Sultan Ahmed ibn Sulayem

Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem (, born 1955) is an Emirati businessman. He was the chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of DP World until 13 February 2026, and the chairman of the Ports, Customs & Free Zone Corporation until February 2026. In the February 2026 public release of the Epstein files, it was revealed that he exchanged emails with Jeffrey Epstein. He resigned from his executive positions due to his association with Epstein.

Family and education Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem was born into the Sulayem family, one of Dubai's business and political families active since the early 20th century. His father was a key advisor to Dubai's ruling House of Maktoum. He gained a BSc in economics from Temple University, Philadelphia.

Business career

Bin Sulayem worked as a customs officer at Dubai's port after graduating from college in the late 1970s. He was appointed by Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum to be chairman of the Jebel Ali Free Zone (JAFZA) in 1985. He oversaw its rapid expansion, with JAFZA growing from hosting 19 companies in the mid-1980s to roughly 7,500 as of 2020. Following the acquisition of British port operator Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation for $6.9 billion, DP World became the world's third biggest port operator in 2010.

Bin Sulayem led DP World's property development subsidiary Nakheel Properties until 2010, becoming a board member in 2020. The company was behind the construction of Palm Islands, the man-made islands in Dubai.

Bin Sulayem has been non-executive chairman of Virgin Hyperloop since 2018. He is a board member of the Dubai Executive Council and the UAE Federal Tax Authority, He has also held the chairmanships of the Ports, Customs & Free Zone Corporation (PCFC) and the Dubai International Chamber.

In February 2026, he ceased to be chairman and CEO of DP World.

Personal life Bin Sulayem owns hotels on Nakheel's Palm Islands, and a stake in a real estate brokerage company. He was awarded an honorary doctorate from Middlesex University in Dubai in 2008.

His son, Ahmed Sultan bin Sulayem, is the chairman of the government-owned Dubai Multi Commodities Centre. and remained in contact long after Epstein had been convicted in 2008 of soliciting prostitution from a minor. In emails with Epstein, Bin Sulayem shared his sexual experiences and appeared to send attachments of images with Epstein. According to a spokesperson from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), bin Sulayem's name appears in the documents more than 4,700 times.

Epstein initiated contact between bin Sulayem and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak as early as 2012, years before the normalization of ties under the Abraham Accords. In 2013, bin Sulayem sent an email to Epstein stating that he had been invited to lunch by Prince Andrew.

In February 2017, he introduced Indian businessman Anil Ambani to Epstein. That same year, bin Sulayem paid Jeffrey Epstein $6,200; a day later, Epstein paid Bin Sulayem the same amount. In the summer of that year, Epstein's assistant tried to order 30 23andMe DNA test kits for bin Sulayem, costing just over $6,000, and have them delivered to Epstein's New York mansion. The company canceled the order when they discovered the kits were going to be used outside the U.S.

Other exchanges between the two show Bin Sulayem facilitating the transfer of Epstein's masseuse to a spa in Turkey for training, Bin Sulayem sending Epstein a link to pornography, and Epstein advising Bin Sulayem on whether to attend Trump's first inauguration. Bin Sulayem also emailed Epstein telling him "the Ukrainian and the Moldavian arrived. Big disappointment the Moldavian is not as attractive as the picture." Epstein suggested that the women had enhanced their looks with Photoshop, to which Bin Sulayem replied: "Not only that she was too short and skinny."

In an image release by the US Department of Justice, Epstein is pictured alongside Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem as they are looking down at a miniature replica of the panel of the kiswah, the black, gold-embroidered cloth that covers the Kaaba at the centre of Islam's holiest site in Saudi Arabia, that hangs over the door of the structure. On 10 February 2026, U.S. congressman Ro Khanna of California listed Bin Sulayem as one of six men whose names had been redacted from the Epstein files but whom Khanna had been able to identify after spending two hours viewing unredacted files at the United States Department of Justice. Khanna did not provide evidence of wrongdoing against Bin Sulayem or any of the six nor have any been charged with a crime in connection with Epstein.