Majed bin Abdullah bin Hamad Al-Hogail was appointed as a Minister of Housing by a royal decree in July 2015.
On 25th of February 2020, a royal decree was issued to assign him as a Minister of Municipality and Rural Affairs in addition to his current mandate as Minister of Housing.
On 24th of January 2021, His Excellency was assigned to be the Minister of Municipal and Rural Affairs and Housing, after the merging of the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs and the Ministry of Housing by royal decree.
Over 24 years, H.E. Al-Hogail has held several senior positions as a Board Member, Chairman and CEO of national and international companies and NGOs operating in various business sectors, including real estate development, fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG), banking and insurance. He has worked with companies such as AlSafi- Danone Ltd., Makshaff Service Ltd., Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (SAMA), Bank Aljazira, Wafa Insurance, Aljazira Capital, NAS Airline Holding JSC, Credit Suisse Saudi Arabia, Rafal Realestate Development Co., Burj Rafal Real Estate Development Co., Saudi Arbitration Center, and Riyadh Chamber of Commerce.
H.E. Al-Hogail holds a Master’s degree in Business Administration from the University of Illinois, USA at Urbana-Champaign obtained in 1988, an EDP in Business Administration and Management from IMD Business School in 2007, as well as a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) Certification obtained in 1999 from New Mexico Public Accountancy Board.
H.E. Al-Hogail, who has extensive experience in real estate development, portfolio management, mergers and acquisitions, private equity, and financing, is working to clear the roadblocks that prevented Saudi Arabia from realizing its homebuilding vision by taking an unprecedented role in housing finance and development to build more than a million homes and make ownership more affordable.
• Appointed Governor of the Saudi Central Bank (with the rank of Minister) by a Royal Order dated 11 Rajab 1444 corresponding to 02 February 2023
• Chair of the Saudi Central Bank Board of Directors (ex officio)
• Appointed Vice Governor of the Saudi Central Bank for Investment and Research (with the rank of Minister) by a Royal Order dated 04 Dhu Al-Hijjah 1443 corresponding to 03 July 2022
• Appointed Vice Governor of the Saudi Central Bank by a Royal Order dated 18 Safar 1441 corresponding to 17 October 2019
• Deputy Governor for Investment at the Saudi Central Bank (2013 to 2019)
• Board Investment Committee Member at the Public Investment Fund (PIF)
• Board Member at the Saudi Fund for Development (SFD) and Chairman of the
Nomination and Remuneration Committee
• Board Member at the National Debt Management Center (NDMC) and Chairman of the Audit and Risk Committee
• Joined SAMA in 1999 and seconded in 2003 to the World Bank Group for 3 years to work in the Capital Markets Department of the International Finance Corporation IFC
• Started professional career at the Saudi Industrial Development Fund (SIDF) as a
financial analyst and achieved Chase Manhattan certification in credit analysis
• Obtained Bachelor’s degree in Accounting from King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals (KFUPM) and Master’s degree in Business Administration specializing in Finance from George Washington University
• Participated in various specialized programs conducted by banks and international asset management firms
• Completed the General Management Program of Harvard Business School at Harvard University
• CFA Charterholder
HE Mohammed Al-Jadaan is the Minister of Finance since November 2016. He also Heads three of the 2030 vision realization programs: the Financial Sector Development Program, the Fiscal Sustainability Program and the Privatization Program.
Previously, Al-Jadaan was the chairman of the board of the Capital Market Authority (CMA) of Saudi Arabia. In his capacity as the Minister of Finance, Al-Jadaan is currently a Member of the Board of Directors of the Public Investment Fund, Governor of the Kingdom at the Infrastructure Investment Asian Bank, Member of the Ministerial Council of the OPEC Fund for International Development, Member of the Board of Governors of the International Monetary Fund and Member of the Board of Governors of the World Bank.
Prior to his appointment as Minister of Finance, Al-Jadaan was a member and chairman of various committees and authorities. He was one of the founding partners of the Al-Jadaan and Partners Law Firm where he led a team of lawyers in the provision of legal services and contracts in many transactions and partnerships in the sectors of energy, petrochemicals, metals, water desalination, privatization and partnership between the public and private sectors and financing projects and initial proposals in the stock markets, bonds and sukuk.
Al-Jadaan, holds a bachelor’s degree in Islamic Sharia from Imam Mohammed Ibn Saud Islamic University and a degree in Legal Studies from Riyadh’s Institute of Public Administration.
Mr. Giancarlo Giorgetti – Minister of Economy and Finance Giancarlo Giorgetti has been Minister of Economy and Finance since 22 October 2022. He was born, and still resides, in Cazzago Brabbia province of Varese, Lombardy. He graduated in Business Economics at the Bocconi University in Milan. Member of the Chamber of Deputies since 1996, where he has served also as president of several parliamentary committees, he has been mayor of his town as well from 1995 to 2004. Secretary of the Council of Ministers from June 2018 to September 2019, he then held the role of Minister of Economic Development from 13 February 2021 to 22 October 2022. Member of Lega since the ‘90s, he is deputy secretary of the party since 2015.
Mathias Cormann is the 6th Secretary-General of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). His five -year term commenced on 1 June 2021.
Prior to his appointment to the OECD, Mathias served as the Australian Minister for Finance, the Leader of the Government in the Australian Senate and as Federal Senator representing the State of Western Australia.
In these roles, he has been a strong advocate for the positive power of open markets, free trade and the importance of a rules-based international trading system.
Mathias was born and raised in the German-speaking part of Belgium. He migrated to Australia in 1996, attracted by the great lifestyle and opportunities on offer in Western Australia.
Before migrating to Perth, Mathias had graduated in law at the Flemish
Catholic University of Louvain (Leuven), following studies at the (OECD) University of Namur and, as part of the European Erasmus Student
Exchange Program, at the University of East Anglia.
Between 1997 and 2003, he worked as Chief of Staff as well as Senior Adviser to various State and Federal Ministers in Australia and for the Premier of Western Australia.
Between 2003 and 2007, Mathias worked for major Western Australian health insurer HBF in a range of senior management roles.
In 2001, realizing a childhood dream, Mathias obtained his private pilot’s license.
Mathias grew up speaking German and graduated in law following studies in French, Flemish and English.
HE Mohammed A. El-Kuwaiz is Chairman of the Board of the Capital Market Authority (CMA) of Saudi Arabia. Prior to being Chairman, Mr. El-Kuwaiz was the Vice Chairman of the board of the CMA since August 2016.
Prior to joining CMA, Mr. El-Kuwaiz was the Co-founder and CEO of Derayah Financial Company. He was formerly a management consultant with McKinsey & Company. Prior to that, he worked in investment banking and corporate finance with Samba Financial Group.
Mr. Elkuwaiz has served as a board member in the Public Pension Agency, Al Yamamah Company for Reinforcing Steel Bars, Al Bilad Bank, in addition to his membership in the Securities and Investments Committee in Riyadh Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Investment Committee in King Faisal Foundation, the Investment Committee in Sulaiman Bin Abdulaziz Al-Rajhi Holding Company, as well as the CMA’s Advisory Committee.
Mr. El-Kuwaiz obtained an MBA from New York University’s Leonard N. Stern School of Business, specializing in finance and entrepreneurship in 2003. He received a Bachelor of Administrative Sciences with Honors from King Saud University in Saudi Arabia majoring in Law in 1998.
H.E. Faisal F. Alibrahim is the Minister of Economy & Planning in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
H.E. holds additional positions, including Director of the Secretariat, member of the Council of Economic and Development Affairs (CEDA), Director of the Secretariat, and member of the Covid Response Committee.
H.E. Alibrahim is the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the General Authority of Statistics and a member of several governmental committees and boards of prominent entities such as the National Development Fund, the Royal Commission for Riyadh City, the National Transformation Program, the Local Content and Government Procurement Authority, the National Center for Performance Management, and the Cultural Development Fund.
H.E. served as Chairman of the Executive Committee and member of the Supervisory Committee for the Kingdom’s participation in EXPO 2020 Dubai which has received multiple accolades such as the Best Pavilion Award from Exhibitor Magazine and multiple Guinness World Records. H.E. is also a member of the Expo Participation Committee which is overseeing the Kingdom’s participation in Expo 2025 Osaka among others.
Prior to his current role, H.E. Alibrahim served as Vice Minister of Economy and Planning. He previously held key positions at Saudi Aramco, including Head of mergers and acquisitions, Vice President of Aramco Development Company, Project Manager of King Salman International Complex for Maritime Services and Industries and Project Manager for the Vela-Bahri merger, one of the largest in Saudi at the time.
H.E. is a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader and member of the UCLA Health International Advisory Board.
H.E. Alibrahim holds a Master’s degree in Business Administration from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), a Bachelor’s degree in economics, a Bachelor’s degree in accounting, and a Minor in Management Information Systems from the Pennsylvania State University.
His Excellency Khalid A. Al-Falih has been Minister of Investment of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia since 25 February 2020.
He previously served as Minister of Energy, Industry and Mineral Resources from May 2016 to September 2019, as Minister of Health from April 2015 to May 2016, and as Chairman of the Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Saudi Aramco) Board of Directors from April 2015 to September 2019.
Prior to his appointment as Chairman, HE Al-Falih also held key leadership positions across the company, including President and Chief Executive Officer from January 2009 to May 2015. HE Al-Falih has been consistently recognized for his leadership in spearheading the strategic transformation of leading sectors and organizations across Saudi Arabia. His achievements include driving large-scale business initiatives and industrial projects, building organizational capacity for the benefit of Saudi citizens through economic and social programs, and enhancing the performance and impact of complex organizations. For many years, he has taken a particular interest in leveraging business activities to fuel social development and economic diversification; fostering strong collaboration between Saudi Arabia’s public, private and academic/research sectors; and promoting the importance of the fields of science and digital technology among young people.
HE Al-Falih remains committed to enriching society through the nurturing of entrepreneurship and innovation; the creation of a knowledge-based society equipped to meet the challenges of the future; the creation of new business and human resource development opportunities; and the protection of the environment. His appointment as Minister of Investment is in line with HE Al-Falih’s exceptional achievements in advancing private sector growth in the Kingdom, which is a central driver of Vision 2030, Saudi Arabia’s ongoing economic diversification plan.
In 2009, HE Al-Falih received the prestigious King Abdulaziz Medal (First Class), which is Saudi Arabia’s highest civilian honor for service to the country. HE Al-Falih has received many notable awards and recognitions throughout his career. In 2018, the Japanese government awarded him its national decoration, The Order of the Rising Sun. In 2016, he was recognized as Energy Intelligence Petroleum Executive of the Year.
HE Al-Falih earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from Texas A&M University in 1982 and completed his MBA at KFUPM in 1991. In 2009, he received an honorary doctorate from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology.
Dr. Al Jasser served as the Minister of Economy and Planning and Governor and Board Chairman of the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (SAMA), the Saudi Central Bank.
He was a member of several ministerial councils, boards, and committees, most notably the Council for Economic Affairs and Development and the Board of Directors of the Public Investment Fund.
Other previous positions include the Alternate Governor for Saudi Arabia at the IMF, the World Bank, and the Islamic Development Bank, Vice Governor and Vice Chairman of the Board of SAMA, Deputy Minister of Finance and National Economy, IMF Executive Director, Chairman of the GCC Monetary Council, Member of the Governing Body of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, Chairman of the Board of the Arab Investment Company, and Chairman of the Council of Islamic Financial Services Board.
Dr. Muhammad Al Jasser received several medals and awards, most notably the King Abdul Aziz Medal of the First Order in 2001.
Dr. Al Jasser obtained his Master of Arts in 1981 and his Ph.D. in Economics in 1986 from the University of California. Earlier, he received his Bachelor of Arts in Economics with honors from San Diego State University in 1979.
H.E. Dr. Nabeel Koshak is the CEO and Board Member at SVC. Nabeel has been an active angel investor since 2018. He is a Board Member of Middle East Venture Capital Association (MEVCA). Nabeel is a member of the Executive and Investment Committee at the Cultural Development Fund, the Investment Committee at KAUST’s Innovation Fund and of the Saudi Venture Capital and Private Equity Association.. He is a startup mentor at Endeavor Saudi Arabia. He is a Board member of TCL (Tomouh Community of Leaders).
