Recent Executive Moves in Banking & Financial Services – MENA

September Appointments News

BANK OF AMERICA SAUDI ARABIA has hired Abdulaziz Behery as Managing Director and Head of Investment Banking for Saudi Arabia. Behery joined from HSBC Saudi Arabia where he was a Director for almost 2 years. Previously he worked for SNB Capital for close to 5 years latterly as Head of ECM. He will report to Andrée Chakhtoura, Head of MENA Investment Banking. BofA earlier this year named Rehaan Khan as Head of Equities for MENA and moved him to Dubai from London.
BELTONE, the asset management, brokerage, and wealth management firm in Egypt has hired Khalil El Bawab as Chief Executive Officer for Markets Local & Regional. He joins from Misr Capital, the investment banking arm of Banque Misr where he was CEO & Managing Director for almost 5 years. Before this Khalil spent 11.5 years at EFG Hermes where he was Managing Director & Head of Fixed Income for EFG Hermes Asset Management. He started his career at Arab Bank and held various roles over an almost 9 year period.
BNP PARIBAS WEALTH MANAGEMENT has appointed Antoine Chemali as the Chief Executive Officer, with immediate effect. Chemali joined BNP Paribas WM in Dubai in 2021 as the Head of GCC market from Fractals Limited, where he was Managing Partner for over 3 years managing a hedge fund where he advised private clients and families in the GCC and asset managers / venture investors in the UK. Chemali brings well-tested experience in private banking, asset management, hedge funds and venture capital industry across three locations – the GCC, the UK and US. In August BNP Paribas Wealth Management’s CEO of MEA Masroor Batin resigned, after initially planning to transition to a new role with the bank. After a nine-year stint at the French bank, Batin left to pursue a new opportunity, but will stay in the Middle East.
CITI has appointed Tahany Taher as Head of Citi Commercial Bank (CCB) in the UAE. Tahany assumed her role on 1st September and will report to the Head of CCB for MEA, Zoltan Schwardy. Tahany is the first Emirati woman to assume this role, which was previously under the purview of Zoltan. Tahany has more than 17 years of banking experience across Consumer, Operations, Product, Private Banking and Corporate Banking across several banks in the UAE. Prior to assuming this current role, she was CCB’s Head of Digital for MEA, and the Head of Mid Corporates in the UAE, a role focused on serving mid-sized corporates segment in the country. Tahany joined Citi in December 2017 and was appointed as Head of Digital for MEA in March 2022.
DEUTSCHE BANK has hired 10 senior private bankers from Credit Suisse in the Middle East, as part of their expansion plans. Saad Osseiran joins as the new Head of Private Bank Middle East, based in Dubai. He will work to design a new structure for the team, with emphasis on markets and booking centres. Osseiran succeeds Loïc Voide, who has been appointed the CEO and Chief Country Officer of Deutsche Bank in Switzerland and started on 1st October. Osseiran has more than 25 years of experience in private banking, most recently as Country Head for the UAE, Bahrain, and Oman at Credit Suisse in the wealth management division. Nasri Nohra joins as the Head of Private Bank Middle East in Switzerland. Nohra has more than 30 years of experience in private banking and investment management, most recently as the MD at Credit Suisse Wealth Management. Rabih Demashkieh joins as Head of Private Bank Saudi Arabia, based in Dubai. He has more than 30 years of experience in private banking and investment management. He recently served as MD of Credit Suisse in the wealth management division and was the country head for Saudi Arabia.
DOHA BANK has announced the appointment of Sheikh Abdulrahman bin Fahad bin Faisal bin Thani al-Thani as Group Chief Executive Officer. Sheikh Abdulrahman has more than 15 years of experience in the Qatari banking industry, during which he has held diverse roles across retail, corporate banking, as well as international and governmental relations besides holding senior positions at Dukhan Bank and Qatar International Islamic Bank. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in International Business Management, from the University of Northumbria UK.
EMIRATES ISLAMIC has appointed Farid Al Mulla as its new Chief Executive Officer, with immediate effect. Mulla will succeed Salah Amin who is retiring after 35 years of service to the Emirates NBD Group. As Emirates Islamic’s current Head of Consumer Banking and Wealth Management, Mulla has played an instrumental role in the bank’s results as well as its continued digital transformation. Furthermore, he has taken the lead in driving a series of Emiratisation campaigns, while also spearheading the introduction of banking solutions tailored to UAE nationals, including the Emirati Family Savings Account, Emirati Business Account, and the Super Savings Etihad Guest Account.
