| Awad Capital

Core Team

Ziad Awad

Chief Executive Officer

Dr. Marc Nassim

Partner & Managing Director

Mohamed Bensaid

Director

Fouad Beyrouty

Associate

Bassel Al Fouzan

Analyst

Agnes Yu

Administrative Assistant

Board of Directors and Advisory Council Members

Dr. Nasser Saidi

Chairman of the Board of Directors

Omar Al Madhi

Board Member

Andrew Gazitua

Board Member

Christopher Ward

Board Member

Marwan Abedin

Advisory Council Member

Fred Aubin

Advisory Council Member

Khamis Buharoon

Advisory Council Member

Amira Rashad

Advisory Council Member

Walter Schindler

Advisory Council Member

Christopher Ward

Board Member

Christopher is the Chairman of Qannas Investment, a close-end investment company listed on AIM.

He previously served as the Chairman of AR Investment Partners and as the CEO of Deloitte Corporate Finance Limited in the Middle East, having established and built the business from the United Arab Emirates. Previously, he was the Global Head of Corporate Finance in Deloitte, where he was also responsible for establishing the Private Equity and Real Estate Fund Placement business.

Chris has over 30 years as an Equity Partner in Deloitte and a veteran Private Equity and Corporate Finance Advisor. Previously, he was a Partner, Head of Corporate Finance Advisory and Global Head of Corporate Finance at Deloitte & Touche Corporate Finance LLC.

He was a Partner with Deloitte from 1979 till 2008 and in that time has advised on a range of buy-outs.

Amira Rashad

Advisory Council Member

Amira is CEO of BulkWhiz, the first bulk grocery e-commerce platform in the Middle East, powered by home grown artificial intelligence. She has extensive strategy, operations and marketing experience across the technology, media, consumer products and services sectors.

She was most recently the regional Head of Brand for Facebook Middle East, North Africa & Pakistan, working closely with leading global and regional companies as well as the startup and VC ecosystem. She has advised Fortune 500 companies as a senior consultant with Booz Allen Hamilton, and led teams at PepsiCo, Yahoo, Dun & Bradstreet, and Leo Burnett Advertising, while working in the U.S., Europe, Middle East and Africa.

Walter Schindler

Advisory Council Member

Mr. Walter L. Schindler is an investor, strategist and lawyer who is internationally recognized as the Founder and the Managing Partner of SAIL Capital Partners LLC.

Walter served as a partner of the international law firm of Gibson Dunn & Crutcher, where his 19 year career included advised clients on 60 high profile IPOs and mergers in the US at that time. He was also one of the Partners active in the firm’s global expansion into Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

With more than 25 early renewable power and cogeneration projects under his belt, Mr. Schindler sits on the Board of Directors of the Fulbright Canada Foundation.

Andrew Gazitua

Board Member

Andrew serves as the Senior Independent Director of Awad Capital Ltd. In this capacity, he works very closely with management on strategy and selected transactions, and provides corporate governance oversight to the functioning of the Board. Andrew has over twenty five years of experience as an investment banker, with broad geographic experience both in emerging and developed markets.

Andrew's investment banking career commenced with Merrill Lynch in New York in 1989 as a member of the FIG M&A team working on FIG transactions in the US, Latin America and Europe.

Relocating full time to Europe in 1992, he became responsible for marketing and executing FIG advisory mandates in Europe as well as equity and advisory mandates in emerging markets.

Andrew spent time with Donaldson Lufkin & Jenrette (DLJ)/ Credit Suisse and Putnam Lovell before re-joining Merrill Lynch where he was promoted to Chief Operating Officer of Global Origination, a wide-ranging role at the side of Mr. Andrea Orcel

Following the integration with Bank of America he led the Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa (CEEMEA) corporate and investment banking division.

Andrew also currently holds a number of senior board and advisory positions with European financial institutions:

Member of the Supervisory Board of Credit Bank of Moscow
Member of the Board of Directors of Web Financial Group, S.A.
Advisor to Civitas Partners Limited.

