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Gulf One Investment Bank is led by Dr. Nahed Taher, a leading economist and
executive banker
and the first female CEO of a bank in the GCC, and COO Mr. Ziyad Omar, with
over 20 years of
senior banking experience in Saudi Arabia and the US, both of whom will
serve as Executive
Directors on Gulf One’s Board. Gulf One's distinctive high
caliber investment
banking team comprises of internationally experienced, motivated individuals.
Key personnel
from top tier companies and financial institutions have been identified and
will be brought
on board in coming months.
The management team, while expanding, is comprised of
the following executives:
Chief Executive Officer – Nahed M. Taher, PhD
Chief Operating Officer – Ziyad F. Omar
Chief Financial Officer and Chief Knowledge Officer – P H Subramani
Chief Economist – Dr. Mohammed Adaya Salisu
Head, Infrastructure Fund Management Co. (under formation)
– Brian Little
Managing Director, Project & Corporate Finance Advisory – Patrick O. D.
Mgbenwelu
Chief Risk Officer – Dean Rowan
A brief background on each team member is
as follows:
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Chief Executive Officer
– Nahed M. Taher, PhD |
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Dr. Nahed has extensive experience in the field of economic and financial
analysis. Dr. Nahed has held senior positions both in academia and the private
sector. In 2002, Dr. Nahed joined National Commercial Bank (NCB) as a Senior
Strategic Economist and chaired the Portfolio Management Committee.
Prior to joining NCB, she worked as a lecturer and later as the Head of the
Accounting Unit
at King Abdul-Aziz University, Jeddah. From 1987 until 2002, Dr. Nahed
acted as a Financial Advisor to a number of Saudi companies. Dr. Nahed 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 member of Saudi
Economic Association, Center for Strategic Studies of Mekkah Emirate,
Business Women Committee and the Eisenhower Fellowship-Saudi. Dr. Nahed
earned Bachelor's and Master's Degrees in Economics from King Abdul-Aziz
University in Jeddah, KSA. She holds a Master's in International Economics
and PhD in Economics from Lancaster University, UK. |
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Chief Operating Officer
– Ziyad F. Omar |
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Ziyad Omar is a co-founder of Gulf
One Investment Bank BSC (c). Previously Mr. Omar founded a Financial
and Management Consulting firm in Saudi Arabia and a business
advisory and consulting firm, Compass Consulting Company in Bahrain,
which focussed on providing advisory services for large corporations
throughout the GCC. This was born out of Mr Omar’s conviction of the
need for and value of such services, arising from 20 years of
regional and international finance and banking experience.
From 1997 to 2001, Mr. Omar worked at National Commercial Bank (NCB)
in Saudi Arabia as Country Head of the Corporate Banking Group (CBG).
During that time, his re-engineering of NCB’s multi-billion dollar
corporate banking portfolio resulted in a significantly improved
risk/reward profile. From 1994 to 1997, Mr. Omar was CFO of Al
Faisaliah Group, a top 20 Saudi company, where he created the Group
Finance and Corporate Treasury.
From 1990 to 1994, Mr. Omar occupied senior positions at the Saudi
American Bank in Jeddah in Corporate Banking and Structured Finance,
where he co-pioneered the first securitisation transaction in Saudi
Arabia. Between 1986 and 1990, Mr. Omar worked for Equitable
Financial Companies in California, USA.
Mr. Omar received his MBA in August 1989 and a B.A. Mathematics -
Computer Science in August 1984, from California State University,
Fresno, California, USA. |
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Chief Financial Officer and Chief Knowledge Officer – P H Subramani |
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Mr. Subramani qualified as a Chartered Accountant
with PriceWaterhouseCoopers. He has over twenty years of consulting
and industry experience in the Middle East which includes over ten
years in senior management positions. He joined Gulf One in October
2006 as the Chief Knowledge Officer.
From March 1998 to September 2006 he held various senior management
positions at Al Faisaliah Group, one of the largest diversified
business groups in Saudi Arabia including:
· Group Treasurer: establishing and implementing the Corporate
Treasury function.
· Programme Manager: SAP Enterprise Resource Planning across all the
business divisions within the Group.
· General Manager: responsible for the set up of an IT Business
Solutions Company.
· Chief Executive Officer of the Entertainment Division of the
Group: instrumental in restructuring the operations of the division
and
· Responsible for managing an investment portfolio for the Group as
well as reviewing various acquisition and investment proposals.