HBS MIDDLE EAST, the UAE arm of Geneva-based HBS SA Family Office, has appointed Vincent Taccoz as a Partner, based in Dubai. Taccoz has joined the firm from UBS Dubai office, where he headed the Saudi Arabian market for more than five years. His career spanned at UBS for the last 23 years and worked across locations such as Zurich, Geneva, and Singapore. HBS Middle East Ltd is incorporated in the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) and is regulated by Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA). The firm provides bespoke wealth advisory and family office services.
HELIOS INVESTMENT PARTNERS has hired Jad Shams as Managing Director, Head of Capital Formation - Middle East. Jad joins from Rakiza where he was Head of Business Development, Rakiza Infrastructure an independent Private Equity Infrastructure initiative, under the auspices of Oman’s Sovereign Wealth Fund, the Oman Investment Authority for 4.5 years. Before this he was Head of Middle East at Mirae Asset Global Investments having previously been Director, Business Development at Natixis Global Asset Management, both in Dubai. Jad has also held roles with Amundi and Deutsche Asset Management amongst others.
HSBC BAHRAIN announced the promotion of Joseph Ghorayeb to Chief Executive Officer effective 1st September. He will succeed Chris Russell, who is retiring after 18 years at HSBC, the last three of which were spent in Bahrain. Joseph started his journey with the bank in Canada in 2006 and took him to the Middle East in 2012, where he assumed key leadership roles within HSBC’s operations in the UAE, Qatar, and Bahrain. Notably, he most recently served as the Head of Commercial Banking and Global Banking, a position he took up in 2022 having previously been the Head of Wholesale Banking in Bahrain for over 4.5 years. He earlier worked at Bank ABC.
HSBC KUWAIT has promoted Ahmed Al Murad as the Head of Wholesale Banking, following the approval from the Central Bank of Kuwait, to deliver the bank’s growth agenda. Ahmed has been leading the Global Banking team in HSBC Kuwait for the past 2 years and with this new role his responsibilities will expand to cover the Commercial Banking as well. Ahmed will focus on leveraging HSBC’s strength as the largest international bank in the country, connecting large corporates, multinationals, and government related entities to international markets, and supporting global businesses seeking to grow their business in Kuwait.
HSBC SAUDI ARABIA announced that Mohammed Fannouch and Faisal Qadri as Managing Directors and Co–Heads of Investment Banking, and Amir Bourani as Managing Director - Head of Global Banking Coverage, with immediate effect. Faisal and Mohammed will jointly lead the investment banking business in KSA which includes ECM, DCM, M&A, Debt Advisory, Infrastructure and Project Finance, and Issuer Services. Mohammed, who joined HSBC in Riyadh in 2008, has 17 years of experience in the Middle East, including 15 years in Saudi Arabia supporting clients in the origination and execution of landmark merger and acquisition and capital markets transactions. Faisal, who joined HSBC in the UAE 2003, has been based in Riyadh for 17 of his 23 years in banking, providing clients with Islamic financing, debt advisory, project finance, loan syndication and debt capital markets expertise. Amir, who joined HSBC in the UK in 2007 and relocated to the Middle East in 2014 before moving to Riyadh in 2020, brings 16 years of banking experience and leadership expertise in Leveraged & Acquisition Financing and Coverage and in managing strategic client relationships.
JULIUS BAER has recruited six new wealth managers - all of whom previously worked as Credit Suisse. Roberto Faoro, Moetaz Eid and Muhammad Salahuddin have joined the Middle East and Africa desk. They are based in Zurich. Faoro joins as a Deputy Team Head. He was most recently a Managing Director at independent asset manager Crescendo Capital but was previously Deputy Head UHNWI Middle East at Credit Suisse in Zurich. Eid joins as a Senior RM having also most recently been at Crescendo Capital. He previously spent over a decade at Credit Suisse. Salahuddin joins directly from Credit Suisse, where he was a Senior RM for the Middle East desk in Zurich. He previously worked in investment banking and corporate finance.
