Mr. Talal Al Zain
Chief Executive Officer

Prior to his appointment as CEO of Mumtalakat, Mr. Al Zain worked at Investcorp for 18 years as a Managing Director and Co-Head of Placement and Relationship Management and Investment Banking, Middle East. Before this he was a Vice President of Private Banking International with The Chase Manhattan Bank, Geneva as well as a corporate banker for Citibank Corporate Banking Division in Bahrain.

Mr. Talal Al Zain is also Chairman of Gulf Air, the Kingdom’s national airline, and is a member of the Board of Directors in:

• Bahrain Economic Development Board
• @bahrain
• McLaren
• Oasis Capital Bank

Mr. John Knight

Mr. Serge Lepine

Mr. Damien Balmet

Mr. Arun Kumar

Dr. Pablo Fetter
Head of Private Equity-Direct Investments

Dr. Pablo Fetter joined Mumtalakat as Head of Private Equity-Direct Investments in August 2009 and is responsible for overseeing and monitoring the performance of the Portfolio Companies, along with developing direct investment strategies.

Prior to joining Mumtalakat, Dr. Pablo Fetter was Managing Director and Partner in Private Equity for Istithmar World and Neuhaus Partners for over nine years. His responsibilities included sourcing, executing and managing multiple transactions. He was responsible for the completion of large successful exits, has raised private equity funds in Europe and the Middle East, and was also a member of several Board of Directors. Prior to that, Dr. Fetter had over seven years of operational and business development experience with Telecom Denmark, Daimler, EADS/Airbus and Mercedes Benz.  

Dr. Fetter has a Ph.D. from the Berlin Technical University, Germany, an Electrical Engineering Degree from Cordoba National University in Argentina, and has completed various training courses in economics.

Mr. Patrick Beckett
Vice President Coordinator Direct Investments

Mr. Patrick Beckett joined Mumtalakat in June 2007 as Vice President and Coordinator of Direct Investment. In this role, Mr. Beckett handles the monitoring the portfolio companies, team support and business development.

Prior to this he was the Group CFO of Gulf Aluminium Rolling Mill Co. (Bahrain).  During his time as Group CFO, Mr. Beckett’s responsibilities included the corporate management of the group subsidiaries and targeting and negotiating acquisitions worldwide. He was also in charge of handling the commercial, fiscal and legal aspects of each Newco and negotiating with local banks in each overseas territory in order to arrange leveraged funding.  his other posts include; Commercial Manager – Inchcape & Co plc and Group Accountant – Crane Fruehauf plc.

Graduating from Sheffield University, England, with a Bachelors in Engineering with Business Studies, Mr. Beckett then continued with further education and qualified as a Chartered Management Accountant.



Mr. Tony Robinson
Investment Manager and Coordinator Direct Investments

Mr. Robinson joined Mumtalakat in April 2011 as Investment Manager and Coordinator Direct Investments. His responsibilities include monitoring the financial data of the portfolio companies, supporting the Finance departments operations, along with supporting the investment team, and business development.

Prior to joining Mumtalakat, Mr. Robinson held a project management position with RAC Insurance. Formerly, he held different positions at Investcorp Bank, Bahrain for 14 years, where he started as Senior Manager - Financial Controls, then in 1998 he became Chief Internal Auditor until 2004 when he took up a role as the bank's Group Financial Controller. Prior to Investcorp, Mr. Robinson held various positions in the accounting profession as an auditor.

Graduating from the Western Australia Institute of Technology with a Bachelor of Business (Accounting), Mr. Robinson then continued his studies at Curtin University in Perth, Australia gaining a Masters degree in Taxation. Mr. Robinson is a Chartered Accountant holding membership with both the Australian and English institutes of Chartered Accountants.


Mr. Ahmed Al Rayes
Investment Manager

Mr. Ahmed Al Rayes has worked at Mumtalakat as Investment Manager since January 2007.  In this position he is responsible for leading a range of investment activities including deal sourcing, negotiation and closing; monitoring the development and performance of portfolio companies; advising upon the searches, appointment and integration of Mumtalakat Board Director representatives; assessing the reporting upon the quality of governance of Representative Board Directors as well as participating in the formulation of strategy, business planning, budgeting, policies and procedures.  Prior to joining Mumtalakat, Mr. Al Rayes held planning and efficiency roles at Batelco, the Bahrain based telecoms operator and Bapco, the state oil company.  He holds a BSc in Mechanical Engineering from University of Bahrain and an MBA from University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland.

