Board Member

Faris earned his bachelor of science degree from Davidson College in the United States, majoring in Economics.

Later on, Faris pursued a master’s degree in economics from the London School of Economics.

Mr. Almazrui started his career with Goldman Sachs in London and was later hired by Mubadala where he has spent the last 9 years working on multiple transactions across the globe.

He is currently the head of the Mubadala Moscow office.

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.

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.

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

Associate

Bassel is an associate at Awad Capital where he contributes to the team’s execution efforts. He has 3 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.

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.

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.