2026
Annual Middle East Dialogue
Abu Dhabi, UAE
December 2026
Global Perspectives on Impact
Over the past five years, Forum for Impact has evolved into a premier gathering for impact-focused investors, family offices, philanthropists, and finance leaders globally. This year, we are bringing our dialogue to more regions to mobilize capital for transformative change. Our private, invite-only events unite capital allocators, decision-
makers, and thought leaders committed to advancing solutions in the energy transition, sustainable ocean investment, climate and carbon finance, and resilient innovation ecosystems. Rather than just talking, we focus on actions: forging new partnerships, inspiring cross-sector engagement, and supporting measurable impact. Our mission is to catalyze regional cooperation in investment and philanthropy to make meaningful sustainable progress.
About Forum for Impact
Forum for Impact (FFI) is a collaboration among leaders in impact and sustainable investment. We create private, invite-only dialogues to assemble global leaders to share their knowledge, stories, and journeys to inspire other investors to create positive impact in the world.
FFI represents many of the world’s leading family office principals, investors, philanthropists and private business owners; brought together to promote the growing need to invest in solutions seeking to generate positive social and environmental impact alongside financial return.
Our mission is to engage the unengaged in impact finance, and to bring new impacts and opportunities for impact to our global financial community. Our events are focused mobilizing capital and action, not just talking about it.
Relationship-building is a priority at all of our dialogues. Our events offer a private environment where our guests have ample opportunity to meet easily with one another, informally and in unhurried style. All FFI’s guests are known personally to us and are drawn from our networks in the USA, Canada, Africa, Latin America, Europe, and the Caribbean.
Agenda
Day 1: Evening Program
6:00pm
VIP Welcome Dinner:
Connecting global and regional leaders committed to Middle East impact.
Day 2: Core Program
8:30 am
Breakfast & Networking
9:15 am
Welcome Address:
Shaping a Sustainable Future for the Middle East
9:45 am
Dialogue 1: Accelerating the Energy Transition: Innovations & Investments
Explore the region’s leadership in renewable energy (solar, wind, hydrogen) and emerging technologies powering the next phase of low- carbon growth.
11:30 am
Dialogue 2: Sustainable Oceans & Blue Economy Opportunities
Advancing ocean health and sustainable investment as key pillars for regional prosperity, including conservation, blue bonds, and entrepreneurial ventures.
12:45 pm
Lunch
1:30 pm
Dialogue 3: Catalyzing Climate and Carbon Finance in the Middle East
Unlocking regional carbon markets, green finance, climate bonds, and blended finance solutions for scalable impact and economic diversification.
2:45 pm
Break
3:00 pm
Dialogue 4: Building Innovation Ecosystems and Regional Cooperation
How cross-border collaboration, startup ecosystems, and institutional partnerships are driving scalable, tech-enabled solutions for climate and social impact.
4:15 pm
Dialogue 5: Investing for Impact — Family Offices, Sovereign Funds, and Policy Leadership
Best practices from regional investors and government leaders shaping the future of sustainable capital deployment.
5:30 pm
Drinks & Networking
6:30 pm
Dinner: Celebrating Leadership and Regional Collaboration
Day 3: Spotlight on Impact
Regional Initiatives & Investment Catalysts
9:00 am
Breakfast & Project Networking
9:30 am
Opening Remarks: The Power of
Demonstration — Scaling Regional Solutions
10:00 am
Project Spotlights
Curated sessions featuring transformative projects and startups in Energy Transition, Blue Economy, Carbon Finance, and Innovation, each presented by founders or key sponsors.
Format: Each initiative has a dedicated timeslot
for an elevated, interactive presentation,
followed by investor Q&A.
12:00 pm
Catalysts in Focus” Panel
Reflections from family offices, investors, and institutional partners on selecting and supporting impactful regional ventures.
1:00 pm
Lunch & Opportunity Matchmaking
Focused tables for deep-dive discussion between project leads and investment partners.
2:00 pm
Peer-Led Roundtables:
Building Coalitions for Scale
3:00 pm
Closing Plenary
Unlocking Capital for Regional Impact
3:30 pm
Farewell Networking
Driving Measurable Impact
Driving Measurable Impact
Forum for Impact’s dialogue series is supported by our global network of sponsors and partners from both the public and private sectors.
We welcome Global Partners who participate in all of our dialogues, as well as Regional Partners for each dialogue, including bespoke dialogues for discrete investor networks. FFI prioritizes tangible outcomes from its dialogues, actively engaging our community both within and beyond these discussions. Our Impact Lenses guide our support for specific impacts, projects, and investments arising from the dialogues, enabling our community to achieve measurable progress and advance the conversation year after year
Our 2025 Impact Lenses include the FFI Sustainable Oceans Initiative, DAFs for Impact, and Impact for Indigenous Peoples.
Partner Benefits
We offer a full benefits package to each partner that includes a full account management program to ensure maximum value is delivered to all partners, and to ensure their unique priorities are reflected in each regional and global event.
The account management program runs through to the official launch, including all pre-promotion activity, the event itself, plus the post-event communication through FFI’s channels, leading to the invitation to all family guests.
The focus of the account management ensures that all partners are introduced personally to FFI’s investment community and that opportunities (both commercial and philanthropic) are explored.
Your Host
Michael Meehan
Co-founder Forum for impact
With over 25 years’ experience in impact and sustainable finance, Michael is an investor, thought leader, and senior advisor to public and private sector organizations around the world and serves on various boards for funds in the EU, UK, US, Canada and Asia. He founded Forum for Impact in 2020 in Europe as a way to bring family offices together to collaborate on impact investment and philanthropy.
Michael serves on the board of the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), a global think tank for impact in over 30 countries, and is the former Chairman of the UK Sustainable Investment & Finance Association, a consortium of leading institutional investors with AUM of over £11 trillion. Michael is also the former CEO of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), the largest sustainability standard in the world, based in Amsterdam.
As a pioneer in climate finance, he has also served on the board of trustees of Global Canopy, former CEO of Carbonetworks, vice-chair of the Natural Capital Coalition, and CEO of Canoe Carbon, an asset manager in climate finance based in Canada. Michael is also an adjunct professor at the University of Victoria, Canada where he serves as the faculty lead for Sustainable Finance.
Throughout his career, Michael has worked with the White House, the UN, the World Economic Forum, and many other organizations in his mission to improve the state of the world through impact.