Mr. David Mitchell
Investment Manager

Mr. David Mitchell focuses on investments in the aviation industry and oversees portfolio companies in the sector, including the flag carrier of Bahrain, Gulf Air, and the Bahrain Airport Company.  Prior to joining Mumtalakat, Mr. Mitchell was Director of Business Development for Dubai Aerospace Enterprise, a principal investment role focused on next-generation aviation technology.  His previous work experience includes management consulting, operations and strategy in the aviation, technology and luxury goods sectors.  Mr. Mitchell has extensive international experience and has worked on projects and transactions in over thirty countries on five continents.  He holds a Bachelor of Science in Economics, with concentrations in Multinational Management and Marketing, from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania and an MBA in Finance from Columbia Business School.

Mr. Ghassan Abdulaal
Investment Manager

Mr. Ghassan Abdulaal joined Mumtalakat in February 2009 and is currently responsible for overseeing a number of portfolio companies and evaluating value added initiatives within these companies. Much of his experience in this area was acquired whilst working at Investcorp Bank as Principal of the Placement and Relationship Management team.  During his five year tenure with Investcorp, Mr. Abdulaal helped launch over 30 private equity, real estate, technology and hedge fund products.  Prior to Investcorp Bank, he worked as a consultant for KPMG Consulting, from 2001 -2003.

Mr. Abdulaal has a Masters in Science in Analysis, Design and Management of Information Systems, from the London School of Economics and Political Science. He also has a Bachelors Degree with Honours in Accounting and Finance from the University of Kent at Canterbury.

Mr. Ahmed Janahi
Investment Manager

Mr. Ahmed Janahi joined Mumtalakat in September 2007. As an Investment Manager, amongst other responsibilities, he is responsible for overseeing and actively participating in monitoring developments of Mumtalakat’s real estate investment portfolio as well as overseeing new investment/divestment opportunities. Prior to his move to Mumtalakat, he worked for Bahrain Petroleum Co. (Bapco) as a Senior Engineer - Planning and Economics in the company’s International Market division. He remained in this position for several years developing his analytic and planning skills. Mr. Janahi holds a Bachelor Degree in Chemical Engineering. He also holds an MBA with honours, from University of Strathclyde, Glasgow.


Mr. Joseph Kirikian
Investment Manager

Mr. Joseph Kirikian joined Mumtalakat in January 2010 as Investment Manager in the Private Equity team and is currently responsible for the execution and analysis of investment/divestment activities. He also looks at the development and performance of a number of portfolio companies, in addition to overseeing and supporting the Representative Board of Directors.

Prior to joining Mumtalakat, he worked for Istithmar World on restructuring portfolio assets in Dubai.  Mr. Kirikian started his career in investment banking in 1999, initially working for a boutique M&A advisory firm in Los Angeles primarily concentrating on sell-side transactions and later joined the Bear Stearns Transportation and Logistics group in New York.

Mr. Kirikian holds an MBA from the Wharton School, a CFA designation and a BS in finance, magna cum laude, from California State University, Northridge.


Mr. Hani Redha
Investment Manager

Mr. Hani Redha joined Mumtalakat as Investment Manager in March 2010 and is responsible for the development of the asset allocation framework, the business function, and implementing and monitoring the asset allocation strategy.

Prior to becoming Investment Manager at Mumtalakat, Mr. Hani Redha was the Vice President and Deputy Head of Hedge Funds for NCB Capital (National Commercial Bank). During this time Mr. Redha assisted in managing $3bn worth of single-manager global hedge fund investments within managed accounts and four Hedge Fund of Funds. A Founding Partner of the Firm, Mr. Redha was also the senior member of a six person team within the Asset Management Division. Before his move to NCB Capital in 04, Mr. Redha worked for Gulf International Bank in the Proprietary Investment department as Investment Manager. Whilst in this position, he was the senior member of an investment team managing an $8 billion portfolio.

Graduating with first class honours from the Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine in London, Mr. Redha holds a Masters in Chemical Engineering.   He has also had extensive training in Equity Valuation, Executive Management and various other related courses.