Throughout his career, Andrew was involved in a large number of Financial Institutions Investment Banking transactions:

Mergers and Acquisitions transactions for most banks in France, the UK, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Eastern Europe, Latin America, the Middle East and Africa
A multitude of Debt and Equity Capital markets transactions for the same institutions
Acting as a senior advisor to the leadership of a number of these organizations, particularly on internal organization and growth planning matters

Agnes Yu

Administrative Assistant

Agnes is an administrative assistant at Awad Capital where she is responsible for all administrative and clerical tasks.

She will be providing support to our managers and employees. Her duties include assisting the daily office needs and managing the company’s general administrative activities.

Marwan Abedin

Advisory Council Member

Mr. Marwan Abedin is CEO and Founder of Flatrace Investments, providing the strategic vision and leadership for the firm.

He served as Director of Debt Management at the Government of Dubai Department of Finance since 2008 and was responsible for the treasury and debt issues. Mr. Abedin played a key role in investor relations on behalf of Dubai after the Dubai World restructuring and overall development of GCC debt capital markets over the last few years.

Aside from sitting on many blue-chip and governmental boards, he held key roles such as the CEO of an Investment Fund of the Government of Dubai, the Executive Director of DHCA and a member of the board of Directors for Emaar Properties

Fouad Beyrouty

Associate

Fouad is an associate at Awad Capital where he contributes to the team’s execution efforts. He has 4 years of experience in M&A, transaction advisory and capital raising in the GCC.

He joined Awad Capital from Al Mal Capital, a UAE-based financial services company, where he contributed to the M&A execution efforts. Before that, he worked at EY in their Abu Dhabi transaction advisory team and in private banking at Credit Suisse in London.

Fouad holds a BBA from AUB in Lebanon.

Bassel Al Fouzan

Analyst

Bassel is an analyst at Awad Capital where he contributes to the team’s execution efforts. He has 2 years of experience in M&A in the US and the Middle East.

Bassel joined Awad Capital from Tobin & Company, a US-based investment banking boutique, where he was involved in several transactions in the US SME space. Before that he was part of the finance team at MassHousing in Boston

Bassel holds a BSc. in finance from Northeastern in the US.

Mohamed Bensaid

Director

Mohamed is a Director at Awad Capital, where he is in charge of production supervision and M&A execution.

Mohamed has 9 years of experience in M&A advisory and private equity. He joined Awad Capital from Commercial Bank of Dubai, where he contributed to the energy and power generation M&A practice.

Prior to that, he held various positions in a M&A boutique dedicated to African markets and clients and was based in Paris then Dubai.

Before that, Mohamed worked in the French sovereign fund as a private equity analyst and Morgan Stanley in Paris and London in the sales and trading teams.

Mohamed holds a MSc. in Management and an MBA from ESSEC in France.

Dr. Marc Nassim

Partner & Managing Director

Dr. Nassim is a Managing Director, a member of the Board of Directors and Head of Corporate Development at Awad Capital, where his main focus is to cover regional and international clients to offer them the most suitable advice and opportunities.

He was most recently Head of Corporate Development at Dar Al Mal Ltd, an Alternative Asset Management firm based in the DIFC and prior to that, a Partner with (and then Advisor to) AR Investment Partners, a consulting and advisory boutique based in Dubai.

Before that, Marc was Head of Clients & Markets, Financial Advisory Services for Deloitte Corporate Finance Ltd in the Middle East, where he focused on building and strengthening the relationship with clients across the Middle East, with a particular focus on family groups, private equity funds and sovereign financial institutions. Since 2005, he has advised on numerous deals involving financial sponsors, both within the MENA region and cross-border. Prior to joining Deloitte, he gained experience in M&A, private equity and banking, with leading French and Lebanese institutions.

Dr. Nassim has a PhD in corporate finance (summa cum laude) from the Univeristé d’Aix-Marseille (France), a postgraduate degree in financial management from Grenoble Graduate School of Business (France) and a Masters degree in Money & Banking from Univeristé Saint-Joseph (Lebanon).

He is a member of the French Valuation Society (SFEV) and fellow of the French Finance Association (AFFI) and the American Finance Association (AFA).

