Home lists Top 100 most powerful Arabs 2021 Omran Sharaf Project director, Emirates Mars Mission Origin: UAE Residence: UAE Sector: Science and Technology One of the year’s most transformative events in the Arab region was the entry of the Hope Probe – the Arab World’s first interplanetary mission – into Mars’ orbit on February 9. The announcement was made by project director Omran Sharaf, leading from the front a young team of Emirati engineers and scientists, all of whom were under the age of 35. Sharaf and his team are now focused on gathering as much data as possible from the probe over the next two years – enough time for this former director of the Programmes Management Department at Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre to plot his country’s next big otherworldly conquest.