Formerly, Nabeel was the Founding Executive Dean of Prince Mohammad Bin Salman College (MBSC) of Business and Entrepreneurship in partnership with Babson College at King Abdullah Economic City. Nabeel was an Executive Advisor at the Ministry of Economy and Planning and an Executive Advisor at Deloitte. Nabeel was the Co-Founder and the Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of Wadi Makkah Company (Innovation Fund, Startup Accelerator, and Venture Capital Fund). He was a Board Member of Oqal (Angel Investors Group) Jeddah branch and a mentor at Flat6Labs Startup Accelerator. He was a Board Member and the Chairman of the Investment Committee at King Abdulaziz and His Companions Foundation for Giftedness and Innovation (Mawhiba). Nabeel is the former Co-Founder and Director of King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST) GIS Technology Innovation Center. Koshak was a Member of the Executive Committee of King Faisal International Prize. As an entrepreneur, Nabeel was the Founder and CEO of five tech startups.
Nabeel received an Executive Education in “International Board Directors Program (IDP)” from INSEAD in 2021, Executive Education in “Venture Capital and Private Equity” from Harvard University in 2019, an Executive Education from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in “Regional Entrepreneurship Acceleration Program” and “Management, Innovation, Technology” in 2017. He holds a PhD in Design Computing from Carnegie Mellon University in 2002, and a Master of Architecture (Computing in Design and Planning) from the University of Colorado in 1997.
Dr. Mohamed Maait is currently serving as the Minister of Finance of Egypt. Prior to his appointment as a Minister, he held the position of Vice Minister of Finance for Public Treasury Affairs and Head of the Economic Justice Unit. In addition, he served as the First Assistant Minister of Finance for Treasury Affairs in 2015 and as the Assistant Minister of Finance for Pensions and Social Insurance from 2009 to 2013. He also held the position of the Assistant Minister of Finance for Actuarial Administration Affairs in 2013 and the position of the First Assistant Minister of Health & Population from 2014 to 2015.
Over his career of 33 years, he had occupied many positions such as acting Chairman and Vice Chairman of the Egyptian Financial Supervisory Authority (2013-2015), Chairman of the Egyptian Governmental Actuarial Department (EGAD) at the Ministry of Finance (2010-2013), Vice Chairman of the National Organization for Social Insurance (2011-2012), and Senior Advisor to the Minister of Finance (2007- 2009). He was also appointed as the Executive Director of the Egyptian Insurance Institute in 2007.
Regarding his presence in boards of directors, he is currently the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Africa Reinsurance Corporation since 2021, and the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Egyptian General Authority for Universal Health Insurance since 2018.
Academically, he holds the title of the Assistant Professor in the Department of Actuarial Science and Insurance in the Faculty of Commerce of Cairo University. He also worked as a Senior Lecturer and has more than 30 years of teaching and researching experience at many universities in Egypt, Sudan, England and Scotland.
Dr. Maait holds a Bachelor of Science in Insurance and Mathematics from Cairo University, Egypt (1984), a Master of Philosophy in Insurance from Cairo University, Egypt (1992), a Master of Science in Actuarial Science (1997), and a PhD degree in Actuarial Science from City University, London, UK (2003). He also obtained a Diploma in Actuarial Science in 1996. His academic and professional activities were shown in several research papers and publications.
Dr. Khaled Al-Dhaher is the Vice Governor for Supervision and Technology at the Saudi Central Bank (SAMA). Dr. Al-Dhaher is responsible for leading and managing SAMA’s Supervision, Development and Technology. He guides SAMA’s strategic supervisory directions to ensure the soundness, resilience and effectiveness of the financial sector in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Dr. Al-Dhaher also focuses on achieving SAMA’s strategic objectives for developing the financial sector and ensuring that SAMA keeps up with the latest financial technology development, such as open banking, virtual assets and digital currencies. Furthermore, Dr. Al-Dhaher leads the efforts for consumer protection aligned with financial institutions to guarantee fairness and transparency in the financial sector.
Dr. Al-Dhaher has over 30 years of leadership experience in technology and financial services. Before joining SAMA, he was the Chairman and Country Managing Director of Accenture Saudi Arabia.
Dr. Al-Dhaher held leadership positions in various companies in Saudi Arabia, the Middle East and Africa. He worked with Microsoft as the General Manager for Saudi Arabia and the General Director of Business Solutions for MEA. Moreover, Dr. Al-Dhaher held the position of Managing Director for Hewlett Packard Enterprise in Saudi Arabia. Dr. Al-Dhaher also worked with Oracle as the Director of Business Applications as well as the Manager of Financial Services Industry Solutions for MEA.
Dr. Al-Dhaher holds memberships in several committees and boards of directors.
Dr. Al-Dhaher earned his PhD in Computer Science and Engineering from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in the United States. He holds master’s and bachelor’s degrees in Computer Science and Engineering from King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals in Saudi Arabia.
H.E. Ali bin Ahmed Al Kuwari has extensive experience in government and the financial industry, spanning over 30 years.
Prior to being appointed as the Minister of Finance in October 2021, he held the position of Minister of Trade and Industry.
H.E. became QNB Chief Executive Officer in July 2013 and held this position until 2018.
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.H.E. Shaikh Salman bin Khalifa Al-Khalifa was appointed Minister of Finance and National Economy in December 2018. In September 2022, he was appointed Chairman of the Board of Directors of Bahrain Mumtalakat Holding Company. He is also Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Oil and Gas Holding Company.
Previously, as Director General of the Office of the First Deputy Prime Minister since its establishment in 2013, he closely pursued the implementation of the plans and strategies relating to the initiatives launched by His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, Deputy Supreme Commander and First Deputy Prime Minister.
He also served as Secretary for the Coordinating Committee, led by HRH, along with membership of the Ministerial Committee for Financial Affairs & Rationalizing Expenditure, the Fiscal Reform Committee and the Supreme Council for Education and Training.
He was Managing Director of Global Markets for the MENA region at Deutsche Bank AG, Dubai, United Arab Emirates, from 2008 to 2012, and Principal of “Investcorp” Hedge Fund Specialist Group for Middle East Investors, 2005-2008. He worked at UBS Investment Bank, United Kingdom, from 2000 to 2005, where he became Director of Equity Risk Management Products and member of its UK Investment Committee.
Shaikh Salman holds a Bachelor of Science in Investments and Economics from Babson College, Wellesley, Massachusetts, U.S.A., 1999.
He was honored by His Majesty the King, who granted him the Bahrain Order (First Class) in 2016.
Mohsen is the lead of Virtual Assets and CBDC Program within the Saudi Central Bank (SAMA); throughout his career, he has continually demonstrated a passion for driving innovation and pushing the boundaries of digitization and fintech.
With more than two decades of experience in developing, deploying, and managing payment solutions, Mohsen has developed a strong and unique expertise. His knowledge and leadership have proven invaluable in shaping the future of technology-driven finance. He is fully committed to pushing boundaries in this exciting field.
is appointed co-head of Global Markets activities on 22 June 2021, while retaining his position as Head of Equities and Equity Derivatives which he has held since June 2018.
He was previously Global Head of Equities Structured Products and Structured Financing at Bank of America Merrill Lynch since 2016. Alexandre started his career in California working on the development of portfolio optimization software. He then spent 10 years at Societe Generale being successively based in Tokyo, New York and Paris where he carried out responsibilities in Structured Equity Derivatives Trading and Structured Credit Derivatives Trading. In 2009, he joined Credit Suisse to become Head of Quantitative Futures Trading Strategies. In 2011, he moved to Morgan Stanley where he acted as Head of Equities Structured Products for Europe and Asia, Head of European Flow Index Trading and Global Head of Hybrids Trading.
Alexandre Fleury is a graduate of the Ecole Centrale Paris, France and has a Master of Science from the University of California, Berkeley, USA.
Philip has had a distinguished career in British politics as a Member of Parliament from 1997 to 2019. He held a range of Senior cabinet posts, most recently serving as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 2016 to 2019. Prior to this, he served as Foreign Secretary (2014-2016), Defence Secretary (2011- 2014) and Transport Secretary (2010-2011). He was awarded a life peerage by Her Late Majesty The Queen in July 2020.
Before entering Parliament in 1997, Philip had a wide-ranging business career spanning the house-building and property, healthcare equipment and oil and gas sectors.
As Chancellor of the Exchequer, Philip focussed on the long-term productivity challenges facing the UK economy and was a strong advocate for the Financial Services sector, and especially for the fast-growing Fintech sector. He championed the cause of SMEs and the need for greater access to long-term growth capital to allow successful British start-ups to scale up in the UK, rather than seeking capital overseas.
Philip is Chairman of Copper Technologies (UK) Ltd, a company specializing in financial services trading infrastructure.
Muadh Alhusaini is a co-founder and managing partner at Ehata Financial, a specialized independent advisory house focused on market risk management, derivatives, and hedging. Ehata also provides services relating to debt arranging, restructuring, and debt issuance.
Before pursuing the consultancy career six years ago, Alhusaini spent nearly ten years as a senior banker in the global markets and financing solutions with local and international banks.
Alhusaini is skilled in designing and delivering development programs, seminars, and published columns focused on financial risk management, investment, compliance, and governance trends. He holds several boards and committee memberships in the banking, investment, fintech, and mining industries. He is a CFA charter holder, holds the Financial Risk Manager (FRM) certification, and is a Certified Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA).
Mr. Akihiko (Aki) Nishio is the World Bank Vice President for Development Finance (DFi) where he oversees strategic mobilization of Bank resources, including the International Development Association (IDA) and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), as well as a diverse trust fund portfolio.
In this role since February 2019, Mr. Nishio focuses on furthering IDA’s innovation: leveraging its equity by blending donor contributions with internal resources and funds raised through debt markets, scaling up engagement in fragile countries, and finding new ways to promote private sector development.
In 2021, Mr. Nishio led the historic early IDA20 replenishment where development partners agreed to a record package of $93 billion. He also led the successful IDA19 replenishment in 2019 during which $82 billion was committed to the world’s poorest countries. Mr. Nishio has over 30 years of experience combining managerial leadership, technical knowledge, operational experience, and a track record of collaboration with development partners.
He is a British Council scholar with an M. Phil. in development from Cambridge University, a B.A. in economics from Hitotsubashi University in Japan, and an undergraduate diploma from the Université Catholique de l’Ouest in Angers, France.
Dr. Leclercq is a Member of the Swiss Private Bank Executive Board and Head of New Markets since 2006.
For the last 25 years, Arnaud has led international development in and across Switzerland, Eastern Countries, Middle East and Africa.
Prior to joining Lombard Odier, he was a Managing Director of Crédit Suisse in Zurich.
Arnaud has a degree in law studies, holds a Master in Business Administration from HEC Paris and is a Harvard Business School graduate. He earned a PhD summa cum laude from Sorbonne University.
On the side of his banking career, Arnaud is adjunct Professor of geopolitics at HEC Paris Business School.
Yousef AlYousefi is CEO at Joa Capital, an alternative investment firm licensed by the Saudi Capital Markets Authority, where he is also managing partner at S3 Ventures, Joa Capital’s flagship venture capital investment vehicle.
Prior to founding Joa Capital, Yousef co-founded Marco Partners, a strategic advisory and investment firm that counts the largest Saudi companies and ministries as its clients as well as a number of very successful tech startups. Prior to that, he co-founded Riyad Taqnia Fund, Saudi Arabia’s first institutionally backed venture capital fund.
Yousef started his career as an engineer in the oil and gas sector at Saudi Aramco and Schlumberger. He sits on the board of directors of Saudi Post and Logistics Company (SPL), MedGulf Insurance, Saudi Airlines Catering Company, and Saudi Automotive Services Company (SASCO). Previously he sat on the boards of Saudi Fransi Capital, Leejam Sports Company and the investment committee of the Saudi Venture Capital Company (SVC).