Ziad Awad

Chief Executive Officer

Ziad founded Awad Advisory in March 2013, which then renamed as Awad Capital in February 2015. In response to client demand, the firm rapidly grew to offer a diversified range of financial services, operating from the DIFC with a category 4 DFSA licence. Ziad is personally involved in all client engagements with a particular emphasis on connecting the best investment opportunities with the most suitable sources of capital.

From 2007 to 2012, Ziad was a Managing Director with Merrill Lynch in Dubai, then Bank of America Merrill Lynch, where he occupied a number of senior positions including Senior Executive Officer for the DIFC branch, Head of Capital markets and Financing and Head of Investment Banking for Industrials, Energy and Power. He executed numerous advisory assignments, including for TAQA, Lamprell, Dubai Holding, Qatari Diar, ACWA Power, Investment Corporation of Dubai; as a well as a number of financing deals.

From 1994 to 2007, Ziad was with Goldman Sachs in Paris (4 years), then London (9 years) then Dubai. He started his career as a Government bond trader then moved to the debt capital markets where he executed close to half a trillion dollar of bond deals including for the World bank, The Federal Republic of Germany, HBOS, The Republic of Italy, The Kingdom of Belgium, Exportfinans. He was also a board member and Executive Director of MTS Associated Markets, an Electronic Trading company.

Ziad holds a masters from ESSEC in France and is an avid sailor.

Omar Al Madhi

Board Member

Omar Al-Madhi is the Senior Managing Director & Board Member of the Abdul Latif Jameel (ALJ) Investments, as well as Partner & Co-founder of Iliad Partners.

Omar joined ALJ Group’s leadership after nearly three years within Volkswagen Group’s leadership as the Chief Executive Officer of Volkswagen Group Saudi Arabia (VGSA), the establishment of which he led.

Prior to VGSA, Omar was a member of SAGIA's executive team. Omar was also selected as an Advisor to HE the Minister of Labor.

Prior to SAGIA, Omar was an associate at McKinsey & Company in Dubai and at Saudi Aramco.

Fred Aubin

Advisory Council Member

A 35 year command-level combat veteran of the Canadian Army and former Director Future Security Analysis for the Government of Canada, Mr. Aubin is the CEO & Founder of Strategic Red Team Consulting.

A pioneer of utilizing military-style competitive intelligence, strategy, operational planning, war gaming and red teaming in the commercial world, Mr Aubin has been used extensively in executive leadership consultancy and strategic planning capacity building portfolios at Head of State, Ministerial, Ambassadorial, CEO and Senior Executive levels on five continents.

Fred holds a Masters in Military Technology from the Royal Military College of Science in Shrivenham, a Baccalaureate of Arts in Political Science and International Relations from the University of Ottawa, and is a graduate of the Canadian Land Forces Command and Staff College Kingston, the UK's Joint Command and Staff College and the Canadian Forces College in Toronto.

Khamis Buharoon

Advisory Council Member

Mr. Buharoon has more than 30 years of experience in the banking and finance sectors.

Khamis is a board member of Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank, as well as Executive Chairman of Burooj Properties, Vice Chairman of Abu Dhabi National Takaful Company and Chairman of Abu Dhabi Islamic Financial Services Company.

Prior to these positions, Khamis was CEO of Commercial Bank International

Dr. Nasser Saidi

Chairman of the Board of Directors

Dr. Nasser Saidi has served as the Minister of Economy & Trade and Minister of Industry and the First Vice-Governor of the Lebanese Central Bank. He is the former Chief Economist of the DIFC and founder & former CEO of the Hawkamah Institute for Corporate Governance. His expertise has significant global reach, influencing policy, leadership, market & financial development, regulations & governance.

In 2013 Dr. Saidi was named among the 50 most influential Arabs in the World by The Middle East magazine, for the fourth consecutive year.

Dr. Saidi is the President of Nasser Saidi & Associates, a niche economic advisory & consulting company.

He is a board member of Majid Al Futtaim, Al Jaber Group, Future Pipe Industries and Falcon Trade Group.

He holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Rochester, US, an MSc from University College, London and a BA in Economics from AUB, Beirut.

Awad Capital Ltd. is regulated by the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA)