Mishal Kanoo is one of the most iconic business figures in the Middle East and has a reputation as a futurist and strategist with a strong track record in forecasting economic developments in the region. As Chairman of KAAF Investments, Mishal Kanoo tries to help people reach their professional dreams. The excitement of helping others achieve their goals, both big or small, is what drives him. Playing a role in bettering people's lives is a great instigator for doing what he does. Kanoo has been investing on a personal and company level since 1991.

Mr. Kanoo currently serves as the Chairman of The Kanoo Group, one of the largest, longest running and independent family-owned groups of companies in the Gulf region. Furthermore, he is a professional and motivational speaker, writes articles for local and regional media, is published in business journals on a regular basis, and holds chief positions as Chairman/Director of various reputable companies, including AXA Insurance Gulf, Gulf Capital, KHK & Partners Limited, Dalma Capital, and Johnson Arabia LLC.

Mishal Kanoo adheres to family values and ideals in pursuit of quality and excellence. Over the years, the Kanoo family has always been associated with the progress and development of the entire region combined with a sense of philanthropy.

Mishal grew up in the United Arab Emirates and finished his early schooling in Dubai. Thereafter he obtained two MBAs, one in finance from the University of St. Thomas, in Texas, and one from the American University of Sharjah. He began his professional career within the family business before going to university to get his first Master’s Degree. He then worked as an auditor outside his family business with Arthur Andersen in Dubai, before Re-joining The Kanoo Group in 1997 as the Deputy Chairman.

David Gibson-Moore is the President of Gulf Analytica, with the role to assist the business development of companies in the Gulf region and undertake investment advisory mandates for leading institutional and private office clients in the GCC. Mr. Gibson-Moore is a Senior Advisor of LGT Group Foundation on which he advices to the Liechtenstein Foundation and the Princely Family of Liechtenstein on matters in connection with the Middle East: this includes relationships with Ruling Families in the Gulf and business opportunities in both financial and other business sectors. He holds over 10 senior executive roles all over the GCC region.

Mr. Gibson-Moore has had a career in general management as well as corporate finance, investment banking and asset management. He has specialised in private equity since 2000. From 2009 to 2014 he was CEO and Managing Director of LGT Bank covering the GCC countries. LGT is a bank privately owned by the Princely Family of Liechtenstein focusing worldwide on institutional and family office asset management.

Before joining LGT Group, he was Chief Executive Officer Middle East for the Robeco Group office based in Bahrain with responsibility for their institutional asset management business in the ME region. Mr. Gibson-Moore was a Member of the Middle East Advisory Board of the Robeco Group from 2008 - 2010.

He previously worked with Chase Manhattan Bank (subsequently JP Morgan Chase) for 15 years where he was Chairman of the Boards of Chase Manhattan Bank in Switzerland, Luxembourg and Jersey and Swiss country manager. In addition, he was Head of Private Banking and Institutional Asset Management in Europe, Middle East and Africa for 8 years, based in Geneva, and was also responsible for business development for Global Investment Banking based in New York.

Following his time at Chase Manhattan, he was a founding partner with responsibility for investment banking at The International Investor (TII), a Kuwaiti-based Islamic investment bank. Following the successful flotation of TII he then completed a 4-year assignment in Riyadh where he was responsible for instigating and then running the investment banking, investment management and share trading divisions of Al Rajhi Bank, the largest Islamic bank in the world, reporting directly to the CEO.

Mr. Gibson-Moore was a Member of the Advisory Board of Heritage Bank, Geneva until 2011. He was Founder of the Bahrain Oxford and Cambridge Society. He was Deputy Chairman of the Standardisation Commission of the European Society of Investment Analysts for 10 years. He was Chancelier of the Chaîne des Rotisseurs in Bahrain from 2005 – 2014.

He is currently Director and Board Member and UAE Country Officer for Rotary Foundation District Committee at the Rotary Club of Dubai and was a Board Member of the Rotary Club of Manama (Bahrain) from 2005 to 2011.

Mr. Gibson-Moore has both Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Natural Science from Oxford University and MSc (cum laude) in Financial Economics and a Diploma in Econometrics from London University. He is a Chartered Accountant, having qualified at PriceWaterhouseCoopers in the City of London, a frequent speaker on finance and investment issues and has published numerous articles on banking and investment.

