Mohammed Ibrahim Al Shaibani
Mohammed Ibrahim Al Shaibani is an Emirati government official who is currently the director general of the Dubai Ruler's Court, a government entity within the Emirate of Dubai.
He is the board member & managing director of the Investment Corporation of Dubai and the vice chairman of the Supreme Fiscal Committee of Dubai. He is a member of the Executive Council of Dubai, an entity that oversees and supports government bodies in the emirate.
He is chairman of Dubai Islamic Bank and sits on the boards of several state owned UAE enterprises, such as Dubai World and Dubai Aerospace Enterprise.
Career
Early life
Al Shaibani has a Bachelor of Computer Science from a university in the United States. He started his career at Dubai Ports Authority and Jebel Ali Free Zone, where he worked for seven years. After that, he moved to Singapore where he spent four years as managing director of Al Khaleej Investments.Government roles
Since 1998 Al Shaibani has held president's position with the Dubai Office, a private management entity for the Royal Family of Dubai. In this capacity, he represented the interests of the ruling family in London for eight years from 1999 to 2007. He currently oversees the functioning of this office from Dubai.Al Shaibani is also a member of the Executive Council, Government of Dubai, which was created in 2003 to support government authorities in maintaining the stability and organization of the emirate, in addition to developing its society and economy.
Al Shaibani also serves as the vice chairman of the Supreme Fiscal Committee of Dubai since its inception in 2007. This five-man committee supervises the Dubai Financial Support Fund. In 2008, Al Shaibani was appointed director general of The Ruler's Court, Government of Dubai, by Emiri decree issued by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, ruler of Dubai.
Business involvement
In 2008, Al Shaibani was appointed as chairman of the Board of Directors of Dubai Islamic Bank, an Islamic bank based in Dubai. DIB is also considered as the first bank in the world to apply Islamic principles in all its practices.An Emiri decree issued in 2012 by Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, ruler of Dubai, reaffirmed Al Shaibani as CEO and executive director of the Investment Corporation of Dubai, the investment arm that consolidates the assets of the Government of Dubai.
In 2010, Al Shaibani has been appointed as a member of the Board of Directors of Dubai World.
In 2013, he served as the deputy chairman of the Higher Preparatory Committee of the World Expo 2020.
After acquiring the entertainment resort Atlantis the Palm in 2013, ICD has purchased significant equity interest in the international firm that manages it, Kerzner International. This was followed by Al Shaibani replacing Sol Kerzner as the chairman of the international luxury hotels developer after the latter's retirement in April 2014.
In January 2020, he was appointed chairman of Nakheel, a property developer in Dubai that has recently been named as a member of the higher committee of real estate announced by Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Ruler of Dubai.
Awards and recognition
He was ranked the most influential non-royal official in UAE by the Wall Street Journal in 2010 and one of the country's ten most influential people by Your Middle East platform in 2013. That year, Mohammed Al Shaibani was also considered as the sixth of the 500 most powerful Arabs in the world by Arabian Business, and he was named the 17th of the 100 most powerful Arabs in 2014 by Gulf Business. In 2020, he was ranked at 26 on Construction Week's Power 100 list for 2020. He was featured in Cityscape Intelligence's most influential people in the MENA real estate industry.Controversies
Recently, Al Shaibani has faced international criticism and calls for sanctions due to his alleged involvement in the case of Ryan Cornelius, a British businessman imprisoned in Dubai since 2008. As chairman of Dubai Islamic Bank (DIB) and director general of Dubai's Ruler's Court, Al Shaibani has been accused of orchestrating Cornelius's continued detention and the seizure of his assets.In 2025, a cross-party group of British MPs and peers urged the UK government to impose Magnitsky sanctions on Al Shaibani and other DIB officials. These sanctions would bar Al Shaibani from entering the UK and potentially freeze his assets. The calls for sanctions stem from allegations that Cornelius's detention is arbitrary and violates international law, as ruled by the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention in 2022.
Critics argue that Al Shaibani's influential positions in Dubai's government indicate an abuse of power in Cornelius's case. They claim that DIB, under Al Shaibani's chairmanship, seized assets worth $1.6 billion from Cornelius, exceeding the original $500 million loan amount. Furthermore, Cornelius's original 10-year sentence was extended by 20 years in 2018 through the retroactive application of a new law, a move that has been widely criticized.
The controversy has put strain on UK-UAE relations, with British politicians and Cornelius's family urging successive UK governments to take action against Al Shaibani and secure Cornelius's release. As of 2025, the situation remains unresolved, with continued calls for Al Shaibani and DIB to face consequences for his alleged role in this case.