Tamayouz Excellence Award is proud to announce Professor Angela Brady OBE PPRIBA and Dr Mohamed Al Assam, Founder and Executive Chairman of Dewan Architects + Engineers, as Co-Chairs of the Tamayouz Grand Jury for 2026 and 2027.
Together, they lead a Grand Jury of over 50 distinguished professionals drawn from across the world, providing independent expert judgement across eight awards running in the 14th and 15th award cycles.
The 2026–2027 Grand Jury is led by Co-Chairs whose collective experience spans international practice, institutional leadership, and professional advocacy, and whose association with Tamayouz is long, active, and deeply felt.
Professor Angela Brady OBE PPRIBA
One of the most prominent and recognised architects in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Born in Dublin, she trained at Technological University Dublin and received a postgraduate scholarship at Kunstakademiet in Copenhagen before establishing the award-winning practice, Brady Mallalieu Architects, in London in 1987.
In 2011, Professor Angela became the first non-British person and the second woman to be elected President of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), a position she held until 2013, a tenure described by the Architects’ Journal as the most effective RIBA presidency in nearly three decades. As President, she delivered over 100 keynote addresses worldwide on sustainable city-making, diversity, and the public value of architecture.
A passionate champion of equality and inclusion, Professor Angela founded the RIBA Architects for Change group in 2000 and chaired Women in Architecture, curating the DiverseCity exhibition, which travelled to 34 cities worldwide. She has presented three primetime television series on architecture and design across RTÉ, ITV, and Channel 4, and serves as examiner and mentor at the University of Westminster and the University of Kent. She was awarded the OBE in 2016 for services to architecture and education, and the Irish President’s Distinguished Service Award.
Professor Angela’s relationship with Tamayouz began in 2013, when she joined as a judge and chaired the inaugural Tamayouz Women in Architecture Award, helping shape what has become one of the Award’s most distinctive and celebrated programmes.
Dr Mohamed Al Assam
One of the most influential figures in Middle Eastern architecture. Born in Baghdad, Iraq, he graduated from the University of Baghdad’s College of Engineering before relocating to the UAE in the mid-1970s. In 1984, he founded Dewan Architects + Engineers in Abu Dhabi, a firm that has grown into one of the world’s largest and most respected architectural practices.
Over four decades, Dr Mohamed has expanded Dewan’s presence across the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Qatar, the Philippines, India, Spain, and, more recently, into Africa and Southeast Asia, employing over 1000 professionals and delivering landmark projects across the GCC and beyond. An active speaker and contributor to public and professional forums, Dr Mohamed brings to Tamayouz not only the weight of a practice built over a lifetime, but a genuine commitment to architecture as a force for culture and community. In recognition of his exceptional contribution to architecture in the Middle East, Coventry University conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Arts, and in 2022 he was honoured with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Design Middle East Awards.
Dewan has been a partner of Tamayouz since 2012, the very first year of the Award. In 2018, Dewan launched the Tamayouz Dewan Award for Architecture in partnership with Tamayouz, one of the programme’s most significant competitions. Over 15 years, Dewan has offered more than 30 internship opportunities to award-winning graduates from around the world — a contribution that has shaped careers and extended Tamayouz’s impact far beyond the awards themselves.
The Role of the Grand Jury Co-Chairs
The Co-Chairmanship is a ceremonial role held in the highest regard by Tamayouz. The Co-Chairs serve as trusted counsel to the award, offering expert advice on strategic direction and ensuring that Tamayouz continues to champion the best in global architecture.
The full Grand Jury comprises over 50 distinguished professionals from across the world, providing independent expert judgement across all eight awards.
Awards running in 2026 and 2027:
The Tamayouz Founding Director, Ahmed Al-Mallak, commented on this appointment:
“It is with deep gratitude that I thank Professor Wendy Pullan and Professor Jala Makhzoumi for their outstanding service as Co-Chairs of the Tamayouz Grand Jury across two consecutive terms. Their dedication, expertise, and counsel have been invaluable to Tamayouz, and I am delighted that both continue as members of the Grand Jury, where their advice and engagement remain as important to us as ever.
It is with great delight that I welcome Professor Angela Brady and Dr Mohamed Al Assam as our incoming Co-Chairs. Their leadership, global standing, and longstanding commitment to Tamayouz make them the right voices to have beside us as we navigate this next chapter, across the Award and its wider programmes, including the Arab Architecture Festival and our Global Talks. I look forward to what we will build together.”
The Preceding Co-Chairs: 2020–2025
Tamayouz Excellence Award thanks Professor Wendy Pullan and Professor Jala Makhzoumi, who served as Co-Chairs of the Grand Jury across two consecutive terms from 2020 to 2025. Both continue as valued members of the Tamayouz Grand Jury.
Professor Wendy Pullan
Professor Wendy Pullan is a professor of architecture and urban studies at the University of Cambridge, where she is also Director of the Centre for Urban Conflicts Research. From 2014 to 2017, she served as Head of the University’s Department of Architecture. Her published works explore European and Middle Eastern architecture and cities, examining the processes of urban heritage, conflict, and change, both historical and contemporary.
Professor Wendy joined the Tamayouz Grand Jury in 2017 as part of the inaugural Rifat Chadirji Prize jury, and from that point became instrumental in advising on the development of Tamayouz programmes that bridged the professional and academic spheres, bringing intellectual rigour to the way Tamayouz frames its challenges for the global architecture community
Professor Jala Makhzoumi
Professor Jala Makhzoumi is the laureate of the 2021 International Federation of Landscape Architects (IFLA) Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe Award for her outstanding contribution to education and practice, and recipient of the 2019 European Council of Landscape Architecture Schools Lifetime Achievement Award. She is the IFLA Middle East Region Past President and Adjunct Professor at the School of Design, American University of Beirut.
Professor Jala’s connection to Tamayouz began in 2013, when she was named a winner of the Inaugural Tamayouz Women of Outstanding Achievement Award. She joined the jury in 2014 as part of the first-ever Mohamed Makiya Prize for Architecture, and over the years, her contextual knowledge and regional networks shaped competition programmes rooted in their cultural and geographical realities, making them compelling to participants from around the world. Most recently, she led the collaboration between Tamayouz, IFLA and Beirut Urban Lab at the American University in Beirut to launch a landscape architecture competition, the first of its kind in the region.
A Legacy That Began with Zaha Hadid
The Tamayouz Grand Jury was first convened in 2012, chaired by the legendary Dame Zaha Hadid, a moment that set the standard for the ambition and excellence that Tamayouz has upheld ever since.
Tamayouz Excellence Award is sponsored by 99 Properties Development, Coventry University, The Iraqi Business Council in Jordan, Kufa–Makiya Charity, Dewan Architects + Engineers, Bonair Ltd, Aji Group, and Round City Magazine.