Bonds, Loans & Sukuk Middle East

Fawaz is in charge of the DCM Origination business for FAB’s Global Corporate Finance clients. He has worked on a number of landmark transactions for high profile issuers in the Corporate, Institutional and SSA space, covering various DCM products from plain vanilla bonds and setting up MTN Programs, to project bonds, hybrid capital and liability management, both conventional bonds and Islamic (Sukuk).

Fawaz has also originated and overseen the execution of numerous landmark deals outside the region, including the inaugural sovereign Sukuk issuance from HM Treasury and Hong Kong Government SAR. Prior to this role, Fawaz headed FAB's global distribution of Syndicated Loans and also managed FAB's Proprietary fixed income portfolio.

Fawaz holds a BSc (Hon's) in Accounting & Finance from the London School of Economics and is a holder of the Chartered Financial Analyst ® designation. He is also the Chairman of the Middle East Region for International Capital Market Association (ICMA) and a Board Member of The Gulf Bonds and Sukuk Association (GBSA).

Klaus Froehlich is the Group Chief Investment Officer of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company. Klaus joined the Group in 2020 to head the Group Strategic Investments Function. Prior to joining ADNOC, Klaus spent over 20 years in the financial service industry including 17 years at Morgan Stanley and more recently for 3 years as Chief Financial Officer of the Saudi Binladin Group in Jeddah.

Steve Ridlington serves as TAQA’s Chief Financial Officer, a position he has held since July 2020. Prior to his role at TAQA, Mr. Ridlington was Chief Investment Officer at ADPower. He previously held positions with BP, TNK-BP, and the National Central Cooling Company PJSC (Tabreed), serving as CFO at the latter.

Mr. Ridlington holds a Master of Philosophy in Economics from St Antony’s College, Oxford, and a Bachelor of Science in Economics and Mathematics from the University of Sussex.

Dr. Sherif Ayoub is the Chief Financial Officer for the Arab Petroleum Investments Corporation (APICORP) where he oversees treasury and capital markets, financial control, financial planning and analytics, financial operations, budget and corporate performance as well as risk management. Prior to APICORP, he has assumed numerous leadership positions over his career, serving as Senior Advisor at the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) and Assistant Secretary General at the Islamic Financial Services Board (IFSB), in addition to working with A.T. Kearney, the US Government, United Nations, and the World Bank in different capacities.

Notably, Dr. Ayoub acquired his PhD in Finance from the University of Edinburgh, and is also a holder of a Masters’ Degree from Columbia University and a Bachelors’ Degree from Baldwin Wallace University. In addition, he has served as a Visiting Fellow at Harvard University.

Dr. Ayoub is a CFA Charterholder and a Certified Public Accountant (CPA). He has also published a book and several articles that relate to the finance and risk management.

• Manchandya was appointed as Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President – Finance in 2019

• Mr. Manchandya joined SEC in 2008 and held a number of executive positions within the Finance business line including Executive Director – Treasury and Head of Corporate Finance

• Mr. Manchandya obtained an MBA from ICFAI Business School and an ACE certificate in General Management from MIT Sloan Business

DP World’s Deputy Chief Financial Officer, Raj Jit Singh Wallia has global responsibility for the company’s Corporate Finance, Investor Relations, Tax, Treasury and Insurance activities. A former banker and restructuring professional, he has a range of international experience across functions, markets, products and the maritime sector.

Before joining DP World, Raj Jit worked for DP World’s parent company Dubai World as Group Head of Corporate Finance and Treasury. He was hired to lead the group’s financial restructuring in 2009 and played a lead role in the overall restructuring of Dubai World and its subsidiaries.

As a banker he was a Managing Director with Deutsche Bank in Singapore where he headed the Asian High Yield and Leverage Loans origination business. Prior to that, Raj Jit was a Managing Director with ING’s Leverage Finance and Sponsor Coverage Group in London with specific responsibility for Central and Eastern European countries. During his banking career he has been involved in various credit origination, credit structuring, coverage, strategy and management roles.

Raj Jit holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Engineering from the Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering and Applied Science at the Arizona State University.

Rizwan Kanji’s practice focuses on debt capital markets, finance and securitizations using both conventional and Islamic finance structures.

He advises investment banks, financial institutions, multilateral development banks, sovereign states, insurance companies and multinational regional corporations on high-profile transactions across the Middle East, Turkey and Africa.

Widely considered one of the leading lawyers within Islamic finance, Rizwan has earned a reputation for advising on “first of its kind” transactions.

Global directories, Chambers and Partners have consecutively ranked Mr. Kanji as one of the world's leading Islamic finance and debt capital markets lawyers. Clients are highly impressed with his breadth of expertise, elaborating: "His problem-solving skills and pragmatic approach to transactions are invaluable” and “He has a lot of attention to detail and is very attentive to his clients.”

Mr. Amoo-Gottfried is the Chief Investment Officer of Black Stars Investments, (BSI), an Emerging Markets focused hedge fund. BSI is a fundamentally focused investor in both traditional and frontier EM. Prior to joining BSI, he worked as a Portfolio Manager at two hedge funds in London where he successfully ran funds investing in Emerging Markets winning multiple awards. He is a graduate of the London School of Economics (LSE) and London Business School (LBS).

