ADVISORS

“In alphabetical order”

Fadi Ghandour

Founder and Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors, Aramex

Fadi Ghandour is the Founder and Vice Chairman of Aramex wherehe served for 30 years as the company’s CEO. Aramex is one of theleading global logistics and transportation companies. Fadi is the co-Founder and Managing Partner of MENA VentureInvestments, a seed capital investment company investing in early stage tech companies in the MENA region. He is a member of theBoard of Abraaj Capital, and the Chairman of WAMDA.com, anentrepreneurship support platform for the MENA region. He is aMember of the Board of Trustees at the American University of Beirut.

He is a Member of the Board of Yemeksepeti a leading Turkish ecommerce company and Founding Investor in Maktoob.com sold toYahoo in 2009.Fadi is passionate about social entrepreneurship. He is the Founderand Chairman of Ruwwad for Development (www.ruwwad.jo), aregional private sector-led community empowerment initiative that helps disadvantaged communities overcome marginalization throughyouth activism, civic engagement, and education, and providesaccess to capital for microbusinesses in marginalized communities.

Gassan Al-Kibsi

Senior Partner and Managing Director, Saudi Arabia, McKinsey and Company

Gassan is a senior partner at McKinsey and Company and is the Managing Director for McKinsey’s Saudi Arabia Office. He joined the Washington DC Office in 1997 and moved to the Middle East in 2000. Prior to joining McKinsey, Gassan was the Director of Strategy and Business Development at the WorldSpace Management Corporation.

Gassan work is focused on areas of economic and social development and public policy. He has worked with the top leadership of several GCC countries on matters of economic reform and growth. He advises several GCC and MENA countries on large scale employment growth programs. Gassan has written several articles for publications such as the World Economic Forum Middle East Summit as well as the McKinsey Quarterly, some of which are widely recognized and used as teaching tools in several Asian and European universities.

Gassan has a B.S. in Industrial Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology. In addition, he has a M.S. in Operations Research from MIT and an MBA in strategic management from the Sloan School of Management, MIT, both with highest honours.

H.E. Dr. Nasser H. Saidi

Founder and President, Nasser Saidi & Associates
Deputy Chairman, Eureeca Capital

Dr Nasser H. Saidi is the Founder and President of Nasser Saidi & Associates. He is Deputy Chairman of Eureeca Capital, a crowd-funding platform. He is the former Chief Economist of the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) from 2006 to September 2012, where he helped build the centre and its strategic development and developed the links with governments, central banks, international organisations and international financial centres. Dr Saidi is the Founder and former Executive Director of the Hawkamah-Institute for Corporate Governance and the Mudara Institute of Directors.

Dr Saidi is a member of the IMF’s Regional Advisory Group for MENA and Co-Chair of the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD) MENA Corporate Governance Working Group. He is a member of the Private Sector Advisory Group of the Global Corporate Governance Forum, an institution of the World Bank driving global corporate governance reforms. He is Chairman of the regional Clean Energy Business Council, promoting clean energy solutions and policies in the MENA countries.

In 2012, he was named among the 50 most influential Arabs in the World by The Middle East magazine, for the fourth consecutive year. Dr Saidi was the Minister of Economy and Trade and Minister of Industry of Lebanon between 1998 and 2000. He was the First Vice-Governor of the Central Bank of Lebanon for two successive mandates, 1993-1998 and 1998-2003. He was a Member of the UN Committee for Development Policy (UNCDP) for two mandates over the period 2000-2006, a position to which he was appointed by former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, in his personal capacity. He the author of numerous articles and has written a number of books and publications addressing macroeconomic, capital market development and international economic issues in the MENA region, Lebanon, the GCC countries and is the author of “Corporate Governance in the MENA countries: Improving Transparency & Disclosure”. His research interests include macroeconomics, financial market development, payment systems and international economic policy, corporate governance, clean energy and information and communication technology (ICT).

Dr Saidi was a private banker and served as an economic adviser and director to a number of central banks and financial institutions in Arab countries, Europe and Central and Latin America. Prior to his public career, Dr Nasser pursued a career as an academic, serving as a Professor of Economics at the Department of Economics in the University of Chicago, the Institut Universitaire de Hautes Etudes Internationales (Geneva, CH), and the Université de Genève. He also served as a lecturer at the American University of Beirut and the Université St. Joseph in Beirut. Dr Saidi holds a Ph.D. and a M.A. in Economics from the University of Rochester in the USA, a M.Sc. from University College, London University and a B.A. from the American University of Beirut.

Jamie Mc-Auliffe

President & CEO, Education For Employment (EFE)

Jamie McAuliffe is President and CEO of Education For Employment (EFE) an international nonprofit dedicated to creating job opportunities for vulnerable youth in the Middle East and North Africa. By creating tailored training programs in partnership with businesses that commit to hiring graduates, EFE prepares young people with the skills they need to get and keep a job, and companies benefit from the productive workforce needed to grow and compete in the global marketplace. (www.efe.org)

Jamie has worked for many years to advance effective, scalable solutions for vulnerable youth. He has over two decades of experience in leadership roles in both the non-profit and business sectors, and currently serves as the Chairman of the World Economic Forum (WEF) Global Agenda Council on Youth Unemployment. In 2012, Jamie was named a Schwab Foundation Global Social Entrepreneur.

Prior to EFE, Jamie was at the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation (EMCF) where he helped bring proven youth-serving organizations to national scale. He has also worked with Ashoka where he launched new programs to support leading social entrepreneurs globally. Early in his career, Jamie participated in Teach for America, a nonprofit that places college graduates to teach in struggling, low-income schools across the United States. Jamie earned an M.A. in International Relations at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy from Georgetown University.

