North America Western Asia Holdings, (NAWAH) is an investment firm founded in 2011. It was established by

Hyatt Hotels Hyatt Hotels Corporation, commonly known as Hyatt Hotels & Resorts, is an American multinational hospitality company headquartered in the Riverside Plaza area of Chicago that manages and franchises luxury and business hotels, resorts, and vacat ...

executive chairman Thomas Pritzker and former

Pentagon In geometry, a pentagon (from the Greek πέντε ''pente'' meaning ''five'' and γωνία ''gonia'' meaning ''angle'') is any five-sided polygon or 5-gon. The sum of the internal angles in a simple pentagon is 540°. A pentagon may be simpl ...

official

Paul Brinkley Paul Andrew Brinkley (born November 15, 1966, in Dallas, Texas) is an American businessman and government official. Brinkley is the co-founder and current CEO of North America Western Asia Holdings, an investment and business development firm bas ...

to build businesses in the

Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabian Peninsula, Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Anatolia, Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Pro ...

Central Asia Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a subregion, region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes t ...

and

North Africa North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in ...

. NAWAH currently has two primary business units based in Iraq. NAWAH Port Management and NAWAH Supply & Distribution, both are designed to help service the growing supply chain needs of a country with a rising demand for improved logistics.

NAWAH Business Units

NAWAH Port Management

NAWAH Port Management (NPM) operates a modernized, containerized berth at the

Port of Basra The Port of Basra, also known as Al Maqal Port, is an Iraqi port in Basra, situated on the Persian Gulf. Location The Port of Basra is a port located in downtown Basra City, Iraq, on the banks of the Shatt Al Arab River, 135 kilometers upstream ...

(also known as Al Maqal Port). Located in the heart of urban Basra and less than 100 km from several of Iraq's largest oil and gas fields, the Port of Basra is ideally situated to offer superior ease of access to commercial centers as well as the major oil and gas developments in Iraq.

NAWAH Supply & Distribution

NAWAH Supply & Distribution (NSD) is the exclusive distributor in Iraq for MRC Global, the largest global distributor of pipe, valve, flange, fitting and other oil-related product and equipment needs of the world's leading oil companies operating in Iraq. NSD's operational headquarters is in a highly secure complex situated in Zubair, ensuring the rapid transportation of goods to the oil fields that surround it.

Modernizing the Port of Basra

NAWAH announced in early October 2012 that it had entered into a 10-year, $14 million agreement with Iraq's Ministry of Transportation and General Company for the Ports of Iraq to modernize the Port of Basra. The project, completed in October 2014, in record time, saw the construction of a 20,000 square meter lay down yard and a new administrative headquarters as well as being equipped with a Liebherr 180 Mobile Harbor Crane and a Liebherr 645 Reachstacker.

History and Leadership

Thomas Pritzker and Paul Brinkley met while Brinkley was the

Deputy Undersecretary of Defense Deputy Under Secretary of Defense (DUSD) is the title for several high-ranking posts in the U.S. Department of Defense, requiring appointment by the president and are confirmed by the Senate by majority vote. There are currently six DUSDs, one for ...

leading the

Task Force for Business and Stability Operations The Task Force for Business and Stability Operations (TFBSO) is a division of the U.S. Department of Defense established in 2006 to stabilize the post-invasion Iraqi economy, reduce unemployment, and attract foreign investors to Iraq. In 2009, TFBSO ...

, the

Department of Defense Department of Defence or Department of Defense may refer to: Current departments of defence * Department of Defence (Australia) * Department of National Defence (Canada) * Department of Defence (Ireland) * Department of National Defense (Philippin ...

agency tasked with drawing investors first to

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...

and later

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

. At the Task Force, Brinkley recruited dozens of American business executives to tour Iraq and Afghanistan, including top officials at

Honeywell Honeywell International Inc. is an American publicly traded, multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina. It primarily operates in four areas of business: aerospace, building technologies, performance ma ...

, IBM, and

Boeing The Boeing Company () is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, telecommunications equipment, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and product ...

. Several firms later made investments in those countries. In 2010, Brinkley told the World Affairs Council of Northern California that: In 2008, Pritzker visited Baghdad with

Morgan Stanley Morgan Stanley is an American multinational investment management and financial services company headquartered at 1585 Broadway in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. With offices in more than 41 countries and more than 75,000 employees, the fir ...

Vice Chairman William Strong and CF Industries Holdings CEO Stephen Wilson. The three later wrote an editorial in the

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television ar ...

about their experience. In 2011, Pritzker toured Bamyan Province, Afghanistan with his wife on a Task Force-sponsored trip.New Zealand PRT promote progress, tourism in Bamyan
''RC-East.com'', August 14, 2011.

Notes

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External links

NAWAH Official website

Nawah employees on the OpenSecrets
Revolving Door database">OpenSecrets">Nawah employees on the OpenSecrets
Revolving Door database Investment companies of the United States Financial services companies established in 2011