Asset Manager

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NAWAH

NAWAH: Thomas Pritzker, Paul Brinkley, and Thomas Foley run a Dubai-based firm deploying capital into Iraqi port, supply-chain, and healthcare assets.

NAWAH logo

NAWAH

Nawah is a company that specializes in education and research. It designs workshops and develops educational materials based on research findings.

General information

Firm type

Generalist

Year founded

AUM

Undisclosed

Location

Region

Middle East

Country

United Arab Emirates

City

Dubai

Corporate office

Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Additional offices

Basra, Iraq

Principals

Thomas Pritzker

Chairman

Paul Brinkley

CEO

Thomas Foley

Chairman

Loay Hisham Nazer

Business Partner

Hisham Ashour

Former Chief Investment Officer

Sector focus

Industrial TechHealthcare ServicesInfrastructure

Frequently asked questions

Who runs investment decisions at NAWAH?

Investment decisions are driven by the three founding principals: Thomas Pritzker, Paul Brinkley, and Thomas Foley. Paul Brinkley serves as CEO, bringing his experience as former US Deputy Undersecretary of Defense. The team operates alongside Gulf-based partners including Loay Hisham Nazer of Nazer Group, who chairs Nawah Healthcare, and Hisham Ashour, formerly of AlFozan Holding. The structure suggests a consensus-based investment committee rather than a single CIO model.

Is NAWAH a single-family office or a third-party asset manager?

NAWAH is structured as an asset manager, classified here as a generalist investment company. It deploys Pritzker family capital alongside Gulf-based partner capital, but operates with the permanence and concentrated mandate more typical of a family office. The firm's website description — 'Investment Company' — confirms it functions as an institutional platform rather than a purely personal family vehicle.

What is NAWAH's exposure to Iraq?

Iraq is NAWAH's primary operating theater. The firm runs Nawah Supply Chain Solutions in Basra and Zubair, and holds the modernization contract for Al Maqal Port in Basra, executed through its partnership with Nazer Group. Nawah Healthcare extends the Iraq footprint into the healthcare services sector. This concentration makes NAWAH one of the few Western-linked private investment platforms with deep operational assets inside Iraq.

How is NAWAH connected to the Pritzker family?

Thomas Pritzker, a senior member of the Pritzker family whose wealth originated with Hyatt Hotels, is a founder and Chairman of NAWAH. He simultaneously serves as Chairman of The Pritzker Organization, the family's primary investment vehicle. NAWAH represents a distinct Pritzker platform focused on the Middle East, separate from the family's broader industrial and real estate holdings.

Does NAWAH invest alongside external limited partners?

NAWAH operates through joint ventures and co-investment partnerships rather than a traditional blind-pool fund model. The Nazer Group partnership on the Port of Basra modernization and on Nawah Healthcare demonstrates the firm's preference for aligned co-investors with regional operating capability. There is no public evidence of NAWAH raising a third-party commingled fund.

What is NAWAH's relationship with the US government?

NAWAH's leadership carries deep US government ties. CEO Paul Brinkley is the former US Deputy Undersecretary of Defense, where he led economic development and reconstruction efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Co-founder Thomas Foley served as US Ambassador to Ireland. These backgrounds give NAWAH unusual political risk navigation capability in its target markets, though the firm operates as a private enterprise, not a government contractor.

Does NAWAH maintain any philanthropic structures?

Yes. NAWAH supports the Nawah Eco-feminist Network, which operates a distinct philanthropic mandate. Separately, Thomas Pritzker is involved with the Pritzker Neuropsychiatric Disorders Research Consortium. The Nawah philanthropic arm is not described as a traditional 501(c)(3); its structure and spending remain private, consistent with a family-directed giving model.

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