Yousef holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Colorado at Boulder and a Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School.
Based in Dubai, Jérôme Droesch is the Chief Executive Officer of the Domestic Health and Health Services forInternational Health, Cigna Healthcare.
He is responsible for advancing Cigna’s Domestic Health portfolio and Health Services propositions, as the premier provider of both health and wellness insurance services to individuals, groups, and government entities,for the International Health business (all businesses outside the United States) for Cigna Healthcare.
In addition, Jerome spearheads the growth of the Health Services business for Cigna Healthcare (outside the US), where he is tasked with the implementation of high-level strategies for ensuring the long-term profitable growth of the organization.
Jerome is passionate about making quality health care accessible to a wider section of the population. To champion this vision, Jerome also leads Cigna’s International Market’s Strategy and Innovation functions.
He is also a Board Member of the Dubai Chamber of Commerce & Industry Advisory Council, tasked with playing a role in furthering HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum’s vision and driving the economic development of the Emirate of Dubai.
Abdulrahman Tarabzouni is the Founder and CEO of STV, the largest technology investment firm in the Middle East.
Previously, held executive leadership roles at Google’s headquarters in California. He headed the company’s global efforts to build new businesses and partnerships for Android, Mobile, and Wireless Communications. Prior to that, he built and scaled Google’s Android and Play business across Russia, Eastern Europe, Middle East and North Africa.
Mr. Tarabzouni first joined Google in 2009, to establish and lead the company’s emerging business operations in the Middle East. He directed the company’s regional product and business strategies, led growth and investments, and drove strategic partnerships.
Prior to Google, Abdulrahman co-founded a number of technology ventures in the US and managed different technology consulting, banking, and design projects at Oracle, Morgan Stanley, and Blueprint.
He is a member of a number of boards, executive, and investment committees, and the Founding Chairman of the Saudi VC & PE Association.
Abdulrahman graduated with a Bachelor of Science and Master of Engineering degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, with a concentration in Economics, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Constance Chalchat is the Head of CIB Company Engagement, Global Markets Chief Sustainability Officer and is a member of the CIB Executive Committee.
Constance is responsible for Company Engagement, Sustainable Finance, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Strategic Marketing & Communication within CIB. As environmental and societal issues are at the core of BNP Paribas’s strategy, CIB Company Engagement’s mission is to work closely with all of CIB business lines and functions in order to accelerate its sustainable finance activities, as well as partnering with Human Resources to promote diversity and inclusion, drivers of engagement within the company.
Since joining BNP Paribas in 2001, Constance has held various management positions in Transformation, People Development, Marketing & Communication.
Constance holds a Master of Business Administration in Finance from HEC Paris business school and recently completed Positive Impact business certified training at the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership.
She is the author of “Technology, threat or lever of change?” published in l’Annale des Mines in 2018.
Scott is the Head of Markets DLT and is responsible for the strategy and execution of new trading products built on DLT/Blockchain. Additionally, he is responsible for representing JP Morgan on industry initiatives and wider market developments related to DLT.
Scott joined JP Morgan in 2010 and has spent most of his time in the Treasury/Chief Investment Office and the Corporate and Investment Bank. He also serves on the board of HQLAx and Ownera, and is a Trustee of Global H20 (UK), a charity focused on providing clean water in Uganda.
Prior to joining J.P. Morgan, Scott served as an Infantry Officer for 13 years in the Australian and British Army, including tours of East Timor, Northern Ireland and Iraq.
Scott holds a Master of Business Administration from Cambridge University and a Bachelor of Arts from Deakin University.
Justin Yifu LIN is Dean of Institute of New Structural Economics, Dean of Institute of South-South Cooperation and Development and Professor and Honorary Dean of National School of Development at Peking University. He was the Senior Vice President and Chief Economist of the World Bank, 2008-2012.
Prior to this, Mr. Lin served for 15 years as Founding Director and Professor of the China Centre for Economic Research (CCER) at Peking University.
He is Councilor of the State Council and a member of the Standing Committee, Chinese People’s Political Consultation Conference.
He is the author of more than 20 books including Beating the Odd: Jump-starting Developing Countries; Going Beyond Aid: Development Cooperation for Structural Transformation, the Quest for Prosperity: How Developing Economies Can Take Off, New Structural Economics: A Framework for Rethinking Development and Policy, Against the Consensus: Reflections on the Great Recession, and Demystifying the Chinese Economy.
He is a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy and a Fellow of the Academy of Sciences for Developing World.
Mr. Ziad Alyousef is the Deputy Governor for Development and Technology at the Saudi Central Bank (SAMA).
He has over seventeen years’ experience in digital financial services. He was the Managing Director of Saudi Payments Company from 2018 to 2020. He previously served in various leadership roles in SAMA, where he was the General Manager of Payment Systems between 2017 and 2018, and Director of Information Technology for Payment Systems between 2015 and 2017.
Mr. Alyousef holds a Master in Business Administration from Al Faisal University in addition to being alumni of the Leadership Program at Harvard Business School and INSEAD.
Kenneth Rogoff is Maurits C. Boas Professor at Harvard University, and former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund.
His influential 2009 book with Carmen Reinhart, This Time Is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly, shows the remarkable quantitative similarities across time and countries in the roots and aftermath of debt and financial crises.
Professor Rogoff is also known for his pioneering work on central bank independence, and on exchange rates. He is co-author of the widely-used graduate text, Foundations of International Macroeconomics.
His 2016 book The Curse of Cash looks at the past, present and future of currency from standardized coinage to crypto-currencies. His monthly syndicated column on global economic issues is published in over 50 countries.
Professor Rogoff is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He has long ranked among the top dozen most cited economists, and is an international grandmaster of chess.
Naman Sharma is a partner in the Financial Institutions Group Practice of Kearney Middle East.
An engineer by education, Naman has over 20 years of experience in the financial services and consulting industry across Asia, Americas and Middle East. Since 2012, Naman has been based in the Middle East advising and supporting public and private sector financial institutions (primarily Development Financial Institutions and Commercial Banks) in institutional capability building and end-to-end transformations. In particular, Naman has developed specific expertise and focus on Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) funding and development and advises policy makers and financial institutions on accelerating their SME enablement priorities.
In addition to his successful career, Naman is a sports enthusiast and lives between Riyadh and Dubai with his wife and two beautiful daughters.
John has more than 20 years of experience in financial services.
Prior to joining HBSC, John was responsible for the global FICC business at ICE Futures Europe (previously the London International Financial Futures Exchange – LIFFE).
At HSBC, John has led electronic trading development within Global Banking and Markets, and is now Global Head of Digital Assets Strategy, responsible for HSBC’s approach to CBDCs, stablecoins, cryptocurrencies and asset tokenization.
Ferid Belhaj took up the position of World Bank Group Vice President for Middle East and North Africa on July 1, 2018. Prior to this, Mr. Belhaj served 15 months as the Chief of Staff of the President of the World Bank Group.
From 2012 to 2017, Mr. Belhaj was World Bank Director for the Middle East, in charge of World Bank work programs in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Iraq and Iran, based in Beirut, Lebanon. In this capacity, he led the Bank engagement on the Syrian refugee crisis and its impact on the region, including the creation of new financing instruments to help countries hosting forcibly displaced people; the ramping up of the Bank drive towards the reconstruction and recovery of Iraq during and after the ISIS invasion and the scaling up of the Bank’s commitments to Lebanon and Jordan.
Before taking up his Mashreq assignment, Mr. Belhaj served as World Bank Director for the Pacific Department (2009-2012), where he developed a regional strategy that scaled up Bank engagement in small and fragile states, and tripled lending operations of the International Development Agency, one of the five institutions under the umbrella of the World Bank Group that provides interest-free loans and grants for Low-Income Countries.
From 2007 to 2010, Mr. Belhaj was the World Bank’s Special Representative to the United Nations in New York, where he engaged with various UN agencies on a range of programs, mainly climate change, the Millennium Development Goals, fragile and post-conflict states and the global financial and food crises.
Ferid Belhaj served as World Bank Country Manager for Morocco from 2002 to 2007, where he developed a new and multifaceted dialogue with one of the best performing Middle-Income countries.
A Tunisian national, Mr. Belhaj joined the Bank in 1996 as Senior Counsel in the Legal Department, managing a number of legal and judicial reform projects. He also served as Bank Counsel for countries, including Egypt, Morocco, Iran, Algeria and Thailand.
Fabrice Susini has over 25 years of experience in the banking industry.
He has held various functional and operational positions in different financial institutions, while managing international teams. He headed the securitization franchise of BNP Paribas.
Mr. Susini holds a Master in Business Administration from London Business School, a Master’s Degree in Banks and Financial Institution’s management from University of Paris-IX Dauphine, and a Degree in law from the University of Paris X Nanterre.
Elyas Algaseer is MUFG’s Managing Director holding the post of Chief Executive Officer of Global Corporate and Investment Banking (GCIB) MENA and Co-Head of DIFC Branch – Dubai.
He started his MUFG career in 2013 as Deputy General Manager of DIFC Branch – Dubai, and in 2016 was promoted to Co-Head of DIFC Branch – Dubai. Thereafter, he became a member of MUFG’s oil and gas sector committee which plays a central role in navigating the franchise in the energy space.
At MUFG, he is also an Executive Member Committee of the bank’s Global Corporate and Investment Banking (GCIB) council since 2017. He also has various responsibilities such as EMEA CIB Management, Deal Screening Quorum and a member of Global Asset Liability Committee (GALCO).
He has more than 30 years of extensive knowledge and experience in Global and Capital Markets in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and the UK. He joined Credit Agricole Indosuez in 1990, and stayed on during its transition into Credit Agricole CIB. Based in Saudi Arabia for 5 years from 1991, he handled different mandates and managed the Global FX for Corporates in the region. In 1996, he assumed responsibility as Head of Marketing for the Middle East, based in London. In 2000, he relocated to Bahrain to support the bank transitioning from a representative office into a full branch, to eventually becoming the CACIB Headquarters in the Middle East.
He assumed several executive responsibilities and roles in the bank ending with being the General Manager of its Bahrain branch, as well as the Head of its Financial Institutions Coverage for MENA, after the bank’s relocation to Dubai.
He graduated from a Master of Science in Economics and Finance from the University of Hull in 2009.
Antoine Khadige is a Principal with Strategy& and a member of the firm’s Financial Services practice. He combines in-depth business expertise with deep technical know-how that allows him to harmonize technology and business needs to deliver impactful change across a wide range of topics.
Antoine has over 15 years of experience in consulting, industry, and entrepreneurship. He specializes in corporate strategy, consumer finance, payments, and fintech. He has led large-scale transformation initiatives to digitize products and enhance end-to-end customer journeys. He also defined go-to-market strategies and operating models for neo banks by identifying target customer segments and designing value propositions. In addition, he worked with nonfinancial and technology companies to develop and implement enterprise-wide payment strategies, products, and infrastructure across the payment value chain.
Antoine sits on the boards of several startups and advises founders on product development, growth strategies, and investments. He also works with leading accelerators and incubators in the MENA region to promote fintech entrepreneurship and lobby for tech-friendly regulatory environments.
Antoine holds a Doctorate of Business Administration from the University of Lyon, a Master’s degree in Business Administration from IE Business School, a Master’s in Management finance from London School of Economics, and a Bachelor’s degree in engineering from the American University of Beirut.
Aurelien Vincent is a Partner with Strategy& and a member of the firm’s Financial services practice in the Middle East.
He has eight years of strategy consulting experience in strategy, organization, transformation, risk, and post-merger integration.
He has worked with an array of clients including banks, funds, regulators, and development finance institutions in Western Europe and the GCC.
Prior to consulting, Aurelien spent 10 years with top-tier international banking institutions in M&A and wholesale banking, including JPMorgan and BNP Paribas in Singapore, London, and Paris.
He holds a Master’s degree in Business law from the University of Paris II Panthéon-Assas, a Master’s degree in Management from ESCP Business School, and a Bachelor’s degree in Finance from the University of St. Gallen. He is also a CFA Charterholder.
