Like many young Kuwaitis from well-established families, Talal Al-Bahar looked forward to working in the family business. After earning his degree in Business Administration from Loyola Marymount University-United States in 2001, Talal returned to the Middle East and started working in the family business, focusing on the Caterpillar dealership and the real estate side of the business. He then moved to the public side of the business which focused on IFA Hotels & Resorts, International Financial Advisors and Kuwait Real Estate Company.

Talal was one of the top 10 Hotelier Middle East Power 50 in 2009 and was awarded the “Leadership Award” by Arabian Hotel Investment Conference in 2012, for his strategic engineering of IFA Hotels & Resorts’ growth.

Currently, Talal is the Vice Chairman and CEO of Kuwait Real Estate Company (Aqarat), one of Kuwait’s leading real estate companies, with several firsts to its credit. Aqarat was the first real estate company to be incorporated into the Kuwait Stock Exchange, the first to develop mixed-use retail, offices and car park in Kuwait and the first to introduce the Build-Operate-Transfer concept before a formal regulation was adopted.