Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem speaks during the Earthshot Prize Innovation Showcase at DP World Pavilion in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, in February, 2022.Henry Nicholls/Reuters
Global logistics giant DP World Ltd., which runs several of Canada’s key port terminals, has replaced chairman and chief executive officer Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem following revelations about the depth of his relationship with U.S. sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Mr. Sulayem has resigned from the company effective immediately, DP World said in a regulatory filing Friday with the Nasdaq Dubai financial exchange. The company provided no details about his departure, saying only that Essa Kazim is taking over as chairman while Yuvraj Narayan, currently DP World’s finance chief, is the new CEO.
It’s a quick fall from grace for Mr. Sulayem, one of the Middle East’s most recognizable and internationally connected businessmen, who was at the World Economic Forum in Davos just last month. His career spans more than three decades, during which time he has been a “driving force behind Dubai’s emergence as a major player in global trade,” according to his biography on the Forum website.
He leaves his post just after Kathy Ruemmler, the top lawyer at U.S. investment bank Goldman Sachs, announced her resignation. While Ms. Ruemmler has called Mr. Epstein a “monster” in recent statements, e-mails between her and the financier years earlier showed a close relationship in which she described him as an “older brother” and downplayed his sex crimes.
DP World came under pressure from stakeholders such as Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec to take action in response to the information about Mr. Sulayem. The Montreal pension fund giant had joined British International Investment (BII), the U.K. government’s development finance institution, in suspending deal making with DP World.
Files released by the U.S. Department of Justice suggest that Mr. Sulayem not only knew Mr. Epstein but exchanged messages with him about sex as well as business long after the financier was convicted on charges including procuring a minor for prostitution in 2008. The exchanges were often intimate.
Mr. Sulayem has not been accused of any wrongdoing by authorities.
On Friday, Caisse spokesman Jean-Benoît Houde said the pension fund was satisfied with the changes the state-backed multinational made and will resume the partnership.
“The company took appropriate measures,” Mr. Houde said in an e-mail. “It has always been important to distinguish the company, DP World, from the individual, Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem.”
Andrew Murray-Watson, a spokesman for BII, echoed that view. “We welcome today’s decision by DP World and look forward to continuing our partnership to advance the development of key African trading ports to unlock the continent’s global trading potential,” he said in an e-mailed statement.
Dubai, UAE-based DP World is a major global logistics player, with operations in more than 69 countries. Its Canadian business, led by a local executive team, includes port facilities in Vancouver, Fraser Surrey, Nanaimo and Prince Rupert in British Columbia, and Saint John.
The company has for years been one of the Caisse’s biggest partners, with the two organizations making billions in joint infrastructure investments in Canada and around the world. They’re now working together as part of a joint venture to develop a new container port terminal in Contrecoeur near Montreal.
Mr. Epstein died by suicide in a jail cell in 2019, just over a month after he was arrested for sex crimes a second time. The Office of the Inspector General, the U.S. Justice Department’s watchdog, concluded in 2023 that a “combination of negligence, misconduct and outright job performance failures” by the federal Bureau of Prisons and workers at the New York City jail enabled the wealthy financier to take his own life.
With a report from the Associated Press
Editor’s note: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that DP World runs several of Canada’s biggest ports. DP World operates port terminals.