Mr. Ammar Alkhudairy is the Chairman of Saudi National Bank.
Prior to his bank chairmanship, he played key leadership roles in various Saudi financial institutions such as the Riyad Bank, the United Saudi Bank, and rhe Banque Saudi Fransi. In addition, Alkhudairy served as a Board Member from 2015 to 2018, Chairman of the Audit Committee from 2015 to 2018, and was the interim Managing Director and CEO from October 2017 to March 2018 at Banque Saudi Fransi.
Alkhudairy’s expertise, which spans over 30 years in the financial sector, focused on areas such as Corporate Banking, Project Finance, Corporate Finance, M&A, and Asset Management.
Alkhudairy has also served in various public and private board memberships, including Chairmanship of Goldman Sachs Saudi Arabia, Chairmanship of Morgan Stanley Saudi Arabia, Chairmanship of Allianz Saudi Arabia, and board member of Almarai. He founded and chairs Amwal Capital Partners, an alternative assets’ management business based in the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) and in Riyadh. He also served as board member in government related entities, including Real Estate Development Fund and the Economic Cities Authority.
Alkhudairy earned a Master of Science. in Engineering Administration and Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from George Washington University.
Abdulla Almoayed is a serial entrepreneur and the Founder and CEO of Tarabut Gateway (TG) – the first and largest Open Banking platform in MENA. He is passionate about building game-changing digital infrastructures that push the data-driven economy forward and improves people’s lives.
His vision is to create a collaborative environment for innovation that empowers a new generation and provides financial inclusion for the millions of unbanked, underbanked, and underserved populations of MENA.
Abdulla is a frequent investor in the region, providing financial support and mentorship for a range of cross-sector businesses in industries as diverse as healthcare, education, logistics, cybersecurity, and FinTech.
By founding Tarabut Gateway and through his commitment to the development of collaborative digital technologies via angel investment, Abdulla aims to transform the financial services sector in the region.
He holds a Master in Business Administration from the London Business School and a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Management with Honours from the University of Westminster, London.
Dominik Treeck is a Partner at the consulting firm Oliver Wyman. He advises senior decision-makers on the design and delivery of financial sector policy. His clients are governments, central banks, regulators, and development banks.
For over a decade, Dominik has particularly focused on the GCC, but he has also worked extensively across Europe and Asia-Pacific. His areas of expertise include financial sector development and diversification, effective governance in the public sector, strategic planning for central banks and regulators, risk assessments and national strategies to fight economic crime, public-private partnerships, and public policy interface management.
Dominik is a Fellow of the Salzburg Global Seminar and a Non-resident Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council’s empower ME Initiative. He has partnered on research and publication projects with organizations such as the Group of Thirty and the International Finance Corporation.
Prior to joining Oliver Wyman, Dominik had stints working in research roles for the United Nations and the African Development Bank.
Dominik holds a B.A. in Politics, Philosophy and Economics from Balliol College, Oxford, and a M.A. in International Economics and China Studies from The Johns Hopkins Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in Washington, DC and Nanjing.
Aung Kyaw Moe is the Founder & CEO of 2C2P, a full-suite payments platform trusted by global businesses for digital payment acceptance.
A leading industry expert and Fintech thought leader, Aung was recognized as one of Asia’s Top 25 Entrepreneurs by Business Week. Under his leadership, 2C2P has grown into a global company with expertise in emerging markets.
Aung holds an Executive Master in Business Administration from Sasin School of Management of Chulalongkorn University and ACE from MIT Sloan School of Management. Aung is also a graduate of the Owner/President Management program at Harvard Business School.
Dr. Sven-Olaf Vathje is a Partner in the Oliver Wyman Dubai office and has been working in the Middle East since 2004. He is dedicated to serving clients in insurance, SWFs and health care in Saudi Arabia and the GCC.
Sven-Olaf’s consulting work is spread across a broad range of topics, from corporate strategy to operations, risk management and organization. Recently he worked on insurance sector development opportunities resulting from coordination of public and private sector initiatives.
Over the last 25 years, Sven-Olaf has been advising some of the world’s largest insurers and reinsurers as well as financial regulators. He started his consulting career in Germany, then spent a few years in the U.S. before relocating to the Middle East in 2006.
Sven-Olaf graduated from the University of Tennessee (U.S.A.) with a Master’s degree in Economics. He also holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Kiel (Germany).
Mr. Abdulaziz AlOnaizan, is the CEO and member of the Board of Directors and Executive Committee of Bank Albilad. Among his other current positions, he serves as Chairman of the Board and Chairman of the Executive Committee of Bayan Credit Bureau, Chairman of the Board of Enjaz Payment Services Company and Vice-Chairman of the Board and member of the Executive Committee of Albilad Capital. He also sits on the Board of Buna (Arab Regional Payments Clearing and Settlement Organization) as Saudi Arabia’s representative.
Mr. AlOnaizan is a seasoned banker with over 30 years of experience and expertise in the field of treasury, investment, risk, credit, strategy, and leadership. He held several senior leadership positions in a number of local financial institutions prior to his appointment as CEO of Bank Albilad in 2016.
Mr. AlOnaizan has attended various executive courses and programs, notably the Executive Education at INSEAD Singapore and the IESE Business School Global CEO Program in Barcelona, Spain.
He has represented Bank Albilad in major domestic and global conferences and was a resource speaker and panelist in several forums on financial markets, locally and internationally.
Mr. AlOnaizan obtained his Bachelor’s Degree in Research Methodology and Quantitative Methods from King Saud University College of Business Administration in 1987.
Jim DeMare is president of Global Markets for Bank of America and is a member of the company’s executive management team.
DeMare has more than 25 years of financial services industry experience. Prior to joining Bank of America in 2008, he held various management and senior trading positions in fixed income at Citigroup, Salomon Brothers and Bear Stearns. Under his leaders hip, Global Marke ts is focus ed on supporting Bank of America’s institutional and corporate clients with their financial market activities globally. Global Markets provides market- making, financing, securities clearing and settlement services across debt, equity, commodity, and foreign-exchange markets world- wide. DeMare is also responsible for the bank’s Global Commercial Real Estate Lending business.
DeMare proudly co-sponsors Bank of America’s Developing and Engaging African American Leaders (DEAL) employee network, which is focused on promoting African American and Black talent. He is engaged in the New York City community, serving as a trustee for Prep for Prep, a leadership development program that provides opportunities for diverse students. DeMare is also a member of the Dean’s Council at Weill Cornell Medicine.
Ron O’Hanley is chairman and chief executive officer of State Street.
Ron was previously president and chief operating officer of State Street, and before that, president and chief executive officer of State Street Global Advisors, the investment management arm of State Street. He joined State Street in 2015.
Prior to State Street, Ron was president of Asset Management & Corporate Services for Fidelity Investments, responsible for Fidelity’s asset management organizations, corporate functions, and enterprise technology. He served at Fidelity from 2010 to 2014.
Before joining Fidelity, Ron served as president and chief executive officer of BNY Mellon Asset Management in Boston. During this time, he also served as vice chairman of Bank of New York Mellon Corporation. Additionally, Ron oversaw all of Bank of New York Mellon’s activities in Asia. Prior to the 2007 merger of Bank of New York and Mellon, he was vice chairman of Mellon Financial Corporation and president and chief executive officer of Mellon Asset Management. He served at Mellon and Bank of New York Mellon from 1997 to 2010.
Prior to Mellon, Ron was with McKinsey & Company from 1986 to 1997, and was elected a partner in 1992. He founded the Investment Management practice and was co-founder of the firm’s North American Personal Financial Services practice. Additionally, he was a member of the Property & Casualty Insurance practice. During his tenure with McKinsey, Ron served in the firm’s Boston, New York, and Stockholm offices.
Ron serves on the boards of Unum Corp., Beth Israel Lahey Health, ABL Space Systems, The Boston Foundation, The Ireland Funds, IYRS School of Technology and Trades, Syracuse University, WBUR, and the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. He is Chair of the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce and the Financial Services Forum.
Seth Carpenter is a Managing Director and Chief Global Economist at Morgan Stanley.
Previously, he was Chief US Economist for UBS and Head of US Research for Rokos Capital.
Prior to entering the private sector, Seth had an almost two-decade career in the public sector. During his 15 years at the Federal Reserve, he rose to the position of Deputy Director of the Division of Monetary Affairs, working on monetary policy strategy and implementation.
At the US Treasury, he was Deputy Assistant Secretary for Macroeconomic Analysis and then was nominated by President Obama to be Assistant Secretary for Financial Markets.
Seth earned his PhD in Economics from Princeton University.
Mr. Souaid is the Founder and Managing Partner of Growthgate Equity Partners, an alternative-assets management company that invests, on behalf of Growtgate Capital, in privately held businesses in the GCC and the MENA region. Under his watch, Growthgate Capital invested some $250m in 8 platform companies, advised on 20 bolt-on acquisitions, and underwent 4 exit transactions.
Prior to forming Growthgate Partners in late 2006, Mr. Souaid was MD of Global Investment Banking at HSBC Bank (Middle East) from May 2000 to May 2006. At HSBC, Mr. Souaid and his team successfully led several landmark transactions in the Middle East including, inter alia, the privatisations of Arab Potash in Jordan (2003), Industries of Qatar “IQ” (2003), Agthia in Abu Dhabi (2005), Omantel (2005), of Arkan in Abu Dhabi (2006), and of Jordan Phosphate (2006). At HSBC, Mr. Souaid also led with his team International Public Offerings of Dana Gas and of Investcom Holding in 2005.
Mr. Souaid holds an LLB from the Jesuit School of Law at St. Joseph University (Lebanon), an LLM from Harvard Law School (HLS) and a Diploma Certificate from the Executive Program at Harvard Business School (HBS) in corporate valuation and restructurings.
Mr. Souaid is a member of the New York State Bar Association. Between 2010 and 2014, Mr. Souaid contributed to five white papers on PE in the Middle East with Prof. Josh Lerner and HBS faculty members; and is an active contributor to the International Negotiation Program of Harvard University led by Prof. Dan Shapiro.
David M. Rubenstein is Co-Founder and Co-Chairman of The Carlyle Group. He is a 1970 graduate of Duke University and a 1973 graduate of the University of Chicago Law School. He served as Chief Counsel to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Constitutional Amendments before becoming the Deputy Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy during the Carter Administration. He also practiced law in both New York City and Washington, D.C.
Mr. Rubenstein is Chairman of the Boards of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Council on Foreign Relations, the National Gallery of Art, the Economic Club of Washington, and the University of Chicago; a Fellow of the Harvard Corporation; a Trustee of the World Economic Forum; and a Director of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, among other board seats.
Mr. Rubenstein is an original signer of The Giving Pledge; the host of The David Rubenstein Show and Bloomberg Wealth with David Rubenstein; and the author of The American Story, How to Lead,The American Experiment, and How to Invest.
Eng. Abdulla bin Mohammed Al Zamil is the Chairman of Zamil Industrial Investment Company, having previously served as Chief Executive Officer.
Prior to this, he was the Senior Vice President at Zamil Air Conditioners, where he started his career as an industrial engineer.
He is also the Chairman of Saudi Global Ports, Zamil Air Conditioners Holding Co., Zamil Steel Holding Co., Gulf Insulation Group, Gulf International Bank B.S.C, Gulf International Bank Saudi Arabia and GIB Capital.
His board memberships include Ranco & Zamil Concrete Industries and Zamil Offshore Services Company. He also serves as a Board Member of government entities, including the Eastern Province Council.
Eng. Al Zamil holds a Master in Business Administration, with a concentration in Finance, from King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, Saudi Arabia, and a Bachelor of Sciences in Industrial Engineering from the University of Washington, USA.
He has over 35 years of professional experience.
Christos is the Founder & Managing Partner of Iliad Partners, a Venture Capital fund based in ADGM, UAE that invests in early-stage tech startups in the MENA region.
He has actively been making VC investments in MENA since 2016, including in regional success stories such as Trukker. Christos is a VC investor and former tech entrepreneur (4x startups, 4x exits), digital executive, and management consultant with more than 23 years of experience in the US, Europe, and MENA.