Sharif Eid is a portfolio manager for Franklin Templeton Investments (Middle East) Limited. Mr. Eid joined the Global Sukuk and MENA Fixed Income investment team in April 2009 as a research analyst where he helped develop the group's fundamental research process and production. Mr. Eid was promoted to portfolio manager in 2011 and is currently the co-manager of the FTIF GCC Bond Fund and co-manager of Global Sukuk institutional accounts.

Prior to joining Franklin Templeton Investments (Middle East) Limited, formerly Algebra Capital, Mr. Eid worked for TD Securities in Toronto as a trader. He rotated through credit, FX and interest rate option desks.

Mr. Eid holds a bachelor's degree in industrial engineering and a master's degree in mathematical finance, both from the University of Toronto.

FTIML-Dubai is an active, research-driven, team-based manager which aims to achieve superior long-term investment performance against relevant benchmarks and to provide excellent, value-added client service through the Franklin, Templeton and Mutual Series investment groups. The fund management team performs bottom-up research to manage assets in private and public markets across all asset classes. Their services are packaged as fund solutions, discretionary mandates or structured products.

Franklin Templeton launched a dedicated bond fund aimed at capitalising on the growing debt market in the Gulf region which was supported by portfolio Sharif Eid.

Nadia Zubairi is the Head of Debt Capital Markets for Bank ABC. She is a DCM practitioner who has worked in the region since 2006 with product expertise across conventional and sukuk markets. Nadia has been instrumental in setting up the DCM platform for Bank ABC and has executed transactions for leading issuers across MENAT.

Nadia has led several landmark issuances for sovereigns throughout her career and in her role as Head of DCM has led around 40 deals in the past 3 years covering both bond and sukuk. Prior to Bank ABC Nadia has worked with a number of international institutions including Standard Chartered Bank, ABN AMRO and American Express.

Bank ABC offers a wide range of international wholesale banking services including Corporate Banking & Financial Institutions, Project & Structured Finance, Syndications, Treasury, Trade Finance services, and Islamic Banking as well as Retail Banking.

Bank ABC network spreads across five continents, covering countries in the Middle East, North Africa, Europe, the Americas and Asia.

Aditya has responsibility for Mashreqbank’s debt capital markets activities. With over 20 years of experience in the financial services industry, Aditya has led and worked across origination and execution platforms at Trussbridge, ADIB, Nomura, Lehman Brothers, E&Y and Arthur Andersen. He worked in London, Dubai and Mumbai. He has bookrun deals in excess of several billions of dollars of landmark financings, across the conventional and Islamic space, for governments, supra-nationals, corporates and financial institutions worldwide.

Aditya is a ranking Chartered Accountant from India and has a MBA from London Business School.

Angad is Head of Fixed Income at Emirates NBD Asset Management, having previously been Senior Portfolio Manager since October 2014. He has been with the business for more than nine years, having joined in 2010 as a Senior Credit Analyst. Angad is the lead manager for the UCITS-compliant MENA Fixed Income Fund and the Global Sukuk Fund, which have outperformed their respective benchmarks for most years since 2010. He has also had an active part in doubling Fixed Income Assets Under Management (AUM) since 2013 – to under USD3 billion for year-end 2019.

Prior to joining the team, Angad was Senior Analyst at Prime Emirates from 2008 to 2010, having previously been an Associate in Financial Services Advisory at Ernst & Young in New York and a Financial Analyst at Real Value Investments in Mumbai. He holds an MBA from the Martin J. Whitman School of Management at Syracuse University in New York and a Bachelor of Commerce degree in Accounting and Auditing from the University of Mumbai. Angad has CFA designation and is a member of the CFA Institute and the CFA Emirates Society.

Appointed in May 2021, Ahmed is set to lead and execute EDB’s strategy to transform the bank into a key enabler role to support the UAE’s economic diversification plan, industrial growth and adoption of advanced technologies.

Ahmed is driving the transformation of EDB from a mortgage lender to becoming a corporate & SME development bank. He is driving the organization to focus on innovation and digitization, enhancement of products, services and capabilities along with promoting technology solutions, delivering best-in-class customer experience, and easing access to finance for individuals, small & medium enterprises and corporates in priority industry sectors.

Ahmed is uniquely positioned to lead EDB due to his background. He served in multiple Managing Director roles across both retail, corporate & investment banking. He has also been a pioneer in digital innovation in banking in the UAE.

Ahmed is an alumni of Harvard Business School and Virginia Tech’s school of architecture and urban studies.

Hital Desai is Head of CEEMEA Syndicate at Bank of America in London, covering all primary debt activity across Emerging Markets, Investment Grade/HY and local currency issuance

• With over 15 years of experience in DCM Origination and Syndication, Hital has extensive experience raising funding for a number of EM and DM issuers ranging from Sovereigns to debut high yield borrowers and distributing to global investors

• Hital initially started in the FIG DCM team at Goldman Sachs, before spending a decade in Hong Kong focusing on Emerging Markets at both Credit Suisse & BofA

• Hital holds a BSc in Mathematics & Management from King’s College London

Roderick Gordon is Head of Debt Capital Markets and Syndicate for Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank. He previously worked at Bahrain's Gulf International Bank.

In 2000, Roderick completed a Master of Science in Physics at University of Durham.

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 20 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 prominent player 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 an MBA 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 and in 2021 his team was awarded the Bonds, Loans & Sukuk Middle East Awards for MENA Fixed Income Strategy, 3

Years and Global Sukuk Strategy, 1 Year.

Dr. Moritz Kraemer is Chief Economist and Head of Research at LBBW Bank, based in Stuttgart, Germany. He is also a Senior Fellow at SOAS University of London’s Center for Sustainable Finance and teaches graduate courses at Goethe-University Frankfurt’s House of Finance and Humboldt University Berlin.

Before joining LBBW in November 2021, Moritz was Chief Economist of CountryRisk.io, a country- and ESG-risk platform. He also served as the Chair of Economic Advisory Panel at R.J. Fleming & Co. and Independent Non-Executive Director of Scope Ratings, the largest Europe-headquartered Credit Rating Agency.

Until 2018 he was at S&P Global as the Sovereign Ratings Group’ Global Chief Ratings Officer, overseeing the analytical work on assessing the creditworthiness of over 130 national governments worldwide. Moritz started his professional career as an Economist at the Inter-American Development Bank in Washington, D.C. and Tegucigalpa/Honduras. Moritz holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Göttingen (Germany). He studied Economics, Latin American Studies, and Literature at the Universities of Frankfurt, Southampton and San Diego.

Patrick (‘Paddy’) is Head of Investor Relations and Managing Director for Emirates NBD’s Group Funding and Principal Investment Unit. The Investor Relations team updates the Analyst & Investor community on the Bank’s performance and outlook. The Global Funding team manages the strategic funding needs of the Bank. The Principal Investment team manages an investment portfolio containing hedge funds, credit funds and private equity.

Paddy has been with Emirates NBD since 2007. Prior to that he worked in London as co-head of the global operating-company rating team at Fitch Ratings. Before this he was part of the structured investment group at JP Morgan where Paddy looked after capital modelling and risk management.

Paddy has a B.Sc. (First Class) in Actuarial Mathematics and Statistics from Heriot-Watt University and a M.Sc. in Mathematical Finance from the University of Oxford.

Joining MUFG in September 2017, Hussain is the Head of Capital Markets for the Middle East. With an extensive portfolio focusing on transactions across a wide range of sectors within the EMEA region, his role predominantly looks at debt capital market transactions involving Sovereigns, Corporates and Financial Institutions compromising of debut and repeat issuers, project bonds and hybrid capital issuances.

Hussain has over 15 years of banking experience, primarily within the debt capital markets across EMEA and has led over USD 60bn of issuance from the Middle East.

Hussain holds a First Class Honours in BSc Economics from the University College of London.

Andalib is Head of Loan Syndicate, Distribution & Portfolio Management at First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB). He has global responsibility for primary underwriting, syndication and secondary distribution of loans across all asset classes. Andalib has 18 years of experience in origination, structuring, execution and distribution of syndicated loan transactions across Europe, Asia, Africa and the Middle East. He is based in Abu Dhabi, UAE.

Prior to joining FAB in 2015, Andalib worked at Standard Chartered Bank in London, Singapore and Dhaka covering loan markets and investors across Europe, Africa and South & Southeast Asia. Andalib has overseen the bookrunning of over US$300bn of landmark financings for many of the most sophisticated supranational organisations, governments, corporates and financial institutions. Andalib holds an MBA in Finance and Marketing.

Tariq Amin joined Bank ABC in 2015 and heads the Syndications function within the Capital Markets unit of the bank.

Tariq is responsible for the bank’s primary loan market activity in addition to the secondary market loans trading business.

With 20 years of financial industry experience, Tariq has previously worked at Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group and Gulf International Bank.

Based in London, Damien is responsible in covering origination, structuring and syndication for Benelux corporate clients, Western European Financial Institutions as well as Emerging Markets within EMEA Loan Capital Markets. Damien has been involved in executing and evaluating transactions across industry sectors and has worked on landmark transactions including UCB’s acquisition of Ra Pharmaceuticals, Signify’s acquisition of Cooper Lighting, GSK’s acquisition of Tesaro and British American Tobacco’s $50bn acquisition of Reynolds American.

Damien joined BofAML in 2011 as an Analyst in Credit Risk and moved to Loan Capital Markets three years later after having rotated across financial institution and corporate teams covering Western European and Emerging Market clients.

Damien holds a BEng Mechanical Engineering from the University of Bristol and is fluent in both French and English.

Kashif joined ADIB in March 2011 and manages the DCM and distribution business for ADIB. His responsibilities include origination, structuring of DCM and syndicated financing transactions and cross asset distribution including debt and equity. He has 20 years of work experience incorporating a rich blend of investment banking, financial advisory and management consulting. Kashif has significant experience of introducing clients to the international debt capital markets and has advised on several international Sukuk and syndications deals for sovereigns, GREs and large corporates. Prior to ADIB, Kashif worked for DIB for 5 years in a similar capacity where has was a part of the core team responsible for establishing the debt capital markets and syndications origination and distribution business. He has earlier worked for Standard Chartered Bank Pakistan where he was involved in several local and foreign currency transactions including the largest bond issue by a large local commercial bank in Pakistan and the largest foreign currency refinancing deal in Pakistan. Prior to SCB he worked for United Bank Ltd. Pakistan in the Investment Banking Group where he led the deal team on several local currency bond issues and syndicated loans.

Shayaan has over 10 years of experience across the Investment Banking and Global Markets divisions primarily in the Middle East and Asia.

He heads the global structured loan sales and trading desk at Emirates NBD Capital Ltd, focused on the distribution of syndicated, trade finance and distressed assets across the MENAT region on behalf of Emirates NBD Bank (P.J.S.C.).

In his present role, he has successfully executed a number of landmark structured financings for strategic clients across the Sovereign, industrial, real estate, commodities, financial institution, education and aviation sectors in the conventional, Islamic and hybrid execution formats; he also spearheads an active secondary loans sales and trading desk focused on managing the underwriting and churn positions, and opportunistic acquisitions on behalf of the bank.

He started his banking career at Bank of America Merrill Lynch in Hong Kong in 2010, whereby he underwent an analyst program in Asia Pacific Global Markets, rotating through the Fixed Income and Equity Linked finance divisions. He graduated from the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University Bloomington, USA, and holds a BSc. in Finance.

Samer Haydar is the Head of GCC Corporates at Fitch Ratings, based in Dubai.

Samer has been with Fitch Ratings for nearly 7 years and his role is spearheading Fitch’s coverage of High Yield and Investment Grade Issuers in the GCC. He has a diverse portfolio of issuers with focus on Industrials, Oil & Gas, Property Real Estate and Telecoms sectors. He is also the focal point for Islamic Finance in Corporates EMEA covering Sukuk issuances in the region.

His 11+ years career started with a Big 4 Auditing firm in Riyadh. He then transitioned to a treasury role with Olayan Financing Company. His most previous role was a Credit Manager at International Bank of Qatar.

Samer earned his Master’s degree in Finance from France, Ecole Superieure de Commerce de Grenoble in June 2010.

Nicholas Samara joined SMBC in early 2020 to head their MENA DCM franchise and has recently relocated to Abu Dhabi from London earlier this year. At SMBC, he is tasked with building out their regional DCM platform across product offerings while also bridging the gaps between Asian investors and regional issuers. Nicholas has extensive experience in fixed income markets, also previously having spent over a decade with Citi in New York and London advising clients on private and public capital markets issuances across global emerging and high grade markets. In London, he was part of Citi's emerging markets DCM team, focusing on originating and executing sovereign, corporate and financial institution bond offerings as well as advising issuers on liability management transactions across CEEMEA, executing USD 75 BN of new issues over his time at Citi. His latter years focused solely on MENA, where he furthered his client relationships at senior ministry and executive management levels. Prior to London, Nicholas spent nearly four years with Citi in New York originating and executing 4(2) US Private Placements debt issuances for corporates in the Americas, Western Europe and Australia. Prior to Citi, Nicholas spent one year as a financial analyst with Morgan Stanley in Washington DC.

Investment banking professional with 21+ years of experience; 15+ of which in Dubai.

Currently Senior Director, Investment Banking Coverage & Origination, with Mashreq Bank since 2+ years based in Dubai. Focus on originating and executing investment banking mandates across our corporate client base.

Previously 17 years with HSBC Investment Banking across London and Dubai; and worked across various functions including origination; M&A; debt advisory; acquisition and structured finance; debt capital markets; credit ratings; and risk advisory.

Between HSBC and Mashreq, Karan also worked 2 years as Managing Director & Head of Private Capital at Allied Investment Partners, an alternative investment company owned by Al Hail Holding Abu Dhabi. With a focus on structured mezzanine and hybrid investments across technology and other high growth sectors.

Karan has completed complex financing and advisory deals of more than c. USD65bn across various global clients. And has a strong network in MENA and globally across banks, institutions, corporates, SWFs, and Family Offices.

Mr. Ahmed AlShubbar is the Group Vice President, Group Treasury & Strategy for Rawabi Holding Group Mr. AlShubbar’s responsibilities include overseeing the group's Treasury, Corporate Finance, Bank Relations, Cash Flow Management, Insurance and most importantly Strategy. Mr. AlShubbar brings a wealth of banking experience that covers Corporate Banking and Investment Banking (Debt Capital Markets and Debt Advisory) for over 12 years with reputable banks such as National Commercial Bank (NCB), Samba Financial Group, Banque Saudi Fransi (BSF) and Gulf International Bank (GIB) where he recently served as Vice President in Investment Banking. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Finance and Economics from King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM) Business School. He attended and participated in many training programs and conferences in related areas such as Credit Risk Management, Corporate Finance and Global Markets, Bonds, Loans & Sukuk to name a few.

AlSharekh joined Kamco Invest in 2020 as Managing Director of Markets and Investment Banking bringing with him extensive and diverse experience across all core areas from treasury and corporate banking to investment banking and asset management.

Prior to joining Kamco Invest, AlSharekh led the Economic & Investment team of the Hareer and Boubyan Development Agency and was Managing Director at Sharq Capital where he led investment activity across asset classes. Prior to that, he held several executive positions with key international and regional financial institutions including Executive Director at the Securities Division of Goldman Sachs, Executive Manager of Corporate Banking at the National Bank of Kuwait, in addition to Investment Banking at NBK Capital. He also worked for the Fixed Income Trading Group of Brown Brothers Harriman on Wall Street and the M&A Execution Team of HSBC in London.

He holds a dual BA in Economics and Public & Private Sector Organizations from Brown University, USA and a dual MBA in Finance and Entrepreneurial Management from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, USA.