Lord Malloch-Brown

Regional Chairman at FTI Consulting

Lord Malloch-Brown is Regional Chairman at FTI Consulting, focusing on advising corporates on the risks and opportunities associated with rapid changes in the global political economy. Formerly he was Minister of State in the Foreign Office, covering Africa and Asia, and was a member of Gordon Brown’s cabinet. He had previously served as Deputy Secretary-General and Chief of Staff of the UN under Kofi Annan. For six years he was Administrator of the UNDP, leading the UN’s development efforts around the world. Other positions have included vicechairman of George Soros’s Investment Funds, as well as his Open Society Institute, a Vice-President at the World Bank and the lead international partner in a political consulting firm. He also has served as Vice-Chairman of the World Economic Forum. He began his career as a journalist on The Economist.

Mark is chair of the Royal Africa Society and on a number of non-profit and advisory boards, including the International Crisis group, the Open Society Foundation and the Centre for Global Development in Washington. He is a member of the House of Lords and was knighted in 2007. Mark is also a Distinguished Practitioner of the Blavatnik School of Government.

He is the author of “The Unfinished Global Revolution”

Mustafa Abdel-Wadood

Partner and Chair of Management Executive Committee, The Abraaj Group

Mustafa Abdel-Wadood is a Partner and Chair of the Management Executive Committee at The Abraaj Group. Mustafa Abdel-Wadood oversees The Abraaj Group’s investment activities across the various geographies. He is a Board Member of The Abraaj Group and Chairman of the Executive Committee. He joined from EFG-Hermes, where he was Chief Executive Officer for the UAE. Before this, he co-founded Sigma Capital and served as its Managing Director. Prior to that he spent eight years at Orascom Group as Director of Development and Investments. Mr. Abdel-Wadood has served on the Boards of several publicly listed and private companies.

In 2002, the World Economic Forum named Mr Abdel-Wadood a ‘Global Leader for Tomorrow’ and in 2007 named him a ‘Young Global Leader’. He is also a member of the Young Presidents’ Organization.

He graduated in Business Administration from American University and holds an MBA from Georgetown University

Parag Khanna

Parag Khanna is a leading geo-strategist, world traveler, and author. He is Director of the Hybrid Reality Institute, Senior Research Fellow at the New America Foundation, Visiting Fellow at LSE IDEAS, Senior Fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, Senior Fellow at the Singapore Institute of International Affairs, and Adjunct Professor in the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore. He is author of Hybrid Reality: Thriving in the Emerging Human-Technology Civilization (2012), the international bestseller The Second World: Empires and Influence in the New Global Order (2008) and How to Run the World: Charting a Course to the Next Renaissance (2011). In 2008, Parag was named one of Esquire’s “75 Most Influential People of the 21st Century,” and featured in WIRED magazine’s “Smart List.” Parag is regularly featured in media around the world such as the New York Times, TIME, Financial Times, and Wall Street Journal, and appears regularly on CNN, BBC, Al Jazeera, PBS, and NPR. He holds a PhD from the London School of Economics, and Bachelors and Masters degrees from the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. Born in India, Parag grew up in the United Arab Emirates, New York, and Germany. He has traveled to more than 100 countries and is a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum and a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society.

Peter Middlebrook

Dr. Peter J. Middlebrook is a leading international economist specializing in emerging and frontier markets. He is the CEO of Geopolicity, an international consultancy firm, based in Dubai with offices in the UA, Europe and BVI. He is a former World Bank (Vice President Office), UK Government and European Union economist with more than 20 years of experience advising heads of state, minister and corporation in over 40 countries.

He has travelled to more than 100 countries, and is a regular contributor to Aljazeera and other international media. His work has been covered on BBC, Aljazeera, CNN, Time Magazine, the Financial Times and MENA regional news. He led the technical development of the proposed Arab Stabilization Plan and has played a key role in the development of the New Silk Road for the US Government.

Samer Khoury

President, Engineering and Construction, Consolidated Contractors Company (CCC)

Samer Said Khoury was born in Beirut, Lebanon on 23rd August 1960 to a Palestinian family that came to Lebanon during the 1948 Israeli-Arab war.Samer spent his childhood between Kuwait and Lebanon, where he received his high school diploma in 1977 from the American High School in Kuwait.

He studied at California State University from 1978 to 1981 when he received his B.Sc. in Civil Engineering and went on to obtain an MBA in 1984 from the University of Southern California.

Following this, Samer returned to the Arabian Gulf and worked his way up the ranks of his father’s engineering and construction company – Consolidated Contractors Company (CCC) – which is one of the largest Arab international construction companies operating throughout the Middle East, Africa, CIS, Europe and America.(www.ccc.gr)

From 1987 through 1990, Samer was responsible for the total operations of CCC in Kuwait, with an average turnover of 50$M/year and more than 1,000 permanent staff.

In 1990, Samer moved to the Head Office of CCC in Athens, Greece. He worked in various departments gaining a wide range of experience in the Engineering & Construction field. In 1997, he took over the position of Executive Vice President Operations of the Group being responsible for the marketing and execution of the Group’s worldwide activities. As of January 2011 he became President for the Engineering & Construction Division.

CCC today is a large conglomerate with a broad range of activities ranging from its traditional engineering & construction role to the more extensive (innovative) role of an oil & gas and power developer. More than 120,000 individuals are employed worldwide and, according to the ENR listing, CCC ranks 17th amongst the largest international contractors. CCC’s revenue in 2012 was in excess of US$ 8 Billion.

Samer has been married to Rania Khoury since 1989 and has two sons Saji, born in 1991, and Rayan born in 1993.