Zachary Cefaratti is the principal founder of Dalma Capital, AIM Summit, and a Venture Partner at Draper Associates. He transformed Dalma Capital's role in investment banking, skillfully executing M&As up to ~$500m and managing financings around ~$2bn. Specializing in cross-border transactions, Zachary connects emerging and developed markets. His expertise covers sectors like EdTech, AI, Blockchain, FinTech, and more. He's proficient in various financial structures, with global deal-making experience from the UAE to Latin America.

With over 15 years in finance, Zachary's journey began trading bonds as a child actor and evolved through academic pursuits at institutions like LSE and UPenn. Beyond academia, he identified top-performing portfolio strategies, providing infrastructure to budding funds. He also played foundational roles in the Franklin University Investment Club and the AIMA Middle East Executive Committee. As an early financial enthusiast, his origins trace back to trading assets earned as a child actor.

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Prior to joining Dalma Capital as its DFSA approved Financial Officer, Amir Anwar gained international and regional experience as a Financial Controller and Financial Officer in the Aviation and Financial sectors, respectively. Amir began his twenty year career as a finance professional as an external auditor for one of the big four global auditing firms (PwC) and from that foundation he enhanced his specialization in order to gain pivotal executive roles in government and non-government related entities in the UAE.

Amir first became a Regulated Financial Officer in the Dubai International Financial Centre in 2008. He commenced his role as a financial controller with Dalma Capital in 2014 and was promoted upon merit to become Dalma’s Financial Officer in 2015.

Senior financial services lawyer specialising in the establishment and operation of investment funds and asset management businesses. 

Practice covers a broad range of asset classes and strategies (including open- and closed-end, private equity, real asset, hedge, hybrid, venture capital, debt and secondaries).

Extensive experience of both sell-side and buy-side investor negotiations (including SWFs, DFIs and U.S. state plans).

Specialist knowledge of co-investment schemes and carry structures, Islamic Finance and capital raising in the GCC.

Previous experience as a Senior Associate at Dechert LLP for 4 years and Lawyer at Clifford Chance LLP for 10 years. Qualified as a Solicitor in the UK and educated at the UCL and Merchant Taylors' School.

Worked at Morgan Stanley in London, New York and Asia between 1991 and 2008, holding various positions including Managing Director, Head of Financing for Middle East and Africa, Head of UK Capital Markets, Deputy Head of UK Investment Banking, Head of Africa. 

Joined Renaissance Capital in 2008, subsequently moving to Moscow between 2008 and 2017. Ran the Financing Group leading over 100 closed transactions for the Firm over the period. Most recently held the title of Chief Business Officer. Based out of London since 2018.

Board member and treasurer of Harm Reduction International since 2021, a leading UK public health and healthcare policy NGO.

BA Oxford University. Certificate d’Etudes Politiques Sciences Politiques. 
 

Career Highlights 

• Set up Morgan Stanley Mumbai office with under the supervision of Vikram Pandit, later CEO of Morgan Stanley and then Citigroup.
• Worked on Reliance Industries which was the first Global Depositary Receipt (GDR), listed in London, one of the catalysts behind emerging markets companies coming to the London Stock Exchange.
• Worked on Wharf Holdings, the first Convertible bond out of Hong Kong.
• Worked on IPO of Depa (DIFX) and Tabreed mandatory convertible. 
• Led lastminute.com, the first $1Bn IPO of a pre revenue business on the London Stock Exchange.
• Led IPOs of Burberry and Carphone Warehouse (luxury, premium retail) on London Stock Exchange.
• Sale of Skype to eBay for $2.6Bn in 2005.
• Led all Blackstone and Fortress Europe capital markets exits over the period 2005 - 2008.
• Raised $5Bn in 5 months for New York taxi driver turned oil refining magnate Tom O’Malley’s acquisition and refinancing of Petroplus.
• Led $800 million IPO for Safaricom, which remains the largest locally listed IPO out of Africa and which was the first “Fintech” capital markets story on the back of a nascent mPesa. 
• $750 million capital raise and London listing for GT Bank and $500 million listing for Diamond Bank.
• Large number of Russian offerings including for Yandex, mail.ru, Phosagro ($1Bn IPO), Rusal ($3Bn IPO), Epam.
• Bank of Georgia and TBC Bank IPOs and secondary offerings.
• Nigeria - including MTN Nigeria and IHS IPOs, Lekoil hostile m&a defence advisory.
   

Zahid Aslam is a Senior Investment Professional specialising in structuring, marketing and launching Islamic and conventional capital markets instruments, private equity solutions and investment funds. He has a wide network of clients and investors including sovereign, banks, investment firms, corporates and HNWI.