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. |
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Chief Economist – Dr. Mohammed Adaya Salisu |
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Dr. Mohammed Adaya Salisu is the Chief Economist of Gulf One Investment Bank. Prior to joining Gulf One, he was Principal Research Economist at the African Development Bank (“AfDB”) from 2004 to 2007 and a lecturer in Economics at Lancaster University, UK from 1990 to 2004, where he obtained his doctorate in Economics.
Dr. Salisu is an Econometrician by training and has applied econometric techniques to a wide range of research areas in economics and international business, including infrastructure, international trade and commercial policy, and has published extensively on these areas including for both the AfDB and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. In addition, Dr. Salisu was responsible for the AfDB’s monograph on the recent WTO initiative on Aid-for-Trade. Throughout his career at the AfDB Dr. Salisu focused on issues related to infrastructure and trade and produced several Briefs and Statements for Senior Management on topical trade-related and macroeconomic issues, and made significant inputs to the Bank’s Annual Reports. |
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Managing Director, Infrastructure and Chief Executive Officer, Gulf One Infrastructure Investment Advisors Limited (under formation) – Brian Little |
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Brian Little is both the head of Gulf One’s Infrastructure Division and CEO of the team of specialised infrastructure investment professionals responsible for managing the acquisition, management and realisation of investments by the Gulf One’s flagship investment fund, the Gulf One Tharawat Infrastructure Fund L.P.
In a career of over 25 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 and 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. During his career Brian has also managed a number of successful business units at both the regional and global level.
With extensive and close ties with a number of leading infrastructure participants spanning domestic and international industry developers, debt and equity providers and leading multi and bi-lateral financial and policy institutions Brian has been the recipient of over 30 industry awards on an individual or related team basis and is a recognised and noted speaker at industry and finance forums relating to emerging market infrastructure. Brian holds a B. Econs. (Hons.) from the University of Sydney, Australia. |
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Managing Director, Project & Corporate Finance Advisory – Patrick O. D. Mgbenwelu |
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Patrick joined Gulf One Investment
Bank in August 2006, bringing on-board over a decade of financial
advisory, structuring, lending and closing of big-ticket project
finance transactions in the UK, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman
and other GCC countries. As head of the bank’s advisory division, he
is responsible for originating, structuring, executing and closing
of all the bank’s project and corporate finance advisory business.
Patrick’s project financing career commenced at London Underground
Limited’s (“LUL”) project finance advisory group as an executive
member of the deal-team developing complex financial models,
business cases and financing options where he advised and negotiated
on various projects being implemented utilizing the UK Government’s
Private Finance Initiative (“PFI”) at that time.
His career further developed at the London branch of Bayerische
Landesbank’s (“BLB”) structured finance group where he undertook
various project finance (PFI / BOT / PPP) duties, and subsequently
as Assistant Manager, Project & Trade Finance, GCC Group at Arab
Petroleum Investments Corporation (“APICORP”) Saudi Arabia where he
was actively involved in a varied number of power, petrochemical,
oil & gas and shipping transactions both in the execution, advisory,
lending and syndication of facilities. Prior to joining Gulf One,
Patrick was a senior banker at The National Commercial Bank (“NCB”)
Saudi Arabia where he was responsible for developing and managing
the bank’s project finance advisory and lending business, and most
notably was actively engaged in advising the Saudi Government (i.e.
Saudi Railways Organization) on their two major railway expansion
projects, i.e. Saudi Landbridge and Makkah Madinah Rail Link.
Patrick is an Associate of the Chartered Institute of Bankers (“ACIB”)
London, holds a Masters of Finance & Investment from South Bank
University London and an MBA from Middlesex University Business
School, London. |
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Chief
Risk Officer – Dean R Rowan |
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Dean is the CRO and has previously
worked with the National Commercial Bank as the Head of Operational
Risk and Basel II, Barclays Bank PLC London as Head of Group Risk,
Westpac Bank in Australia as Head of Risk, Global Treasury, as well
as Head of Credit. He also has over 10 years experience with
Citibank, Australia and Asia Pacific and has previously worked with
Lloyds Bank in Australia. Dean has a Bachelors degree in Commerce
from the University of New South Wales, and 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 and an
Fellow of Financial Securities Institute of Australia. |
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