Based in Dubai since 2007, he was previously the Head of Business Development of Yahoo! Maktoob and an engagement manager with Booz & Company. Christos previously held operating roles at four startups he built and exited: GlamBox (UAE), Upstream (Greece), govWorks (US) and SloanGear (US).
He has served on the Boards of several startups, is a founding Board Member of the Middle East Venture Capital Association (MEVCA). He was a founding Advisory Board member of MAGNiTT and part of the Steering Committee of In5, a Dubai technology incubator.
Christos holds a Master in Business Administration from the MIT Sloan School of Management and a Bachelor of Science in International Relations from Georgetown University.
Mr. Tal Hisham Nazer has been a Board Member and the Chief Executive Officer of Bupa Arabia since 2008. Under his leadership, Bupa Arabia grew to be the largest insurance company in Saudi Arabia and amongst the top 5 in the Arab world. It has become the gold standard of healthcare services and innovation in the market.
Mr. Tal Nazer is a Board and Committee member for various companies. He is the Chairman of Najm for Insurance Services Company and the Chairman of Cool Inc, Board member of Nazer group, and a member of SAMA’s Insurance Executive Committee. He joined the CEC of Bupa Group in an advisory capacity. He is also a member of the Financial Academy Board of Trustees, of the Cybersecurity Committee in the Ministry of Health, and of the Board of Directors of Endeavor Saudi Arabia. Additionally, Mr. Nazer is also a member of CHI’s Private Health Insurance Strategic Committee, of Health Insurance Sub-Committee (HISC), of EBDA Co., of the Young Presidents Organization (YPO) and of the Young Global Leaders (YGL).
Mr. Tal Nazer holds a Master in Business Administration in Finance and Buyouts, from The Wharton School, Pennsylvania, completed in 2001, and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from the University of California at Los Angeles, completed in 1996.
Driven by the desire to restore insurance to its original purpose of providing mutual aid for those who need it most, but can afford it least, Michele founded Democrance in 2015.
Prior to that, Michele worked in strategy and distribution at global insurance powerhouses AXA and MetLife in France, Egypt and the UAE. He is a frequent speaker at microinsurance, entrepreneurship and social innovation events, as well as a frequent contributor to publications in the Middle East and wider region.
On top of his position as CEO of Democrance, Michele sits on the Board of Directors of the Microinsurance Network, a non-profit member association of microinsurance experts, including donor organizations, multilateral agencies, insurance and social protection providers, policymakers and academics.
Italian by birth, Michele holds a Master in Management Grande Ecole from ESCP Europe in Paris and Master of Science in Economics from Turin University. He is also a graduate of Carlos III University in Madrid and of City University in London.
Courtney Powell is tasked with helping venture capital firm 500 Global scale globally and explore new opportunities across both new and existing markets. She is responsible for driving day-to-day operations across the team to pursue 500’s mission of uplifting people and economies through entrepreneurship.
Her ties to 500 Global go back to 2012, when she founded PublikDemand, a member of Batch 4 in 500’s Seed Accelerator. She went on to become CEO of Agent Pronto, one of the largest real estate agent referral services in North America, which was ultimately acquired by Fidelity National Title Group.
Most recently, Courtney was the Head of Corporate Development at Keller Williams, the largest real estate franchise in the world. During her tenure, she established the company’s first corporate innovation program, and worked with Keller Capital to invest and acquire tech companies in the real estate space.
Courtney was named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 list in 2012, received the Twilio Doer Award in 2013, and became a Google Business Leader in 2015.
She attended the University of Texas at Austin and studied French and Corporate Communication.
As Deloitte’s Emerging Technology and Innovation Leader for the United States, Combiz is responsible for helping governments and organizations to build and implement innovative and inclusive programs using new and emerging technologies.
He has served as a National Security Lawyer, Policy Advisor, Financial Regulator, and Chief Innovation Officer, advising Presidents, Cabinet-Level Secretaries, Senators, and Global CEOs on innovation issues.
He is a member of many financial sector focused organizations including the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Expert Policy Advisory Board on Blockchain, Digital Assets, and AI. He also serves as Vice Chair and Head of FinTech for the U.S. Secretary of Commerce’s Trade Finance Advisory Council.
Born in Texas, the son of immigrants from the Middle East, he is a graduate of UCLA, AUB, and Georgetown Law.
He is the recipient of the Federal 100 Award, recognizing the top 100 executives who’ve made the greatest impact in government. He has been acknowledged as one of the top 50 leaders working on U.S. national security and foreign policy by the CSIS-DINSN Power 50 List. Additionally, the World Economic Forum’s Agile 50 List has identified him as one of the world’s 50 most influential people driving innovation in government, regulation, and policymaking.
Tony Cripps is the Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of SABB, the leading international bank in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. He was appointed in May 2021. He also chairs the ESG Saudi Banks Advisory Committee.
Before his current role, Tony Cripps was the Chief Executive Officer of HSBC Singapore, the leading international bank in Singapore supporting retail, business, corporate and institutional banking customers through its network of local branches and offices
Tony has worked in banking for more than 30 years, with management roles in institutional banking, treasury, trading and sales businesses, transaction banking, information technology and operations.
He first joined HSBC in 1986 as a floor trader for the Sydney Futures Exchange and went on to manage Australia’s derivatives business before being appointed Head of Foreign Exchange and Rates Strategy for HSBC Asia Pacific. In the early 1990’s Tony worked with Sydney University pioneering predictive neural network programmes, an early adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI), which was later commercialized. The research paper was published by the London School of Economics.
From 2000 to 2006, Tony was based in Hong Kong as Head of e-Commerce for HSBC Asia Pacific and then in London as Head of e-Commerce, Global Banking and Markets for the HSBC Group. In 2006, Tony returned to Australia as Head of Global Markets, subsequently taking up the expanded role of Head of Global Banking and Markets. When he became CEO of HSBC Australia in 2013, the bank experienced a period of significant growth under his leadership. Prior to this, Tony was President and Chief Executive Officer of HSBC Philippines between 2010 and 2012, where he also served as Chairman of HSBC Savings Bank and HSBC Insurance Brokers, Inc., Chairman and Trustee of HSBC Retirement Trust Fund, Inc. and Director of OCLP Holdings, Inc. Later on, he was appointed to the Board of HSBC Singapore in 2016, and as HSBC Group General Manager in 2016.
Andrew has over 25 years of experience as a technology entrepreneur, investor, and mentor – including more than 17 years as General Partner with a leading venture capital firm. He has been instrumental in founding and building early-stage companies into global market leaders – many of them at the pre-revenue/pre-product stage. His early-stage investments include marquee names such as Facebook, Uber, Twitter, Venmo, and Concur.
Andrew has raised and managed more than $2 Billion in assets across multiple venture capital funds, delivering top decile returns regardless of the economic cycle. His funds have been backed by global family offices, UHNWIs, endowments, sovereign wealth funds, and public/private pension funds. He continues his investment activities through P1, where he is the Managing General Partner.
In addition, Andrew’s family office activities include investments in and mentoring of early-stage technology companies, fixed assets, philanthropy, and public equities. He has served on over 50 corporate boards in the US, Europe, and Asia.
Andrew is a motorsports enthusiast, having competed on two and four wheels worldwide, securing a championship along the way. He is an avid outdoorsman and triathlete.
Sjoerd Leenart is the Global Head of Corporate Banking, a group that is responsible for managing the relationship with JP Morgan’s largest Corporate, Financial Institutions and Public Sector clients in North America, EMEA, Asia/Pacific and Latin America.
Until last year, he was also the Regional Head for Central & Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa (CEEMEA). In this capacity, he represented J.P. Morgan’s global platform across all business lines and works with coverage teams and clients across the Corporate and Investment Bank and Asset Management.
Mr. Leenart has been at J.P. Morgan for over two decades and gained experience in a variety of roles across the firm. He led the European High Grade bond syndicate desk until 2022 and then became co-head of Western European Debt Capital Markets. In 2006 he was named co-head of CEEMEA Debt Capital Markets, Sales and Derivatives Marketing and added Latin America to his responsibilities in 2009. He was appointed Senior Country Officer for the Middle East and North Africa region in 2011 and expanded his responsibilities to Turkey and Africa in early 2014. He was named Regional Head for CEEMEA in 2017.
Mr. Leenart holds a degree in Economics from the Erasmus University of Rotterdam (The Netherlands).
David Livingstone was appointed Chief Executive Officer for Citi Europe, Middle East and Africa in February 2019. In this role, he is responsible for Citi’s businesses throughout EMEA, where Citi maintains a physical presence in 55 countries and does business in 52 more. David is a member of Citi’s Executive Management Team.
Prior to this, David was Citi Country Officer for Australia and New Zealand from June 2016. He was responsible for Citi’s business in Australia and New Zealand, including developing and implementing business strategy, fostering client relationships, managing risk and controls, and enhancing and protecting Citi’s reputation in the region.
David joined Citi from Credit Suisse, where he was Vice Chairman of the Investment Banking and Capital Markets Division for the EMEA region and a board member of Credit Suisse International and Credit Suisse Securities (Europe) Limited. David served as Chief Executive Officer of Credit Suisse Australia, a role he held from 2010 to 2013.
David joined Credit Suisse in 2007 from HSBC, where he was a Managing Director and head of EMEA Investment Banking Advisory. Prior to that, he worked at the Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. for 16 years in a variety of senior roles.
David holds a Bachelor of Arts Honors degree in economics from Macquarie University in Sydney and a Master of Arts degree in law from Jesus College, Cambridge.
Todd is president of Goldman TSachs International. He is a member of the Firmwide
Management Committee, European Management Committee, Firmwide Conduct Committee, Firmwide Reputational Risk Committee and Global Inclusion and Diversity Committee.
Todd joined Goldman Sachs in New York in 1992 in IBD’s Financial Institutions Group (FIG). He relocated to Chicago in 1996 and became co-head of FIG Americas Banks and Specialty Finance from 2005 to 2007 and co-head of IBD’s Midwest Region from 2006 to 2007. Todd relocated to London in 2007, where he served as co-head of FIG EMEA from 2007 to 2012 and global co-head of FIG from 2012 to 2017, and as a member of the IBD Executive and Operating committees. Todd relocated to Hong Kong in 2017 upon being named co-president of APEJ, and was subsequently named head of IBD APEJ later that year, roles he held until 2022. He also served as co-chair of the Asia Pacific Management Committee, Asia Pacific inclusion and Diversity Committee, Asia Pacific Sustainability Committee and as a member of the IBD Executive Committee. Todd was named managing director in 2000 and partner in 2006.
Todd earned a Master of Management from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and a Bachelor of Business Administration from Iowa State University.
Stephen Moss is Regional Chief Executive Officer for the Middle East, North Africa and Turkey at HSBC. Mr. Moss was appointed to the role of Regional Chief Executive Officer in April 2021 and has been a Group Managing Director since December 2018.
Mr. Moss started his career with HSBC in 1992 and has held a series of roles in Hong Kong and the UK. Most recently, Mr Moss was the Regional Chief Executive with responsibility for overseeing the bank’s businesses in Europe (ex-HBUK), the Middle East, North Africa and Turkey; Latin America; and Canada, a role he held from March 2020. Prior to this, Mr. Moss held the role of Chief of Staff to the Group Chief Executive leading Group Strategy and Planning, Group Mergers and Acquisitions, Global Communications, Global Events, Group Public Affairs and Group Corporate Sustainability.
Prior to joining HSBC, Mr Moss worked for Price Waterhouse.
Mr. Moss currently sits on the boards of HSBC Middle East Holdings B.V., HSBC Bank Middle East Limited, HSBC Saudi Arabia, HSBC Bank Egypt S.A.E, and the Saudi British Bank. Mr. Moss serves as a Board Member of the Dubai International Chamber, Altamayyuz Finance & Accounting Excellence Academy and as an Advisory Board Member of the Hong Kong Red Cross.
Mr. Moss is a qualified Chartered Accountant of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales. He is married with two children.