Lijiya comes with more than 19 years of Debt Market experience. She holds an MBA in Finance & Marketing and has been a core deal team member in various Structured & Project Finance deals in the UAE. She joined Emirates Development Bank (AA- rated federal entity) in 2021 as Head of Project & Corporate Finance which is part of the Wholesale & Institutional Banking that was set-up to deliver the new mandate EDB has to act as a catalyst for the industrial development of UAE. Prior to that she was with FAB since 2006 and the last role was as MD and Head of Loan Capital Markets covering EMEA which addresses the flow lending business from Corporates, GRE’s, Sovereigns, MNC’s, NBFI’s and FI’s. She started at HSBC CIBM and was dealing with regional deals in various sectors along with providing coverage of strategic customers. Lijiya is a key deal team member in many of the large Debt Market transactions in the region where she has led the deal team that acted in the senior capacity of Debt Advisor, Initial Mandated Lead Arrangers, Coordinating Bank and Book running roles for Corporate, Acquisition Finance, FI/NBFI deals, Leverage finance, Project and Structured Finance, Asset Backed financing, Hybrid facility structures etc.

Sarah has over 18 years of corporate and investment banking experience having worked across a number of banking divisions such as Project & Export Finance, Asset Finance, Structured Finance, Structured Trade Finance & Financing Solutions and Client Relationships across Europe, Asia, Africa and the Middle East

She joined FAB in May 2016 from Standard Chartered Bank where she held a number of senior roles including but not limited to; Regional Head of Asset Finance & Leasing, Regional Head of Structured Export Finance, ASEAN Coordinator for Structured Trade Finance and Financing solutions etc.

Sarah is well versed with the European and Asian Export Credit Agencies (ECAs) having originated, lead and concluded several landmark, award winning Project & Export finance transactions and advisory assignments for regional and international clients across Asia, Africa & the Middle East. She also successfully established the Export Credit Agencies (ECAs) platform for FAB

Sarah also has significant experience in the corporate finance space including Asset Finance having successfully delivered bespoke financing solutions to clients across sectors such as mining, construction and aviation - both to Airlines and Lessors demonstrating ability to support the sector in multiple ways

Sarah holds a Master’s degree in Business Administration from Institute of Business Administration Karachi (Pakistan)

Debashis Dey is a partner in White & Case's Capital Markets Practice and the Global Head of Islamic Finance based in the UAE

Widely recognised as a leading finance and capital markets lawyer, Debashis has over two decades of experience in helping domestic and international clients to execute a spectrum of complex cross-border transactions. Debashis has a seasoned focus on European Financial Services and Middle Eastern based corporates but is also active in a number of other sectors including private equity, structured finance, Islamic finance and non-performing loans. His extensive track record includes advising investment banks, corporates and governments on capital markets, securitisation and structured finance matters, including Islamic finance sukuk transactions, regulatory capital transactions, commercial and residential mortgages and consumer finance as well as sale, acquisition and securitisation of non-performing loans (NPLs) and distressed assets. Debashis is also frequently called upon to work with private equity, companies and investment banks, especially in connection with complex, international M&A and Private Equity transactions involving distressed real estate or non-performing assets.

Dyan is a debt capital markets specialist having worked in the industry for over 13-years. He has worked on over 150 debt capital market transactions that have raised in excess of USD80bn across sovereigns, corporates and financial institutions. Dyan began his career with NatWest Markets in London where he focused on private placements, high yield bonds and emerging market bonds. He has a BSc (Hons) degree in Economics from the London School of Economics.

Amana Participation Fund Portfolio Manager
Sustainable Bond Fund Portfolio Manager

Patrick T. Drum, Research Analyst and Portfolio Manager, joined Saturna Capital in October 2014. He is also a portfolio manager for the firm’s institutional subsidiary, Saturna Sdn Bhd in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia, directing halal fixed income investments.

He is a select member of the United Nation’s Principles for Investment (UNPRI) Fixed Income Outreach Subcommittee and an adjunct professor of finance at Pinchot University, formerly known as Bainbridge Graduate Institute (BGI). Mr. Drum has nearly ten years of experience integrating ESG considerations into fixed income portfolio management.

He holds a BA in economics from Western Washington University and an MBA from Seattle University Albers School of Business. He is a Chartered Financial Analyst Charterholder (CFA) and a Certified Financial Planner®. Mr. Drum has more than 20 years of investment experience in serving institutions and private clients.

Khalil Al Mansoori is the Acting Director General of Abu Dhabi Exports Office, the export-financing arm of Abu Dhabi Fund for Development (ADFD).

He is responsible for evaluating loan requests, ensuring due diligence in the disbursal process, maintaining relations with stakeholders, making loan recommendations to senior management, and overseeing ADEX’s overall operations while maintaining the organisation’s upward trajectory.

Before assuming the role in 2022, Khalil managed the disbursement section of the Finance Department of Abu Dhabi Fund for Development for eight years, starting from 2013. The role involved credit and grant administration as well as finances related to local and global projects; negotiations with borrowers; monitoring repayments; implementation of the investment policy according to organisational guidelines and managing day-to-day activities of the department.

He started his career at ADFD as an engineer in 2013, rising to the position of Senior Engineer in 2017. The role saw him participate in project feasibility studies; manage projects in their initial phase; recommend actions to overcome obstacles and assist in the automation of tasks through the Enterprise Project Management (EPM) system.

Fluent in Arabic and English, Khalil is member of various committees and boards of entities including the Arabian Gulf Program for Development, UAE-Bangladesh Investment Company, Al Ain Farm for Livestock Production, Al Dhabi Development Company and Abu Dhabi Tourism Investment Company.

Khalil holds a B. Sc., in Civil Engineering from Ohio State University in the United States.

