Last week, Global SWF presented its 2025 MENA Special Playbook at an event co-hosted with American law firm Morgan Lewis, at the Rosewood Hotel (ADGM) in Abu Dhabi. This is the fifth SWF conference organized by Global SWF in the past 15 months, after two similar workshops in New York, and two more in Singapore.

Rather than large commercial events, where the objective is to monetize the interest of asset managers and service providers in speaking with asset owners, Global SWF’s focus is to create a “safe space” for delegates of SWFs and similar institutions to compare notes and foster dialogue across all levels of seniority.

The event held on October 7 reunited over 50 delegates from most sovereign and pension managers of the UAE, including ADIA, ADIC, ADPF, ADQ, Lunate, Mubadala, XRG (Abu Dhabi), DP World and ICD (Dubai), and EIA (Federal). In addition, we had attendees from Saudi’s PIF, Libya’s LIA, Singapore’s Temasek and Kazakhstan’s Baiterek, among others

The official presentation of the report was followed by a high-level and insightful panel discussion, facilitated by Morgan Lewis. The audience was highly engaged throughout the event, and keen to continue to engage in this format.

In 2026, Global SWF will organize four events:

• January 6, 2026 in New York, presenting our Annual Report;

• April 7, 2026 in Singapore, launching our Asian Playbook; 

• July 7, 2026 in London, unveiling our GSR Scoreboard; and 

• October 6, 2026 in Abu Dhabi, releasing our updated MENA Playbook.

Each of these events will be co-hosted with a firm among our full subscribers (data + reports). Those firms interested in hosting an event, after they become full subscribers, can reach out to us at support@globalswf.com

This is in addition to the SWF Academy, the world’s only Executive Education course exclusively designed for, and attended by SWF professionals. The next cohort of the 1-week program will take place at INSEAD Singapore campus in Spring 2025, and we will offer one slot for a guest lecturer from our full subscribers on selected topics. More information is available upon request to swfacademy@globalswf.com