Zahid began his career in Investment Banking with roles at Bear Stearns, JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley where he was initially on the Emerging Markets Desks and later in Risk Management. He later moved into Hedge Fund and Asset Management arena with Portfolio Manager/Trading/Risk Roles at a number of funds, and has invested/managed a number of strategies including Long/Short Indian Equities, Long/Short US Equities, G10 Fixed Income and MENA Equities. He has significant experience in designing novel products which provide superior risk/return profiles in assets classes that include trade finance, real assets, real estate and insurance related investments. He has advised and structured a number of products and solutions for clients looking to raise capital to fund a number of projects in the GCC, Asia and Far East.

Zahid has a M.A. in International Business and Finance from the International Capital Markets Association Centre (ICMA), University of Reading, UK.

Alma is a Managing Director of Sales of Funds at Dalma Capital. With a background in law and finance, she transitioned from practicing criminal and civil law at her family's law firm to pursuing finance after earning her Masters in Business Administration and Sciences. 

Alma previously served as the VP of Sales and Investor Relations at Helicap Securities, focusing on developing investor strategies and fostering relationships with a wide network of High Net Worth Individuals (HNWIs) and institutional investors. Prior to this, she worked as a Team Lead for Investor Relations at Validus Capital and held positions as a Senior Financial Consultant at Prudential. 

Alma holds a Masters in Business Administration and Sciences and a Bachelor of Law. 

Outside of work, Alma enjoys yoga, watching movies, and spending time with family and friends.

Majed Kabbara is the Managing Director - Asset Management at Dalma Capital and Founder & Managing Director at Quencia Capital. Mr. Kabbara has more than 17 years of experience - his most recent role was Managing Director and Head of Asset Management at EFG-Hermes in charge of the firm's asset management business in Saudi Arabia. During his 9-year tenure at the firm, he turned around the company's flagship Saudi equity fund to become the leading fund in its category, grew AUMs from a low of around SAR 70m in 2011 to a peak of more than SAR 1b in 2015, launched and managed a number of Saudi equity portfolios and mutual funds, and consistently delivered strong investment returns.

Before EFG-Germes, Mr. Kabbara worked as Loyalty and Portfolio Manager at American Express Saudi Arabia. Prior to that, he held business advisory and management consulting positions at Riyadh based UTC Nexia International and Beirut based TQC International respectively.

Mr. Kabbara is a CFA Charterholder and holds a MBA degree from the American University of Beirut. He also holds a Bachelor of Business Administration in Finance and Banking with honors from the Lebanese American University.

Wyatt has broad international experience working within several hedge funds, private equity firms, and investment banks across seven cities and five countries including Canada, Switzerland, Australia, India, and the UAE. On the fund side, he has gained experience within quantitative and U.S. equity funds.

Wyatt received his Bachelor’s from McGill University in Accounting and Master’s from Harvard University in Computational Science and Engineering, with a research concentration in finance and financial engineering. His research covered the linkages between Navier Stokes equations and financial markets, taking inputs from fractal Brownian motion to explain dynamic market incompleteness.

He is a CFA Level II candidate and has cleared FRM Level I.

Fadh is a member of the legal team at Dalma Capital. He has been working in the legal sector in UAE for over 5 years assisting clients in Corporate, Commercial and Employment matters as well as handling Offshore Company formations and transactions in UAE Free Zones.

At Dalma Capital, Fadh assists the General Counsel in analyzing investment strategies, drafting legal documents and also acts as an enforcer to assist clients in achieving their tailored objectives.

Fadh received his Bachelor’s in Law from Karnataka State Law University in India and is a member of the Bar Council of India. Prior to working at Dalma Capital, Fadh was handling responsibilities of a Junior Associate at Galadari Advocates & Legal Consultants, Dubai.

Ritchie joined Dalma Capital in April 2015 and is the firm's Deputy MLRO and Office Manager.

Her responsibilities encompass overseeing and ensuring the proper implementation of compliance policies and procedures within the firm. Ritchie also extends her support to the company's executives, partners and the team.

Prior to Dalma Capital, Ritchie worked as a HR Officer in the UAE. She also accumulated a diverse set of experience in Human Resource, Operations, and Marketing across various industries in the Philippines.

Ritchie graduated with a degree in Psychology from Ateneo de Davao University in the Philippines.

Adnan has over 10 years of experience in finance, having held diverse accounting roles across various industries in Pakistan and the UAE. In 2018, Adnan joined the team and has since played an integral role in Dalma Capital's finance department.