Sami Neffati is The Managing Partner of the Aberdeen Standard Investments Investcorp joint venture focussing on infrastructure in the GCC and MENA region.

He previously held the position of Assistant General Manager of Energy at Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation in London.

Sami is an Emerging Markets specialist with long experience in the MENAT region. He headed Sumitomo’s business development for Africa and led teams working on financing projects in renewable, power generation, transmission and distribution. He also worked as an advisor on projects in the MENAT region and was an advisor to Japanese conglomerates on African markets penetration strategy.

Outside of the MENAT region, Sami worked on acquisitions of infrastructure assets in Western Europe and the Nordics.

Sami was educated in Tunisia, Canada and the US and speaks Arabic, English, French and Spanish

Mr. Aramayo has more than eighteen years of professional experience in the mining industry in North and South America, the Caribbean, Europe and Africa. Throughout his career, he has been closely associated with practices that make for world-class mining operations and projects, including challenging operations such as Pueblo Viejo, Paracatu, Fruta del Norte and Tasiast. Mr. Aramayo is a Chartered Engineer who holds a Master’s Degree in Science from the University of Manchester (UK) in Decision Sciences, a Master’s Degree in Metallurgy, a minor in applied Mathematics and he is a Professional Member of the Institute of Materials, Minerals & Mining.

Raju has been with BEEAH Group for the past seven years. In his current role, he heads the Treasury & Special Projects for the Group Finance team. He has led numerous fundraising transactions to support the expansion and growth of the Group and its associates, including arranging specialised financing structures such as non-recourse project financing and ECA backed funding.

On behalf of BEEAH, Raju led the structuring and award-winning financing of the UAE’s first Waste to Energy plant. As part of the Special projects team, Raju manages key M&A activities and supports all the investments by the Group in joint ventures and partnerships across different sectors and geographies.

Raju brings over 30 years of experience to BEEAH Group, including in project finance, transaction structuring, project procurement and project management for key infrastructure sectors such as Roads, Ports, Airports, Power, Education, Healthcare, as well as Urban Transport and Utilities.

Prior to moving to the UAE in 2014, Raju worked as a Senior Consultant with Sutherland Global Services. He spent over 20 years in the infrastructure development and financing space in India, where he was part of a team that pioneered Public-Private Partnerships in the country. While in India, Raju also worked with IDFC, a premier financial institution in Infrastructure Financing and Advisory. Earlier, he also worked with boutique investment banking firm Capital Fortunes and specialist infrastructure consulting firm INMASS. He has been a key advisor to the National Highway Authority of India as team leader for many PPP projects.

Raju holds a Bachelor’s in civil engineering from Bangalore University and a Master’s in Business Administration (MBA) in Finance and Project Management from Cochin University.

Adi Rajguru is Head of Financing Solutions at ADCB. Adi has nearly twenty years of experience in banking, having previously worked at Nomura, Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs in Dubai and London.

Mark is Head of Structured Debt Capital Markets at MUFG Securities EMEA plc.

He joined MUFG in November 2015, having spent the previous 6 years in the BNP Paribas Structured Capital Markets group as a Managing Director.

Mark has over 30 years of banking experience, the last 25 years of which have all been in the infrastructure and energy sectors in a wide variety of different roles including bank lending, financial advisory and the debt capital markets covering both private and public executions (last 19 years). During this period he has had broad geographical coverage responsibility throughout EMEA, with also some exposure to transactions in both Asia and Latin America. In the GCC, Mark has led transaction deal teams for Ruwais Power, Adcop and Galaxy.

Mark’s transaction experience is extensive, including direct involvement across all the principal infrastructure and energy related sectors such as oil & gas, power (including renewables), PPP/PFI, transportation (roads / rail / airports / ports), telecoms, aviation, shipping, infrastructure related whole business securitisations / structured corporates.

Abdullah Al Durdunji, CFA is a treasury and fixed income expert, he joined Abu Dhabi Fund for Development in 2011 to manage the treasury Portfolio which includes fixed income tools in money and capital markets, in addition to funding and liquidity management. Also, he worked in establishing the Private Sector Financing program in ADFD and got involved in many infrastructure projects including PPP; additionally he is a member in ADEX (Abu Dhabi Exports Office) Executive Committee.

I have experience of ~10 years in infrastructure financing including fund raising and M&A. I have been associated with ACWA Power for last 5 years as project financier in Acquisitions & Project Finance team. I primarily focus on power and water transactions in the Middle East and Southern Africa. I have completed my Bachelor of Technology (B.Tech.) from IIT Kanpur, India and MBA from IIM Bangalore.

Ahmad is currently the Director of Federal Debt Management Office at the UAE Ministry of Finance, where he is responsible for establishing the Federal Debt Management Office which has the objective of supporting and developing a highly efficient financial market in the UAE, providing a Federal mechanism for financing infrastructure projects, government financial guarantees, and emergency financial obligations, providing another level of funding for the federal government to achieve a diversified financing strategy, and providing support to the Central Bank of the UAE to enhance liquidity management within the banking sector. Ahmad is a Chartered Financial Analyst, has over 15 years of experience in corporate finance across various industries from banking, real estate, hospitality, food & beverage, leisure & entertainment, retail, energy, and investments. Ahmad is a well-rounded Finance professional with expertise in fund raising and project financing, treasury and cash management, business planning and budgeting, financial modeling, investments and asset valuation, management and statutory reporting, commercial negotiations, corporate governance, and financial control. Ahmad has been a key instrumental player in closing multibillion Dirham rounds of financings, optimizing capital structures, and concluding multibillion Dirham commercial settlements.

