Cyril Piaia
A seasoned senior executive with more than two decades of leadership experience in engineering, strategy, corporate finance, real estate, master-development and business management, Cyril Piaia serves as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Emaar, The Economic City.
Since joining the company in September 2021, Mr. Piaia has leveraged his deep knowledge of the region’s hospitality and real estate sectors to steer the successful development of King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC), one of Saudi Arabia’s most significant megaprojects. His visionary stewardship is central to KAEC’s ongoing transformation into a leading city focused on high-end tourism and leisure, along with a world-class manufacturing and logistics hub that will help drive the Kingdom’s economic diversification in line with the goals of Vision 2030.
Prior to joining Emaar, The Economic City, Mr. Piaia was a Managing Partner & Founder at Stratford & Russell, an independent network of real estate, finance, and hospitality industry professionals with multi-disciplinary expertise across Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia.
Previously, Mr. Piaia was Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Musstir Group for 7 years in the Sultanate of Oman, a leading international property developer operating in more than 20 countries across Middle East, East Europe and East Africa, and focused on high-end real estate mix-use development and mid-scale to ultra-luxury hospitality assets.
Mr. Piaia has also served as Chief Executive Officer of Orascom Development (Egyptian multi-national real estate and hospitality development group) in Oman, developing the four largest ITC mix-use projects in Oman with residential, commercial, marinas, golf course, hotels, aiming at becoming the top tourism and residential lifestyle destination in the Sultanate.
Prior to that, Mr. Piaia was Senior Manager for leading “Big Five” Arthur Andersen in Paris, specialized in Strategy and Corporate Finance, a role that saw him lead the firm’s European practice for hospitality, real estate, travel, and tourism.
He holds a Bachelor of Science Degree from Lycée Thiers in Marseille and a Master’s degree in Engineering from École Centrale in Lille, both of which were graduated with honors.