Dr. Nasser H. Saidi heads Nasser Saidi & Associates, a niche consultant and advisor to the banking and financial sector, government, central banks, regulators, multinational and regional companies. He is the former Chief Economist of the Dubai International Financial Center (DIFC) from 2006-2012, where as a senior executive he built and promoted the center and its strategic development and developed the links with governments, central banks, IFIs, banks and financial institutions and international financial centers. Dr. Saidi is the Founder and former Executive Director of the Hawkamah Institute for Corporate Governance and the Mudara Institute of Directors from 2006 to 2012. He was a senior adviser to the UAE Minister of Finance from 2004 to 2006. 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 from 1993 to 1998 and 1998 to 2003, a period of spanning reconstruction of Lebanon's economy and its banking and financial sector. He was a Member of the UN Committee for Development Policy (UNCDP) for two mandates over the period of 2000 to 2006, a position to which he was appointed by former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, in his personal capacity. Dr. Saidi is also the Chairman of the regional Clean Energy Business Council, promoting clean energy solutions and policies in the MENA countries. He is a member of the IMF's Regional Advisory Group for MENA and a member of the Advisory Board of the Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum (OMFIF) and a member of the Private Sector Advisory Group of the Global Corporate Governance Forum, an institution of the IFC/World Bank driving global corporate governance reforms, and Co-Chaired OECD MENA Corporate Governance Working Group. He is active in crowdfunding, VC and seed funding in MENA. In 2013, he was named among the 50 most Influential Arabs in the World by The Middle East Magazine, for the fourth consecutive year and named among the 500 Most Powerful Arabs in the world by Arabian Business for the second consecutive year. He is 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, the GCC countries and Lebanon. His research interests include macroeconomics, financial market development, crowdfunding, 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. Saidi was an academic, serving as a Professor of Economics in 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 the University College, London University and a B.A. from the American University of Beirut.

Mr. Kiran holds a graduate degree in Finance and Accounts from Regent Business School, London and a Master’s degree in Science in Real Estate Valuations Survey from the South Bank University.

Mr. Kiran is the Chief Executive Officer for Rocky Real Estate, now in its 47th year, is one of the oldest real estate companies operating in the UAE.

Mr. Kiran has played a major role in construction and development of two luxury resort projects in Mauritius, The Westin Turtle Bay Resort & Spa and The St. Regis Resort & Spa.

Arush Tandon comes with almost a decade of work experience in the financial industry, starting off his financial exposure with Edelweiss Capital in India, working for its Special Opportunity Fund. Arush has work with various international financial institutions such as Morgan Stanley, Hong Kong in the private wealth management (Equities Desk), ICICI Bank, Delhi – Corporate Banking and at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Mumbai as an Investment Banker. Arush is also well versed in trading US equities and G10 currency, both its cash and derivatives. He is co-founder of Safron Group of Companies and currently contributes to the major functional groups of the firm including business development.

Sunil Sachdeva is a Finance Professional with over 15 years of experience in National and International Financial Markets Trading (Equities, Commodities and Forex), Portfolio / Fund Management, Business Development of Financial Services and Strategic Planning together with a Master Degree in Finance and Strategy from Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow. He was a promoter of United Stock Exchange of India Limited (USE), India’s newest stock exchange. (USE was endorsed by all leading 21 public sector banks, Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), MMTC, Stan Chart and other premier private banks and has start-up capital of INR 150 crores. USE has now merged with BSE.) He worked as a Director, Jaypee Singapore Pte Ltd, heading Asia Pacific Operations for the Group.

He also worked as a Sr. Vice President, Jaypee Capital Group – India’s global financial services group of trading companies heading the Arbitrage desk.

Ankit has done his MBA from Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and London Business School along with a Master’s in Computer Science from New Jersey Institute of Technology.

Ankit has over 13 years’ experience working in world-class financial giants including Goldman Sachs where he was the senior programmer analyst and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation where he was the Vice president looking to design new financial products to help finance bank’s clients. He also has extensive experience in designing and writing automated trading strategies.

Ankit comes with vast knowledge and experience in technology like C, C++, C#, .NET Framework, Client/Server, JAVA, etc.

Abhay Khanna did his graduation at Purdue University, USA in 2006.

He studied Industrial Management with Minor in Economics and Finance. After completing his graduation, he worked in New York for a while for Medidata Solutions. Medidata Solutions is the leader in making software for Pharmaceutical Trial Companies.

