Speaker profile

John Pagano

Group Chief Executive Officer
The Red Sea Development Company & AMAALA

John Pagano is the Chief Executive Officer of The Red Sea Development Company (TRSDC) and AMAALA, sister projects set along the north western coast of Saudi Arabia that will play key roles in the realisation of the Vision 2030 – KSA’s economic roadmap for the future.

At TRSDC and AMAALA, John is leveraging his 38 years of international experience in delivering large scale multi-billion-dollar developments. Since 2018, he has led The Red Sea Development Company’s growth from the ground up and is creating a unique eco-luxury, sustainable, regenerative tourist destination that will contribute to transforming the global tourism industry and to the diversification of the Saudi Arabian economy. In January 2021, he was appointed as CEO of AMAALA, and tasked with driving the next stage of development for the ultra-luxury destination.

John’s experience covers every facet of the real estate value chain including site acquisition, master planning, planning, project structuring, financing, construction, and asset management.

John is the former Managing Director, Development of the Canary Wharf Group in London. The iconic 16.5 million sq. ft. mixed-use development serves as a landmark and the UK headquarters for multiple global financial, professional, and business services institutions. During the 23 years spent at Canary Wharf, John held numerous senior leadership positions, and was responsible for the creation of the Group’s delivery organisation, a major contributor to the Group’s success and a key highlight of his career.

Additionally, he also established Canary Wharf’s residential business and secured planning permission for over 3.5 million sq. ft. of residential developments, representing over 4000 new apartments. The residential business along with the planning of the Group’s 10 million sf development pipeline represents a significant part of the Group’s value creation going forward.

As President of Baha Mar Development Company Ltd (BMDC), a luxury hospitality and residential development company in The Bahamas, John spent four and a half years in the Caribbean overseeing the master planning and financing of a transformative $3.5 billion luxury tourism destination resort. It now welcomes thousands of guests a week to its four new hotels, convention centre and the Jack Nicklaus Signature championship golf course.

Prior to joining TRSDC and AMAALA, John established his own international strategic advisory company, Old Fort Capital Investments Ltd, drawing on his extensive experience, providing strategic advice internationally on large scale real estate developments.

John holds a BASc degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Toronto. He also studied Corporate Finance at the London Business School.