INDOSUEZ WEALTH MANAGEMENT, the global wealth management arm of Crédit Agricole Group, has promoted Emile Salawi to Head of Middle East. Salawi will capitalise on teams in Geneva, Zurich, Dubai, and Abu Dhabi as well as capabilities of Crédit Agricole CIB and Amundi in the region. Emile Salawi brings over two decades international banking experience with a background in investment banking at UBS, Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, and Deutsche Bank, as well as in private banking at BNP Paribas. He originally joined Indosuez Wealth Management in 2020 as Head of Key Clients and Family Offices of CA Indosuez (Switzerland) SA. IWM earlier opened its DIFC branch in October 2022 and appointed Vanik Baghramian as its Senior Executive Officer. Vanik Baghramian was with UBS for 15 years, covering various wealth management positions, including Head of Arabian Gulf business in Geneva and member of the MEA Management Committee.
LGT PRIVATE BANKING has appointed Dushyant Bhatia as the Head of Key Clients and Family Offices, based in Dubai. Bhatia joins LGT from Bank of Singapore in Dubai where he worked as the Managing Director for more than eight years. With over 20 years of experience in the banking industry including 13.5 years with ABN Amro. Additionally, LGT Private Banking has also hired Saaish Sukumaran for its investment advisory team. Prior to joining LGT PB, Sukumaran worked as Head of Product Management Group for BoS in Dubai for more than eight years. His career has spanned 34 years across the banking sector with names such as Merrill Lynch, Citi, Barclays, and ABN Amro.
MASHREQ has appointed Norman Tambach as its Group Chief Financial Officer. He will play a central role in the continued digitization of the bank’s financial operations, the efficacy of its reporting functions, and development of the finance team. Tambach brings expertise in critical domains including strategic financial engineering, M&A, financial operations, regulatory governance, risk management, capital management and corporate tax planning. His background comprises several senior financial leadership roles, including his time at the publicly listed global bank ING, which he joined in 2013 and was latterly CFO and an Executive Board Member of ING Germany for 4.5 years. Previously, he held positions at KPMG in Belgium and the Netherlands.
RASMALA INVESTMENT BANK, the Dubai-based alternative investment manager, has promoted Haroon Ahmad to Chief Executive Officer, with immediate effect. He will succeed Eric Swats, who has been with the group since 2003 will take over as Vice-Chairman. Ahmad has over 25 years’ experience in the investment management industry. He joined Rasmala in 2014, first leading the group’s business development and then its direct investment activity. Previously he held senior positions at global and regional firms, including HSBC and Emirates NBD. In addition, Ali Taqi has also been promoted to Chief Investment Officer having previously been Head of Strategic Equities & Client Solutions, bringing the investment team under his leadership. Ruggiero Lomonaco, head of real estate funds, will also lead investment origination and business development in Saudi Arabia. Rasmala is also planning to establish local presence in Saudi Arabia through evaluating joint venture (JV) options.
SHUAA CAPITAL has appointed Ahmed Alahmadi to its Board of Directors. Alahmadi will also join the board’s investment committee and work to deliver Shuaa’s strategic objectives. He currently serves as an independent member of the audit and risk committee for ADX-listed Presight AI Holdings. Alahmadi’s professional career includes stints at Mubadala, Rothschild & Co, and most recently in the CEO Office of ADQ, where he supported government initiatives and maintained strategic partnerships. Last month, the top shareholder of Shuaa Capital, Jassim Alseddiqi, stepped down as the managing director and is selling his near 30% stake in the company.
SICO, a leading regional asset manager, broker, and investment bank based in Bahrain announced the promotion of Maryam AlMohri to Acting Chief Risk Officer. Maryam brings a wealth of experience in risk management across asset management, treasury, brokerage, and investment banking. Maryam joined SICO in 2017, and her most recent position before this appointment was Vice President of Risk Management. Prior to joining SICO, she was Assistant Manager in ALM Reporting and Capital Management at Gulf International Bank. Maryam holds the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation and a first-class Master of Science (MSc) in Investment Banking & Islamic Finance from the University of Reading, United Kingdom. She also earned a Bachelor of Arts (Honors) in Finance and Investment Management from Northumbria University, UK. Additionally, she is a qualified Chartered Islamic Finance Professional (CIFP).

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Nic Cutts is a senior member of the firm’s global Leadership & Succession Practice and Head of Financial Services Advisory Services for Russell Reynolds EMEA. He is a (UK) Chartered Psychologist with over 20 years international consulting experience, having assessed and coached many C-level executives. He has led several large scale M&A and transformation initiatives in the financial services sector, where his consulting services have focused on individual, team and organization-wide initiatives.
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