David Woo is the Founder/CEO of David Woo Unbound, a new global forum devoted to promoting fact-based debates about markets, politics and economics.

Until 2021, David was the Head of Global Rates, Foreign Exchange, and Emerging Market Fixed Income Strategy & Economic Research at Bank of America, where he managed the top ranked global macro strategy team on Wall Street. Previously, David was the Head of Global Currency Strategy at Barclays Capital and the Head of Local Markets Strategy for Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa at Citigroup.

David is known on Wall Street for his bold and out-of-consensus calls that includes the RMB devaluation in 2015 and Trump’s victory in 2016. He was also the first Wall Street analyst to initiate coverage on Bitcoin in 2013. Business Insider voted David as one of the 12 smartest people on Wall Street in 2016 and Bloomberg calls him one of the “most outspoken voice on Wall Street."

David started his career at the International Monetary Fund in Washington D.C.. He received his Ph.D in Economics from Columbia University.

Alexander Perjéssy is Vice President – Senior Analyst at the Moody’s Sovereign Risk Group. Based in Dubai, he has lead analyst responsibilities for a number of sovereigns in the Middle East, including most of the Gulf Cooperation Council member states and several regional multilateral institutions.

Prior to joining Moody’s in November 2017, Alex worked for two years as senior economist at the Islamic Development Bank in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Before relocating to the Middle East, Alex spent more than 12 years covering macroeconomic developments and sovereign risk assessment in the emerging markets of the EMEA region for AllianceBernstein and The Rohatyn Group, both US-based asset management firms in New York, as well as for Goldman Sachs in London.

Alex holds an MA in Economics from the University of Maryland and a BA in Economics from Middlebury College.

Chief Economist and Head of Research, Emirates NBD

Khatija Haque joined Emirates NBD in 2011 as one of the founding members of the Emirates NBD research team, helping to build the bank’s macroeconomic coverage on the GCC and wider MENA region over the last decade. She was appointed Chief Economist and Head of Research in 2020.

Khatija has more than 20 years’ experience as an Emerging Markets economist spanning three continents. Before moving to Dubai in 2008, Khatija was a Vice President at Deutsche Bank in London, covering several countries in Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa. She is a frequent guest on local radio and television and is often quoted in both local and international press.

Farouk Soussa is an Economist at Goldman Sachs International, responsible for the MENA region. Prior to joining Goldman’s, Mr Soussa had been Head of Middle East Economics at Citigroup, and head of government ratings for the Middle East and Africa at Standard & Poor’s, both in Dubai and London. Mr Soussa started his career at the Bank of England, and has spent time with the UK Financial Services Authority and as a Jean Monnet Fellow at the European University Institute in Florence.

• Abdul Kadir Hussain has 24 years investment experience in the Emerging Market Space.
• Prior to joining Arqaam he was CEO of Mashreq Capital, Mashreqbank’s Asset Management business. Mashreq Bank offers a range of banking solutions to suit your needs. Choose Mashreq for your Credit Cards, Personal Loans, Investments, Insurance
• He has a 10 year public track record managing conventional Fixed Income credit based funds and a 6 year public track record managing Shariah compliant fixed income credit funds.
• In addition to the public funds Mr. Hussain has run a conventional credit based total return proprietary strategy for Mashreq bank.
• He has managed global credit, distressed and special situation investments in Asia, Eastern Europe and the Middle East for the last 24 years.
• Funds managed by Mr. Hussain have won awards in every year since 2010.
• Islamic funds run by him have been recognized by Bloomberg as the best in the MENA region in 2012, 2014, and 2015.
• Under Mr. Hussain’s leadership Assets Under Management (AUM’s) at Mashreq’s asset management business grew from $350mm in 2012 to $1.6bn in 2016
• At Arqaam AUM have grown from 0 to $80mm just within 6 months of his joining
• Prior to being at Mashreq he was a Managing Director at Credit Suisse.
• Mr. Hussain was named ‘Best High Yield” analyst in Asia for 3 consecutive years from 2000 to 2003.
• Mr. Hussain has a BS Econ with a concentration in Finance and Decision Science from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and a MBA in Finance and Entrepreneurial Studies for the Andersen School at UCLA. He has been a CFA Charterholder since 1995……

Ali is a seasoned fund manager with more than 20 years of extensive experience in the MENA and Emerging capital markets. Ali has a proven track record in managing both long only and absolute return strategies with the Equities and Fixed Income space. Prior to joining Daman, Ali was the lead Fund Manager at The National Investor for 12 years managing mutual funds, as well as segregated discretionary accounts on behalf of regional and international institutional investors. He holds an MBA from Duke University and a Bachelor’s degree in Banking Finance.

Tahir Mahmood heads the Business Development department of Nasdaq Dubai & Dubai Financial Market, overseeing all products offered by the exchanges. His role revolves around creating and maintaining relationships with key stakeholders such as issuers, regulators, lawyers and bankers, to help grow Dubai’s capital market. Tahir works with the team to bring new listings to the exchange, as well as offer new products to the market. Tahir has had a key role in making Dubai the leading Sukuk listing venue globally by coordinating with issuers, regulators, lawyers and bankers.