His profile there included doing quality testing for making the software fit for commercial usage. Abhay then started working in Shyam Group where his major role was to digitalize the process and product offerings.

He has more than 12 years of experience in various sectors like Finance, Power, Telecom and Infrastructure.

Andrea Jong started his career working in the risk management before graduating from the National University of Singapore, where he majored in Economics and Entrepreneurship.

He later joined Maybank Kim Eng Securities (Maybank Investment Bank), performing the role of Investment Sales and Trading. There, his team managed a variety of assets which cumulatively exceeded US$100 million in value, building a good reputation of a strong understanding in risk management principles.

He is also well versed in trading global equities, fixed income, leveraged FX, derivatives and various structured products.

He later joined the Safron Group and serves in the Investments, Risk Management and Compliance function. Andrea is also a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA).

Arun Agarwal is Chartered Accountant and presently handling Risk Management & Control Function at Dalma Safron Fund.

His previous experience includes Associate Director (Governance Risk) at KPMG India, Sr. Finance Manager at MTS India and Coca Cola.

Arun has over 15 years’ experience in Financial Management, Business Planning & Growth, Management Reporting, Budgeting, Internal Controls, Revenue Generation, Cost Optimization, Financial Modelling, Investment Screening and execution.

He is also qualified Cost Accountant (CMA) and MBA with specialisation in Financial Management.

He is also well versed with trading Indian equities in cash and derivatives.

Sahil Joshi has completed his Masters in Mathematics and Computing from IIT Delhi in the year 2011.

He comes with more than 5 years’ experience in Algorithmic Trading and Technology at the major NBFC and Technology firms working across various Financial and Technology Powerhouses like Intel and Edelweiss where Sahil was responsible for Design, Development and Execution of Delta One Strategies for APAC markets and developing optimized and calibrated trading infrastructure for low latency execution across different strategies.

Mahindar Kumar is a Senior Investment Analyst at Safehouse Global Consumer Fund.

Mahindar is seasoned investment professional with over five years of experience in Investment Management.

Before joining Dalma, he had worked with some of the top tier investment institutions in Pakistan. He was a senior research analyst and Investment committee member at AKD investment Management, one of the best performing mutual fund in Pakistan, where he oversaw equity and fixed income portfolios. Before AKD, he worked as an equity research analyst at Next Advisors, where he covered all sectors of the economy and has a proven track record of identifying multiple alpha generating investment ideas.

Mahindar is a graduate of Institute of Business Administration, Karachi and is a CFA charter holder.

P.V. Ramanathan holds a bachelor’s degree in Commerce from the Osmania University - India (in respect of which he obtained first rank in the University). He also holds qualifications from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, New Delhi and is a Fellow Member of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants in the United Kingdom.

Ramanathan has over forty years of global, post qualification experience both within the accounting profession (where his employers included Ernst and Young) and within industry.

Ramanathan has proven value investing credentials, having successfully implemented the Fund's

Howard was previously Senior Managing Director for the entire group of Argent Companies and McMahan Securities LP, he was responsible for implementing Argent Financial Group's international hedge fund and investment banking operations by establishing a global structure, establishing offices, financial platforms and operational teams in the UK, India and Dubai. He achieved UK FSA licensing for Argent and they became the Dubai International Financial Centre's first Category 3 license holder and Hedge Fund Manager. Howard also established the first DIFC domiciled Hedge Fund. He was involved in the commercial initiation of Hedge Fund rules reform in India through SEBI and established financial analyst platforms in India. Howard has held a Registered General Securities Principal (Series 24) and Representative (Series 7) with the US FINRA, and Licensed Partner and Authorized Individual status with the FSA and DFSA in relation to the operation of Hedge Funds.

Howard is a former Royal Navy Commando Pilot and UK Special Forces Officer; he was twice decorated for gallantry by the order of the Queen. In 2003 he was invited by the US Government to accept a (post 9/11) senior advisory position constructing and commanding a night capable, heli-borne militia force on the Pakistan/Afghan border. He took a year out from the financial industry and became accredited by the Department of State as making the "single most important individual contribution" to border security in this infamous region. He is an accomplished author and has published a book recounting these exploits.

Howard was educated in the UK and attained a Queen's commission from Britannia Royal Naval College in 1981. He graduated from Camberley Army Command and Staff College in 1994, he was the first British officer to take temporary command of a United States Marine Corps Squadron. Howard was recruited to Dalma Capital in 2013 and has led the Company through its Dubai FSA and Malta FSA regulatory approvals.