Dr. Nahed is a leading economist and executive banker and the first female CEO of a bank in the GCC. Prior to co-founding Gulf One, Dr. Nahed served as Chief Economist and Chairman of the Risk and Portfolio Management Committee at The National Commercial Bank (NCB) in Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Prior to NCB, Dr. Taher held the position of Professor/Head of Accounting Department at the King Abdul-Aziz University in Jeddah. Dr. Nahed has over 15 years of banking, academic and research experience and is also a known personality in the field of International Economics and has presented at numerous Global Economic forums around the world.

She is a board member of KAPRSAC Energy Research Centre in Saudi Arabia, a member of the Eisenhower Fellowship in Saudi Arabia, is ranked 72nd by Forbes of the “Most Powerful Women in the World” in 2006, is ranked 25th by Financial Times of the “Most Powerful Business Women in the World” in 2009, and as one of the “Top 100 Powerful People in Finance” by Dow Jones in the same year.

She received the “Businesswoman of the Year” award in Saudi Arabia during 2007. She was recently appointed as a Board Member of the IMD in Switzerland in 2008, a milestone achievement as she is the first member from the Middle East to join the IMD. Dr. Taher holds dual Masters Degrees in International Finance and Financial Economics and a PhD in Monetary Economics from the University of Lancaster in United Kingdom.

Ziyad Omar is a co-founder of Gulf One. Previously, Mr. Omar founded a Financial and Management Consulting firm in Saudi Arabia and a business advisory and consulting firm, Compass Consulting in Bahrain, which focused on providing advisory services for large corporations in the GCC.

Mr. Omar has over 25 years of regional and international finance and banking experience. He has previously worked with; National Commercial Bank (NCB) in Saudi Arabia, as Country Head of the Corporate Banking Group (CBG) where his reengineering of NCB’s multibillion dollar corporate banking portfolio resulted in a significantly improved risk/reward profile, and was CFO of Al Faisaliah Group where he created the Group Finance and Corporate Treasury.

Mr. Omar also worked in various senior positions at the Saudi American Bank in Jeddah in Corporate Banking and Structured Finance, where he co-pioneered the first securitization transaction in Saudi Arabia.

Prior to returning to Saudi Arabia, he spent five years as Systems Manager with Equitable Financial Companies (currently AXA) in California, USA. Mr. Omar received his MBA in 1989 and a BA Mathematics - Computer Science in 1984, from California State University, Fresno, California, USA.

Mr. Subramani joined Gulf One in October 2006 as the Chief Financial Officer of the Bank. He possesses over 24 years of consulting and industry experience in the Middle East which includes over 16 years in senior management positions.

Mr. Subramani has also held various senior management positions at Al Faisaliah Group, one of the largest diversified business groups in Saudi Arabia.

From September 1985 to February 1998 he held various positions, including Manager – Consulting, with Ernst & Young in Saudi Arabia handling engagements covering business valuation, feasibility studies, financial restructuring of businesses, corporate finance and treasury, financial reporting, policies and procedures, system implementations and business process improvement.

During this period he was appointed as an advisor to the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency. Mr. Subramani holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Commerce and is also a qualified Chartered Accountant.

Mr. Rowan, before joining Gulf One in 2005, worked previously with Westpac Bank in Australia as Head of Risk, Global Treasury as well as Head of Credit, and with Barclays Bank PLC London as Head of Group Risk, and most recently with the National Commercial Bank of Saudi Arabia as the Head of Operational Risk and Basel II.

He also has over 10 years of experience with Citibank, Australia and Asia Pacific and has previously worked with Lloyds Bank in Australia. Mr. Rowan obtained a Bachelor’s Degree in Commerce from the University of New South Wales, and holds a postgraduate degree in finance from the Securities Institute of Australia.

He is a Fellow of the Australian Society of Certified Practicing Accountants, a Fellow of the Taxation and Management Accountants of Australia, a Fellow of the Taxation Institute of Australia, a Fellow of Financial Securities Institute of Australia and a member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Mr. Little is the Managing Director of Gulf One’s Infrastructure Division and its team of specialist investment professionals with responsibility for the acquisition, management and realisation of infrastructure investments.

He is also the CEO of Gulf One’s fund advisory and management company (under formation) that currently includes Gulf One’s flagship investment fund, the Gulf One Tharawat Infrastructure Fund L.P.

In a career spanning over 28 years with leading firms including Citigroup and JPMorganChase, Brian is a recognised senior practitioner of emerging markets infrastructure development and structured finance with specialties in equity advisory, structuring, restructuring, portfolio management and business management.

During his extensive career, Brian has been involved in numerous groundbreaking emerging market capacity expansion infrastructure projects in the power, energy, transportation, mining, communications, water and social infrastructure sectors and has direct experience of several complete economic cycles and their related effects on infrastructure investments and their stakeholders including equity owners, debt providers, project partners, host public sectors and consumers. Transactions he has been directly involved in havebeen the recipient of over 30 industry awards. Brian holds a B. Econs. (Hons.) from the University of Sydney, Australia.

Mr. Nair joined Gulf One in August 2006. Mr. Nair has extensive experience in Corporate Finance and Investment Banking business across a wide range of industries.

Prior to joining Gulf One, Mr. Nair was a Principal in the Private Equity and Venture Capital department of Gulf Finance House, Bahrain. At Gulf Finance House, Mr. Nair was part of a team that structured private equity deals in excess of USD 1 billion, primarily in the financial services sector.

Mr. Nair holds a MBA degree from Bharathiyar University in India, is a rank-holder Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) Charterholder.

Mr. Taylor joined Gulf One in November 2008. He was previously employed by the Australian investment banking businesses of leading global investment banks Goldman Sachs JBWere, UBS and Merrill Lynch. He has extensive experience developed over nine years across corporate advisory and capital markets transactions.

Mr. Taylor has developed expertise across a diverse range of high profile transactions that have delivered innovative advisory and financing solutions for some of Australia’s largest and other leading global public and private companies.

He has extensive senior involvement across M&A transactions with a leading role in deal structuring, negotiation and execution. He has also had high level involvement across a range of capital markets and acquisition financing transactions, including successful IPOs, secondary raisings and hybrid capital offerings.

Prior to joining Gulf One, Dan was a Director of the Goldman Sachs JBWere Industrials advisory team. Dan was awarded BA and LLB (Hons) degrees by the University of Sydney.

Mr. Joshipura joined Gulf One in April 2007 and co-leads the Bank’s Advisory division with responsibility for execution and closing of Project Finance assignments.

Vishal has a wide-ranging infrastructure advisory experience in areas such as project finance, PPP, privatisation, restructuring, financial feasibility, due diligence amongst others. Prior to joining Gulf One, Vishal worked with Deloitte in infrastructure advisory and with KPMG in transaction advisory services. Vishal holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Commerce and is a qualified Chartered Accountant from India. He is also an Associate Chartered Certified Accountant (ACCA) from UK.