Axel P. Lehmann is the Chairman of Credit Suisse Group AG since January 2022. Additionally, he chairs the Governance and Nominations Committee and the Credit Suisse Foundation.
Axel P. Lehmann has more than three decades of professional experience, spanning the financial services industry and an academic career. During the last 25 years, he has worked in both the international insurance and global banking sectors.
Prior to joining Credit Suisse, Axel P. Lehmann was a member of the Group Executive Board of UBS Group, initially as Group CEO and then as President Personal & Corporate Banking and President UBS Switzerland. Between 2009 and 2015, he served as a non-executive director and a member of the Risk Committee of UBS Group and was a member of the Governance and Nominating Committee from 2011 to 2013.
Earlier in his career, he spent almost 20 years at Zurich Insurance Group, of which 14 years were as a member of the Group Executive Committee. His various roles at Zurich Insurance Group included responsibility for the insurer’s European and North America business, group IT and as Chief Risk Officer.
Axel P. Lehmann currently holds mandates at several academic and non-profit institutions, including serving as an adjunct professor at the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland.
He holds a PhD in Business Administration from the University of St. Gallen and is a graduate of the Advanced Management Program of the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, USA.
Martina L. Cheung is President of S&P Global Ratings responsible for all aspects of the business. Ms. Cheung also serves as the Executive Sponsor of S&P Global Sustainable1, supporting the enterprise-wide growth strategy for ESG.
Ms. Cheung is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Economic Club of New York, and served on the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s subcommittee on Climate-Related Market Risk.
Ms. Cheung joined S&P Global in 2010 as Vice President of Operations and went on to serve as Chief Strategy Officer with oversight of S&P Global’s expansion of its global footprint. She also served as Head of Risk Services in S&P Global Market Intelligence and was most President of Market Intelligence.
Ms. Cheung is the Executive Sponsor for the Women’s Initiative for Networking Success (WINS) and is actively involved with other S&P Global People Resource Groups (PRGs). Ms. Cheung’s philanthropic efforts include support for organizations such as Upwardly Global and YWCA.
Prior to joining S&P Global, she worked in Accenture’s Financial Services Strategy group and later as a Partner at Mitchell Madison Consulting.
She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Commerce and a Master’s degree in Business Studies from National University of Ireland, Galway.
Shayne Nelson is a veteran banker with an extensive career across many sectors of the industry. During Shayne’s eight-year tenure as Group CEO of Emirates NBD, the bank’s market capitalization has increased from AED 15.8 billion to AED 90 billion. Emirates NBD’s assets have grown from AED 308 billion to 700 billion with a significant acquisition of DenizBank in Turkey for USD 2.7 billion. Emirates NBD has continued its organic expansion and growth in Egypt, India and Saudi Arabia with the latter franchise receiving the most additional branch licenses of any foreign bank.
Shayne is a member of the Board of Directors for Emirates Islamic, Emirates NBD Capital Ltd., Emirates NBD Capital PSC, Tanfeeth, DenizBank A.Ş. (Turkey), International Monetary Conference, Marsh Emirates Insurance Brokers, a member of the Advisory Board to the University of Wollongong in Dubai and a member of the International Cooperation Council France UAE (CCI France UAE).
Prior to joining Emirates NBD, he served in Singapore as the Chief Executive Officer of Standard Chartered Private Bank for three years. He was also the Chairman of Standard Chartered Saadiq Islamic Advisory Board and a Board member of Standard Chartered Bank (China) Ltd. Shane was also Regional CEO of Standard Chartered Bank Middle East and North Africa for five years based in Dubai (2006 – 2010), Chairman of Standard Chartered (Pakistan) Limited, and Chairman of the Banking Advisory Council to the Board of the Dubai International Financial Centre. He also held the position of Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of Standard Chartered Bank, Malaysia Berhad based in Kuala Lumpur.
Shayne’s solid experience is a testament to his diverse background within banking. Earlier in his career, his positions included Standard Chartered Chief Risk Officer for Wholesale Banking based in Singapore, Regional Head of Corporate and Institutional Banking Audit for the Asia Pacific Region and India, as well as Regional Head of Credit in Hong Kong, China and North East Asia. He was also the Head of Corporate and Institutional Banking for Westpac Banking Corporation for Western Australia based in Perth.
A Graduate Member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, Shayne is an Associate Fellow of the Australian Institute of Managers. Shayne is married to Siti Mariana Abdullah, a Malaysian citizen and has two children. In his leisure time, he enjoys playing golf and spending time with his family. He is also a passionate fisherman, for which he holds a world record.
Dr. Saeeda Jaffar currently serves as Senior Vice President and Group Country Manager for the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region. In this role, Dr. Jaffar and her team are focused on driving Visa’s business growth in the region with key clients and partners from financial institutions, partners, and governments in support of Visa’s mission to help individuals, businesses, and economies to thrive. With digitization high on the regional agenda, Dr. Jaffar and her team are committed to making Visa a partner of choice, while unlocking growth opportunities for new and existing clients and partners across the GCC.
Dr. Jaffar’s leadership and expertise of 20 years have enabled her to expertly deliver pragmatic and practical solutions to strategic issues, drive bottom-line impact, and achieve rapid results. Dr. Jaffar also currently serves as a Member of the Board of Trustees at Kuwait University. She has previously served as a non-executive board member at United Arab Bank and Ishraq, a hospitality company. She has also served as an Advisory Board Member at the Bahrain Fintech Bay.
Over her career, Dr. Jaffar has worked in the Middle East, Europe, and the U.S. on a wide range of strategic, M&A and performance-related issues with clients across a range of industries, while specializing in financial services including universal banks, private banks, investment banks, private equity firms, sovereign wealth funds, government institutions and family-owned businesses.
Prior to joining Visa Inc, Dr. Jaffar was the Managing Director at Alvarez & Marsal ME, the world’s leading turnaround and restructuring firm and held leadership positions at McKinsey & Company as well as Bain & Company, serving clients across the U.S., Europe and the GCC.
Dr. Jaffar is an Emirati national and earned a Bachelor’s degree in biomedical engineering from Boston University, where she was the valedictorian. She earned a Master’s degree and a Doctorate in chemical engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Walid’s deep involvement in the Venture Capital & Technology ecosystem in the MENA region dates back to the mid 2000s. Since 2005, Walid has been intimately involved in this transformational entrepreneurial story by participating in the setup, scale up and exit of several VC Funds and Technology companies.
Walid serves as a board member and advisor to many successful internet and technology companies regionally and globally.
Walid has previously worked in Public Policy (UAE Prime Ministry Office), Strategy Consulting (Booz Allen Hamilton) and Industrial & Software engineering.
Walid holds a Masters in Industrial Engineering from the “Institut National des Science Appliquées” INSA of Lyon (France) and a Masters of Business Administration from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania (USA).
Tala Al Jabri is a founder, VC and growth investor in fintech and consumer businesses across the GCC and other emerging markets.
She is an angel investor at Saudi Angel Investors and Board Member of several organizations including the Middle East Venture Capital Association (MEVCA) and Alice Labs. Previously, she was an investor at SoftBank Vision Fund focusing on growth-stage ventures in the Middle-East and Africa and working with portfolio company expansions into the MENA region.
Tala was named Arabian Business’ Woman of the Year in Finance in 2022.
She is a regular contributor to Forbes and Entrepreneur Magazine.
Jad Ellawn is a Managing Director in Brookfield’s Real Estate Group and Regional Head of the Middle East, where he is responsible for the Firm’s activities in the region.
Prior to joining Brookfield in 2018, Mr. Ellawn held senior roles in the private equity division of a leading international investment bank. Before that, Mr. Ellawn held various roles within a large investment bank in New York and London.
Mr. Ellawn holds a Master of Business Administration degree from INSEAD in Fontainebleau, France and a Bachelor of Science degree from Georgetown University.
Andrew Torre serves as Regional President for the CEMEA region at Visa Inc. In this role, he oversees all of Visa’s operations in more than 90 countries across the Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa region and cultivates relationships with Visa’s clients and government authorities. Andrew reports to Visa’s global president, Ryan McInerney and sits on Visa’s global Operating Committee.
Andrew has been with Visa since 2002, holding global roles in product, strategy, and pricing, as well as general manager roles in Russia and Sub-Saharan Africa and is a member of the President’s Advisory Council on Doing Business in Africa.
An industry veteran, Andrew’s experience outside Visa includes terms with BankServ where he was General Manager of the Enterprise Payments Division and Washington Mutual where he served as Vice President of New Product Development and Strategic Planning. He has also worked with the World Bank in Kyiv, Moscow, and CIS territories.
Torre received his M.A. from Johns Hopkins University, and he holds a B.A. from the University of Vermont.
Since March 2012, Ambareen is the CEO of Souqalmal, the first regional online comparison site for financial and non-financial consumer products, listed among the Top 10 most promising UAE start-ups by Forbes Middle East and as one of the Top 100 most promising SMEs by Dubai SME. The site allows users to search and compare over 1,000 products and post their views on the products they currently own.
In parallel, Ambareen was selected to be a member of the “Task Force on Digital Financing”, a UN-led global initiative focusing on the role of FinTech in sustainable development. She fulfilled these responsibilities from 2018 to 2020.
Ambareen has a rich international experience. Starting in Oceania, she founded RenFast Australia, an online property portal for international students, before joining GE to expand its business across Australia and New Zealand. Moving to London in 2004 to work for GE’s financial arm, GE Money, Ambareen has held various roles in marketing, financial literacy, customer advocacy and e-commerce. Moving to the UAE in 2008, Ambareen worked as a consultant for Bain & Company Middle East. She went on to set up the consulting arm of MasterCard Middle East and Africa, where she stayed for two years.
Ambareen has been awarded “Woman Entrepreneur of the year” by The Entrepreneur magazine and won the Emirates Women Award by the Dubai Government.
She holds a Master in Business Administration from INSEAD and a Bachelor of Business in Information Systems from RMIT University.
Hasan has over 15 years of investment and operational experience.
He founded Arzan VC in late 2013 and it grew into one of the most active Venture Capitals in the MENA region, having made investments in over 45 startups, including Careem, Swvl, TruKKer, iKcon and Hala.
Prior to Arzan VC, Hasan used to work with Global Investment House in their Private Equity Department, and he was a member of both the transaction and due diligence teams.
Hasan also co-founded different businesses and was instrumental in building the right teams to manage the growth prospects of each company. For example, he co-founded Edge Foods, an F&B operator and accelerator, and led its operations for three years.
He currently sits on the boards of Al Amanah Holding, BBK Geojit Securities, Edge Foods, Kuwait Prospects and Mesk Holdings.
Hasan earned his Master in Business Administration from INSEAD and his Bachelor’s degree from Purdue University.
Jad is the co-founder and managing partner of Phoenician VC, an early-stage venture capital firm based in the MENA region. Since its inception in 2016, the firm primarily focuses on investing and partnering with exceptional entrepreneurs in fintech and other disruptive sectors. He led the buildup of a 20+ companies’ portfolio as part of the firm’s investment activities and realized three successful exits in the region so far.
Jad has more than 15 years of experience in venture capital investing, consulting, and investment banking. Prior to co-founding Phoenician, he has worked across the globe including the GCC, Turkey, Levant, North Africa and SouthEast Asia, holding roles with McKinsey & Company, Booz & Co., and J.P. Morgan.
During this time, he advised more than 15 financial institutions (SWFs, financial institutions, banks, regulators) on strategy design and execution, digitization, launching new ventures, international expansion, operating model and governance, mergers and acquisitions, and debt capital markets.
Jad holds a Master’s Degree from ESCP Europe and a Bachelor’s Degree from the American University of Beirut.
Yousef manages the operations of BECO Capital and is lead partner for 20 portfolio companies to date.
Prior to joining BECO in 2014, Yousef co-founded multiple businesses in Saudi and worked in various divisions of General Electric including Investments at GE & Mubadala $5 billion joint ventures and GE Aviation where he was the Commercial Operations Director.
Yousef holds a Bachelor of Science in Finance from King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals and is a Kauffman Fellow.