Tahir joined Nasdaq Dubai in July 2013 and has spent most of his previous career working within the Islamic finance arena in London, Bahrain, Qatar and now Dubai. He has assisted commodity brokerage houses to establish operations in both London and Bahrain, specializing in Sharia’a compliant commodity based financial products. In his previous position, Tahir oversaw the Islamic finance division of the Bahrain Financial Exchange as well as helped to market all of the exchange’s products

Tahir holds a B.Sc in Business Computing from City University, London.

Kashif Rana serves as the Chief Financial Officer of ACWA Power, having joined the Group as Director of Accounting, Controls and Taxation in 2009. His responsibilities include ensuring a 100 percent contracted business model with long term purchase agreements with investment grade off-takers, generating stable long-term income whilst maintaining superior cash flows from the operations.

With 20 years of experience in the power and water sector, Mr. Rana has successfully led operational finance activities for the Group and its investments in developing and implementing best practices around long-term planning, audits, accounting, reporting, insurance, corporate legal, treasury, and tax structuring, in addition to leading a private security offering with sovereign institutes of Saudi Arabia. Mr. Rana sits on the board of several companies owned and operated by ACWA Power.

Prior to joining ACWA Power, Mr. Rana served as the CFO of AES Middle East.

Mr. Rana is a certified Chartered Accountant from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Pakistan.

John joined Majid Al Futtaim from Australia in November 2017 as Head of Treasury where he is responsible for all funding, investor relations and credit rating relationships, liquidity & cash management and financial risk management.

Prior to joining Majid Al Futtaim, John was General Manager Treasury and Planning at Stockland Property Group from December 2012 until October 2017. In this role, John was responsible for all debt funding, debt investor relations, crediting rating relationships, liquidity management, financial risk management, financial planning for Group M&A, including asset acquisition or disposal and asset portfolio review.

Prior to joining Stockland, John was Treasurer at Australand Property Group from July 2008 until October 2012 and previously Treasurer at Newcastle Permanent Building Society where he was employed for four years.

John has more than twenty years experience working in the financial markets, including a number of banks, such as Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi for two years, being responsible for derivative and foreign exchange spot pricing and Tokai Bank for eight years being responsible for all aspects of balance sheet management and foreign exchange.

John was the leader in bringing Stockland to the Green Bond market in 2014. John manages all the ongoing reporting and investor relations, working closely with the sustainability team and the external assurer in providing the ongoing verification and reporting on the use of proceeds.

Alexander Imseeh joined the Multi-Asset Primary Markets team at London Stock Exchange (LSE) in September 2014 as a Business Development Manager. In this role, Alex advises debt issuers and market participants on the process of issuing and trading bonds on LSE’s wholesale and retail bond markets while contributing to the development and expansion of London Stock Exchange’s Islamic finance and Sukuk offering across the world. During the past two years Alex was part of many “world first” and important bond listings including Saudi Aramco’s $12bn debut bond issuance on London Stock Exchange’s Main Market.

Over 16 years of experience with 11 years dedicated to MENA Corporate Debt Capital Markets, Sam has been instrumental in driving the Corporate DCM agenda in the region.

Sam leads the Corporate Debt Capital Markets space for the Bank across MENA

Throughout the 11 years Sam has spent with StanChart, he has executed over 50 benchmark transactions for high profile Corporate issuers from the region

In particular, Sam has been instrumental in driving key business opportunities across a variety of repeat issuers including Majid Al Futtaim, Emaar, TAQA, Mubadala, Saudi Electricity, DP World

In addition, Sam has led a number of high profile debut issuers from the region including Almarai, Saudi Telecom, ESIC, Emirates REIT, Oman Telecom

Justin Mathews is a banking professional with 17 years of aggregate experience both on the sellside and buyside, internationally and regionally, including most recently in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. Justin began his banking career in London, having spent time with leading international banks like Credit Suisse, Jefferies and Bank of New York Mellon, before moving to Gulf International Bank. He has advised several clients on raising capital for through bond and sukuk issuances in the international and domestic debt capital markets. Justin currently manages the Treasury Investments portfolio of GIB Saudi Arabia, which runs a fixed income and multi-asset investment strategy. Justin has significant connections with investors and investment banks in the GCC and has contributed significantly to the development of the regional capital markets.

Lydia has 15+ years experience in structuring & syndicating facilities for corporate and financial institution clients across EMEA. She is currently responsible for the origination of transaction across a broad range of clients across the Middle East and Western Europe

Based in London, Lydia joined SMBC in September 2021 from Mizuho where she spend 10 years in Loan capital markets, prior to which she a spent 5 years at Commerzbank in London in the combined LCM / DCM team.

Rohit has 13 years of experience in banking and financial services across MENA, India, North America & North Africa, with a primary focus on structured & acquisition finance. Rohit has worked across multiple sectors, including Oil & Gas, Manufacturing, Shipping, Trading, GREs, etc.

Rohit manages the Leveraged & Acquisition Finance (LAF) desk under the Investment Banking business of Mashreq Bank. LAF is responsible for structuring, negotiating & executing multibank mandates run by Mashreq Bank across EMEA & Asia.

Before joining Mashreq, Rohit was working in the Debt Syndications & Capital Market Advisory vertical of one of the largest NBFCs of India. Rohit has also spent 3 years in the Corporate & Investment Banking vertical of Essar Group.

Rohit is a mechanical engineer from IIT Delhi, India, and an MBA from IIM Indore, India