In January 2026, Jake Jacobs was appointed Chief Executive Officer of LEOS Developments, succeeding Rui Liu, who moved into a role focused fully on his position as Founder and Chairman. The appointment marked the beginning of a new chapter for LEOS — one built on the same design-led foundation Rui established, now paired with Jake’s operational leadership at the helm of the company’s day-to-day execution.
A Leadership Structure Built for Design and Delivery
LEOS’s leadership pairing is deliberate. Rui Liu’s background as a UK-qualified architect continues to shape the company’s design philosophy and project vision as Chairman; Jake’s role as CEO is to build and run the operational machinery capable of delivering that vision at scale — land acquisition, construction management, regulatory compliance, and the day-to-day discipline that separates a well-designed brochure from a building that actually gets handed over on schedule.
That division of responsibility reflects a structural problem Rui has spoken about directly: in much of the property industry, the people who design buildings and the people who decide what gets built are not the same people, and their incentives do not always align. At LEOS, Jake’s operational leadership exists specifically to make sure the company’s design ambitions survive contact with construction reality.
What the CEO Role Covers at LEOS
As CEO, Jake holds executive responsibility across the full development lifecycle: identifying land opportunities with genuine fundamentals, managing the feasibility and planning process, overseeing construction and contractor quality control, and ensuring every project maintains full regulatory compliance — RERA registration, DLD escrow protection, and Oqood registration — from launch through to handover.
That responsibility currently spans an active Dubai portfolio across three distinct communities: Hadley Heights 2
in Dubai Sports City, the Weybridge Gardens series in Dubailand, and Knightsbridge in Meydan District 11 — alongside LEOS’s continued presence in the UK market.
Bringing More Than a Decade of Experience
Jake brings more than a decade of experience across real estate development, operations, facilities management, customer experience and business leadership to the role — a background that informs his focus on operational discipline as the foundation for sustainable growth. That focus has shaped how LEOS approaches expansion: self-funded project structures, consistent contractor inspection standards across every site, and a deliberate refusal to grow the pipeline faster than the company’s delivery capacity allows.
Leading Into LEOS's Next Phase
Jake’s appointment comes at a pivotal moment for LEOS, following the October 2024 announcement of a $7 billion investment initiative targeting more than ten transformative developments across the region. Executing that pipeline responsibly — without compromising the construction and specification standards LEOS has built its reputation on — sits at the centre of Jake’s mandate as CEO.
As LEOS’s Dubai portfolio moves through active construction across Dubai Sports City, Dubailand, and Meydan District 11, Jake’s operational leadership is the mechanism by which the company intends to prove that ambition and delivery discipline are not in tension.