Ali founded Tap Payments in 2013 to solve the deep-rooted online payment problems in the MENA region. He started his career in payments in the oil & gas sector and then further developed his passion for payments while working with banks & financial institutions. Later, he got more involved with the telecom industry, which helped him become consumer-centric & technology-driven with innovative forms of payment experiences.
As the CEO of Tap Payments, he has played a significant role in disrupting the fintech industry within the region. Tap unified the fragmented payment landscape in the region by developing a single API to access all the payment methods that consumers highly adopt within the region.
Tap enabled organizations to accept and collect online payments with an API that has standardized local and international payment schemes, gateways, and switches from the complex integrations of the pre-Tap era, which took weeks and months, to the post-Tap era of hours and days. Today Tap serves over thousands of businesses of all sizes, from small home businesses all the way to large corporations across various industries such as Retail, Food, Insurance, Airlines, Telecom, and many others, with an automated merchant onboarding flow.
Mr. Abdullah Al Howaish is a multi-faceted personality due to his vast knowledge and experience in various sectors, which include: Financial Services, Real Estate, Retail, Industrial and Transportation sectors. He is the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Amlak International for Finance Company. Prior to that, he held the position of the Managing Director, and a founding member of this company, where he played a vital role in the establishment of this company.
Currently, he is also holding the position of the Managing Director of Sinad Holding Company.
He also held several leadership positions in some of Saudi Arabia’s key companies across a range of sectors, including banking (SABB, NCB & ANB), investment services, audit and food production.
In addition, he has also served many prestigious organizations in different capacities. To name a few, he was the Chairman of Saudi Credit Bureau (SIMAH), Saudi Ground Services Co.(SGS), Saudi Al-Amad for Airport Services and Transport Support (SAAS), and The Standard Chartered Capital Saudi Arabia.
He is also presently associated with several leading and prestigious organizations of Saudi Arabia as a Board of Director, and Member of several Committees, like SEDCO, Emaar Economic City, Alessa Industries, Halwani Bros. Co. & Al Rabie Saudi Foods Company.
Esra Turk joined Deutsche Bank London in June 2021 and is currently Head of CEEMEA and LATAM Institutional Client Group (ICG), Co-Head of Global Emerging Market Sales and Chair of Middle East & Africa. She is a member of ICG Extended ExCo and Global Emerging Markets (GEM) ExCo. Esra also represents Deutsche Bank on the International Swap Dealers Association (ISDA) Board.
Previously, Esra worked for 12 years at Barclays and was Head of Emerging Markets Sales and Origination in EMEA and Americas and Chairman of Middle East and North Africa. She was also a member of the Client ExCo in Markets, Diversity Champion for Markets, WIN Gender Network Executive Sponsor in the UK and member of Barclays Bank Development Council. Esra also held other senior roles across Structuring, Financial Resource Management, Risk Solutions Group as well as Barclays Non-Core (BNC) where she led the client management team which developed client-centric solutions that accelerated BNC’s derivative and asset divestments.
Esra started her banking career at Bankers Trust (now Deutsche Bank) in Leveraged Buyouts and Corporate Finance, and went on to work in Derivatives Marketing for Eastern Europe, Turkey and Portugal. Esra has also worked in a Structuring role within Emerging Markets Proprietary Trading at Credit Suisse and was an Executive Director and Co-Head of CEEMEA Debt Capital Markets Origination and Liability Management at UBS before becoming Turkey Country Head at Dresdner Kleinwort.
Esra holds a Master in Business Administration in Finance from UCLA Anderson School of Management and a Bachelor of Arts from Bogazici University, Istanbul. She was a Trustee and Board Member of Tower Hamlets Education Business Partnership between 2016 and 2021.
Mr. Hani Al Medaini, is the CEO of the National Debt Management Center, He joined the center in 2019 as the Head of portfolio and was appointed in 2021 as acting deputy CEO. Mr. Al Medaini is also a member of the Real Estate Development Fund, as well as Saudi Housing Guarantee Services, and a number of committees emanating from the Board of Directors. ousing Gurantee
Mr. Al Medaini, holds more than 17 years of extensive experiences in the finance market, where he served in a number of key positions in the banking sector including the role Head of Investment at Saudi British Bank (SABB) Treasury Saudi.
Mr. Hani Al Medaini holds a Bachelor’s degree in Software Engineering from King Fahad University of Petroleum and Minerals in Dahran.
Mr. Karim Awad is Group CEO, Chairman of the Executive Committee, and a member of the Board of Directors of EFG Hermes Mr. Awad started his career at EFG Hermes in 1998 in the Investment Banking Department. He assumed managerial roles in the Firm thereafter, first as CEO of the Investment Bank in 2012 and then as Group CEO in 2013.
Working together with the EFG Hermes Holding senior management, Mr. Awad spearheaded a major shift in the Firm’s strategy that transformed EFG Hermes from a MENA-based investment bank to a frontier markets financial solutions house. To achieve this vision, the Firm focuses on six pillars: hiring the best people, improving the Firm’s positioning in markets it operates in, selectively expanding its geographical presence, enhancing its product offering, increasing profitability metrics, and ensuring that public responsibility remains front and center to all its operations.
During the past nine years, the Firm was able to enhance its market share in its core sell-side operations in its key markets of UAE, KSA, and Egypt while expanding its presence to seven new markets that span sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. The Firm was also able to significantly increase the suite of products it offers to clients by building a full-fledged non-bank financial institutions (NBFI) platform. In November 2021, EFG Hermes Holding finalized an acquisition of a commercial bank in Egypt, thereby completing its transformation into a universal banking platform.
The strategic shift helped drive growth in the Firm’s revenues, which reached EGP 6.1 billion, and profits, which stood at EGP 1.45 billion in 2021, all while maintaining a strong commitment to the communities in which the Firm operates through a CSR policy and ESG standards.
Mr. Awad holds a degree in business administration (BBA) from the American University in Cairo.
Ms. Rania Nashar joined the Public Investment Fund (PIF) as a Senior Advisor to the Governor in February 2021, where she advises His Excellency Yasir Al-Rumayyan, Governor of PIF, in areas of Business and Governance, drawing on more than 20 years of professional experience in the banking industry. In addition, she is the Head of Compliance & Governance at the Public Investment Fund and the Chairman of The Regional Voluntary Carbon Market Company.
Prior to joining PIF, Ms. Nashar served as the CEO of Samba Financial Group (SFG), making her the first Saudi woman to lead a major banking group in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. She first joined SFG in 1997 at the start of her banking career, where she served in various positions across different divisions of the Group and played a pivotal role in bringing vital changes and developments to SFG’s business sectors.
Ms. Nashar also holds various other leadership and advisory positions. During her time at SFG, she served as Vice Chair of the SambaCapital Board and as a Board member of Samba Bank Limited in Pakistan, Samba Global Markets Limited. She also served as a board member at Institute of International Finance “IIF” in USA.
In March 2019, the Board of the Capital Market Authority of Saudi Arabia (CMA) appointed Ms. Nashar as Vice Chair of the CMA Advisory Committee. Ms. Nashar also serves as Board member of STC, the Saudi Stock Exchange, the National Center for Performance Measurement, Saudi Space Commission and Saudi Polo Federation. Also, she chairs the Audit Committee at FII.
Some of Ms. Nashar’s other major achievements throughout her career include becoming the first Saudi women to lead the audit and risk review functions for all business and operations areas at SFG, including investment business, corporate and individual banking, and risk management. She is also the first woman in the GCC financial sector to lead a compliance group and first Saudi woman to be named a certified anti-money laundering specialist by the Association of Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialists (ACAMS) in the USA. During KSA G20 Presidency Rania chaired the B20 Women in Business Action Council and G20 EMPOWER Alliance. Currently, she is serving as a Co-Chair in Action Council for B20 Women in Business
Ms. Nashar holds a Bachelor’s degree with Honours in computer science and technology from Kind Saud University. She has been recognized by Forbes on multiple occasions for her professional achievements, being named among the Top 100 Powerful Women in the World in 2018, 2019 and 2020.
Brian re-joined Fitch Ratings in October 2015 as Chief Economist. His previous employment was at Legal and General Investment Management in London where he worked as Emerging Market Strategist from November 2010 to September 2015.
Prior to that Brian worked for eleven years in the Sovereign Group at Fitch Ratings, including spells in Hong Kong as Head of Asia Pacific Sovereigns and in London as Head of EMEA Sovereigns and Global Economics. He was formerly an Economic Adviser at HM Treasury.
Brian has a Master’s degree in economics from the University of Warwick and a Bachelor of Science in economics from the University of Wales.
Mohieddine Kronfol is the Chief Investment Officer for Franklin Templeton Fixed Income in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Mr. Kronfol is responsible for managing the investment process, research, and performance of the Global Sukuk and MENA Fixed Income teams, and leads portfolio management for FTSF Global Sukuk Fund and Gulf Wealth Bond Fund.
Dino is a pioneer in Arab capital markets where he has committed the past 25 years to the development of MENA debt markets and Sharia compliant finance across the globe. He has one of the longest track records managing global Sukuk assets, since 2008, and under his leadership, Franklin Templeton has established itself as a leader in Global Sukuk investing. Dino frequently shares his views as a commentator on regional and international media and is a regular speaker at industry events.
Preceding his tenure at FT, Dino was part of a small team that, in 2000, helped build from scratch and run what became SHUAA Capital’s financial services business. He was initially head of Capital Markets and later became head of Debt Asset Management and, in 2002, fund manager of the first fund to focus exclusively on MENA debt. Prior to that, he was an early employee at one of the first pan-Arab investment banks, Middle East Capital Group (MECG).
Mr. Kronfol holds a Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration and a Master of Business Administration from the American University of Beirut. He won the first Failaka Islamic Award for “The Best Sukuk Fund” in 2010, the first Employee Provident Fund of Malaysia (EPF) Award for “Best Global Sukuk Portfolio Manager” in 2014 and 2019, and the MENA Fund Manager Award for “Outstanding Achievement by an Individual” in 2016. Franklin GCC Bond fund won the Mountain View Fund Award 2019 in the Bond Funds Global category. In 2021 and 2022 his team was awarded the Bonds, Loans & Sukuk Middle East Awards for MENA Fixed Income Strategy, 1 and 3 Years and Global Sukuk Strategy, 1 Year.
Gaurav is a Senior Managing Director of State Street Global Advisors and the Chief Investment Strategist. He leads a team of professionals responsible for helping advisors, consultants and institutional clients analyze economic and market developments, assess the impact to their portfolios and identify specific products and solutions to help them manage risk and take advantage of market opportunities. He leads our Macroeconomic and policy, Investment strategy and research, and a team of client facing portfolio strategists. He is a member of the firm’s Executive Management Group.
Gaurav represents the investment organization on the company’s Global Product Committee and Sales Practices Committee. He also leads the Editorial board, which is responsible for thought leadership across State Street Global Advisors.
Prior to this role, he led our client facing portfolio strategist team, driving revenue growth across our product suite. He has considerable experience working with clients on strategies for investing in emerging markets and has managed assets covering both active emerging market equities and cross asset within emerging markets.
He started his career as a part of the quantitative credit research team at State Street Global Markets. He joined State Street Global Markets from SKG, Inc., a company he founded with State Street in 2001 focused on trading illiquid bonds.
Gaurav holds an MBA in Finance from Cornell University, a Master in Electrical Engineering, with a focus on Neural Networks, from Boston University and a BS in Electrical Engineering from Robert Gordon’s University in Aberdeen.
Mr. AlAfaleg is the Managing Director of Saudi Payments, the national payments infrastructure provider and main enabler of payment services to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Abdulaziz has been instrumental in building Saudi Payments, under the supervision of the Saudi Central Bank, with a clear mandate in establishing the national foundation of digital payments within the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
With over 17 years’ experience gained within the Financial Services sector, Abdulaziz AlAfaleq has a proven track record of running the Kingdom’s systemically important payment systems.
A graduate of King Saud University, Abdulaziz obtained his Master degree of Business Administration from Alfaisal University. He also attended Harvard Business School’s Leadership Development program.
