hills and Bel Air, all while maintaining a deep sense of purpose and cultural identity.
Get to Know Mohamed
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