Piyush started with Kearney’s New York office in 2013, transferred to the Middle East in 2019, and has lived the Kearney spirit throughout. During his time within the firm, he has worked in more than 15 countries and in every continent with a Kearney office.
Piyush’s areas of deep expertise include payments, insurance, and banking as a consultant and as part of industry roles over the past 15+ years in the Middle East and North America. He has led strategic transformations (including next-gen product innovation and rollout, digital transformation, operating model design and implementation) at various global financial services clients. He is focused on driving national-level next-gen payments innovation across GCC countries, digital transformation and growth agenda for banks and insurers, and partnership opportunities for fintechs.
“Financial sectors are at the forefront of innovation and that’s the most exciting part of working with clients across payments, insurance, and banking,” he says. “Financial services CXOs have to continuously modernize and embrace new technologies and use cases and deliver increasingly innovative products in an increasingly digital service delivery.” Piyush is driven by diversity across client problems, people, perspectives, and entities to promote his own continuous learning and deliver fresh ideas to clients.
That kind of continuous learning requires deep trust and collaboration. “Ultimately, consulting is a relationship-driven business,” he says. “We as consultants have to make sure that we understand the specificities of our clients and make concerted efforts to co-create the solutions that are relevant and pragmatic.”
Piyush is a frequent author in national and international publications such as The National, The Fintech Times, and Gulf Business. He holds an MBA from The Ohio State University, US and a Bachelor of Technology from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur.
Nandan is the Chief Executive Officer of the Group, working closely with the Chairman and Board members to set strategic expansion goals for the organisation and lead the Executive Management Team in the accomplishment of these objectives.
He also serves as Chairman/Director of Network International subsidiary companies for the Middle East and Africa.
Nandan holds a strong background in payments, consumer finance and corporate banking with a deep understanding of the Middle East and Africa as well as experience in India, Czech Republic, Israel, Russia and UK markets.
His more than 30-year track record of successfully building and growing businesses to profitable scale and dominant market share spans several markets globally, at leading financial institutions including American Express, Citigroup, United Bank for Africa (UBA) and most recently at Mastercard.
During his 11-year career at Mastercard, Nandan was Strategy Head for International Markets, President for the Japanese business and Head of Global Consumer Credit and Loyalty Solutions. Prior to that, Nandan was Head of UBA – International Corporate and Investment Banking. Before UBA, Nandan built and led consumer banking businesses for two decades with Citigroup in India, Czech Republic, Israel, Russia and the UK. Nandan began his career at American Express Cards.
Georges Massoud is Senior Partner at McKinsey & Company, Middle East.
Georges leads our financial services in KSA while advising clients in public and private financial services, especially banking & insurance, Oil and Gas, metals & mining, public sector and privately held companies. Georges also is a core member of our European banking and securities leadership and co-leads globally our banking solutions and assets.
Georges served clients in the Middle East, Europe (e.g., in Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Hungary, Italy, Ukraine, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, and Switzerland) and north Africa on a wide range of topics, including market-entry strategy, mergers and acquisitions (M&A), growth strategy, greenfield investment and business building, sales and marketing strategy, front-line & back-office operational performance improvement, retail-banking distribution innovation, and more.
Notable projects have included:
• Designing and building several banks including Neobanks, both greenfield and brownfield
• Developing:
– Gas reform strategy at the sector level
– Banking system strategies at the sector level
– Portfolio strategies for several family-owned businesses
– Banking strategies for several leading European banks, including retail, SME, and corporate
– Sales and services strategies for leading Eastern European banks
– Ecosystem strategies for multiple European and MENA institutions
– Digital strategies for banks across Europe & MENA
– Organization health and culture transformations
• Building AA & AI capabilities to drive performance in banking and other industries
Huda has 20 years of experience in private equity, operations and investments across emerging markets.
Huda is the Founder and CEO of Aliph Capital, a GCC focused investment manager enabling traditional businesses bridge the technology gap through active ownership and digital transformation. Prior to founding Aliph, Huda was a Partner at Gateway Partners Group where she was a member of the Investment Committee. Prior to Gateway, Miss Al Lawati was Chief Investment Officer for Savola Group, one of the largest publicly-listed strategic investment holding groups for food & retail businesses in the Middle East and North Africa region. Prior to Savola, Huda was a Partner and Chief Investment Officer for MENA at the Abraaj Group. She started her career with Schlumberger in 2002 after graduating from Brown University.
Through her career she has led over $2 billion of equity and over $1 billion of debt deals and has experience in growth capital, MBOs, LBOs, venture capital, equity markets and structured equity transactions across a broad range of sectors. She has played leading roles in strategic initiatives, corporate turnarounds, change management, organizational building and investor relations.
She is currently a board member at ADC Acquisition Corporation (the first ADX listed SPAC), Magrabi, Saudi Fransi Capital and Hala (ADGM and CMA regulated fintech company). She also serves as a member on the nomination and remuneration committee of Saudi Fransi Capital and chairs the risk committee at Hala. She has previously served on multiple boards and committees across the region including Tim Hortons, Panda Retail Company, Herfy (Tadawul), AlKabeer, Savola Foods Company, SMG, The Entertainer, Kudu,Al Ula Development Company (a subsidiary of PIF) and the Young Arab Leaders.
As a keen contributor to the community, she has been a member of the board of directors of the Middle East Investor Relations Association, a member of the Young Presidents Organization and a member of the advisory board of Global Ventures.
Miss Al Lawati holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Neuroscience and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Business Economics (Honors) from Brown University.
Faris is currently the Chief Executive Officer of HSBC Saudi Arabia since October 2022. Prior to this, Faris was leading the investment banking, capital markets and issuers services business and operations for HSBC in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Before joining HSBC, Faris worked for several years at another banking institution in London, the United Kingdom covering capital markets in the UK and EMEA.
Faris is also an Independent Director at the Board and Chairman of the Audit Committee of a leading pharmaceutical manufacturer in MENA region. Faris is also an Independent Director at the Board of a leading consumers company in the Kingdom. Faris is a member in the Finance Program Board for College of Business Administration, Prince Sultan University.
Faris holds MBA from the Jones School of Business at Rice University and an BSC in Accounting from Prince Sultan University (first honors).
Hisham Al-Falih, a Saudi Arabian national, founded Lean Technologies with his former Stanford roommate in September 2019. The company’s mission is to enable the next generation of financial innovation in MENAP, which it achieves by distilling critical yet complex financial infrastructure into an intuitive and universal API. Lean’s products have garnered the trust of leading companies including the likes of Binance, e&, Careem, and many more, making it the region’s most valuable Open Banking player. Hisham’s interest and experience in the Fintech ecosystem predates Lean. As a Venture Capitalist, his focus and subsequent investments were in fintechs across the Middle East, Silicon Valley, and Europe. Prior to this, Hisham graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University and was a Mayfield Fellow at the Stanford Technology Ventures Program.
Mr. Diamond is Founding Partner and Chief Executive Officer, and is based in New York. Until 2012, Mr. Diamond was Chief Executive of Barclays, having previously held the position of President of Barclays and was responsible for Barclays Capital and Barclays Global Investors (“BGI”). He became an executive director of Barclays in 2005 and was a member of the Barclays Executive Committee since 1997.
Prior to Barclays, Mr. Diamond held senior executive positions at Credit Suisse First Boston and Morgan Stanley in the United States, Europe and Asia. Mr. Diamond worked at Credit Suisse First Boston from 1992 to 1996, where his roles included Vice Chairman and Head of Global Fixed Income and Foreign Exchange in New York, as well as Chairman, President and CEO of Credit Suisse First Boston Pacific. Mr. Diamond worked at Morgan Stanley from 1979 to 1992, including as the Head of European and Asian Fixed Income Trading.
A native of Concord, Massachusetts, Mr. Diamond holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from Colby College in Maine and an MBA from the University of Connecticut. He was awarded Doctor of Humane Letters from the University of Connecticut and Doctor of Laws from Colby College
Mr. Ayman AlEissa is the CEO of Mobily Pay a subsidiary of Etihad Etisalat Co (Mobily)
He has had a dynamic background in his chosen field of specialization from his 17+ years of experience in different entities within the financial industry starting with SAMA, Tadawul and Alinma Bank. After that, he was assigned as the Chief Operations Officer of Alinma Tokio Marine before moving to Saudi Fintech, a subsidiary of Alinma Bank, where he was the Chief Operations Officer.
As the CEO of Mobily Pay, Mr. AlEissa has played a notable role in launching Mobily Pay digital wallet.
Mr. AlEissa holds a bachelor degree in Information System from King Saud University, as well as an executive education certificate in leadership from INSEAD.
James Whittington is a Vice President at General Atlantic in London and focuses on investments in financial technology and financial services across EMEA. General Atlantic is a global growth equity firm, headquartered in New York. Before joining General Atlantic, James was an Investment Director at CBPE Capital in London where he focused on investments in the financial services and business services sectors. Prior to that, he worked in investment banking at BofAML in London and for KPMG in London.
Carla joined HSBC in 2003, and over the years has held multiple roles across Debt Capital Markets and Debt Syndicate in both London and Asia. During her time on the Debt Syndicate desk, she has worked across all the Syndicate product lines including G3 execution, local currency execution and private placements. During her tenure, HSBC has become the consistent leader in the Asia ex-Japan debt capital markets space. She graduated from Columbia University cum laude.
Ahmed Demyati is a Partner at Marco Partners, a strategic advisory and investments firm that works with large corporates and public agencies on key mandates. He previously served as Advisor to the Minister of Investment and as Managing Director at the Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority. Prior to that, Ahmed worked at HSBC’s Global Banking and Markets unit where he advised regional and international clients on structured finance and capital markets transactions.
Ahmed sits on the boards of Joa Capital, an alternative investments firm licensed by the Saudi Capital Markets Authority, S3 Ventures, and is Chairman of the Board of Manifesto Middle East, a specialised arts and culture company. He received Bachelor of Science degrees in Electrical Engineering and Industrial Management from Purdue University (USA).
Mr. Jamal Al Kishi has over 26 years of regional banking experience. Prior to joining GIB in March 2020, he spent nearly 13 years at Deutsche Bank AG, most recently serving as CEO Middle East and Africa, after having held a number of other senior positions at the global bank. Jamal began his banking career with Arab National Bank in 1995, where he held roles in corporate finance, capital markets and structured and project finance. He holds a BSc in Engineering from Arizona State University and an MBA in Finance and Banking from King Fahad University of Petroleum & Minerals, Saudi Arabia.
Amr AlJallal is the Managing Director & CEO of Namara Investments — the Family Office of Dr. Sulaiman AlHabib, which allocates capital across asset classes both locally and internationally.
Amr brings with him more than 20 years of experience across the financial services industry. Prior to joining Namara Investments, he held various leadership positions at Jadwa Investments, Saudi Fransi Capital and the Capital Market Authority. During his career, Amr led the framework and policy development for private and public offerings in Saudi Arabia, as well as a number of notable private equity and investment banking transactions within the Kingdom.
Amr serves on the boards of Marafiq, Nadec, AlHokair Group, the Saudi Egyptian Industrial Investment Company, and the Venture Capital and Private Equity Association (VCPEA).
Amr holds an MBA from the Jones Graduate School of Business at Rice University in Texas, and a BS in Management Information Systems from King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals.
Saumitra Sehgal is a Senior Partner at Roland Berger, based in Doha and Managing Partner of the Indian office.
He has experience working with financial services, automotive, industrial goods, and consumer goods clients on strategic issues. This experience spans growth strategy, operating model design, digital strategy, business transformation, and digital proposition design.
Over the course of his consulting career, Saumitra has worked with clients in India and in other countries in Asia and Africa.
Over the last 20 years, Saumitra has held positions of leadership with P&L responsibility. This has included leading strategy consulting practices for international consulting firms, launching new categories of businesses, and serving on the executive committee of organizations.
Saumitra holds a Master in Business Administration from IIM Calcutta and a degree in chemical engineering from Gujarat University.