Ms. Yara Faraj
Investment Manager

Ms. Yara Faraj joined Mumtalakat in November 2010 as Investment Manager. Her responsibilities include monitoring and evaluating the performance of portfolio companies, including identifying value creating opportunities for those companies, in addition to identifying investment/divestment opportunities to achieve Mumtalakat’s investment objectives. Ms. Faraj joined from Ithmaar Bank, where she worked in both the Private Banking, responsible for client relationship management, and Investment Banking/Private Equity divisions during her four year period at the organisation. In her role in the Investment Banking division she was responsible for evaluation of investment opportunities, review and monitoring of investment portfolio performance, investment strategy preparation, and restructuring and divestment opportunities of investment portfolios for subsidiary companies. Prior to Ithmaar Bank, Ms. Faraj was responsible for Placement and Client Relationship management at Securities and Investment Company (SICO) and BBK, and a consultancy role at Ernst & Young.

Ms. Faraj holds an MBA from Bentley College, and a BSC from Boston University, both in Massachusetts, USA.

Ms. Ghada Alansari
Manager – Special Projects

Ms. Alansari joined Mumtalakat in September 2010 as Manager – Special Projects.

Ms. Alansari has enjoyed an extensive career and is a highly experienced Public Affairs and Project Management professional, working for a number of high profile local and international companies. Prior to joining Mumtalakat, Ms. Alansari was the Senior Manager for the Bahrain International Circuit (BIC), where she was responsible for the establishment of the organisation’s public relations department and for developing a comprehensive campaign to raise the profile of BIC both locally and throughout the international markets. She was also responsible for establish and managing the Entertainment and Television and Radio Department. Ms. Alansari has also held management positions at Batelco, international public relations firm Hill & Knowlton, American Express and Fedex International.

Amongst her academic qualifications, Ms. Alansari holds a Diploma in Marketing, Public Relations and Sales and Selling Management from the LCCI, a Diploma in Banking Studies from the BIBF and a Diploma in Associated Accounting Technicians.

Mr. Zulfe Ali
Vice President Corporate Finance

Mr. Zulfe Ali has more than 15 years of experience in investment banking across a variety of debt and equity origination and distribution roles. He heads the Corporate Finance function at Mumtalakat and plays a key role in defining and implementing Mumtalakat’s capital structure and financing strategy. Prior to joining Mumtalakat, he worked in the Acquisition and Leveraged Finance group of JPMorgan in both London and New York. Prior to that, he worked at Banc of America Securities in San Francisco as a member of the Institutional Equities team.

Mr. Ali holds an MBA from Cornell University’s Johnson School of Management and a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Carleton College in the U.S.

Mr. Arvind Mathur
General Counsel and Vice President, Legal

Mr. Arvind Mathur heads the Legal Department at Mumtalakat and is responsible for managing and overseeing Mumtalakat’s legal affairs at both the corporate level and on the investment side of Mumtalakat’s business.

He is a U.S corporate lawyer with 10 years transactional experience which includes corporate finance transactions and private M&A. He has practiced corporate law in New York and in Asia. He started his legal career in New York including in the New York office of Sullivan & Cromwell. He subsequently joined the Singapore office of Latham & Watkins where his practice primarily focused on capital market transactions in Singapore and in the emerging markets of India and Indonesia, representing both issuers and underwriters.

He is a member of the New York Bar and California Bar.

Mr. Mathur holds a Masters of Law (LL.M) from Columbia University, New York and a Bachelor of Laws (LL.B (Hons.)) from the University of Wollongong (Australia). In addition to his legal qualifications, he holds a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering (BE (Hons.)) from the University of Wollongong and prior to law school, worked at BHP Billiton, Port Kembla.

Ms. Lamees Al Baharna, CFA
Vice President, Risk

Ms. Lamees Al Baharna joined Mumtalakat in October 2010 as Vice President in the Risk department. In this role, she is responsible for risk reporting, risk models overseeing and development, and audit monitoring and coordination.

Ms. Lamees Al Bahrana has over 25 years experience within the banking and financial services industry. Her most recent role was a Vice President in Gulf International Bank which she joined in 1996 and was responsible for credit risk management and Basel II implementation. Prior to that Lamees was working at Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch Bahrain as Senior Compliance & Operations officer and Senior Account Executive responsible for investment advice and marketing of financial products to high net worth individuals.

Ms. Al Baharna was awarded her CFA charter in 1996 and is currently the Vice President of CFA Bahrain. She is also member of the Basel II Certification Institute. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Chemical Engineering from McGill University and is Series 7 and 8 registered with the National Association of Securities Dealers.

Ms. Dina Kasrawi
Vice President, Corporate Communications

Ms. Dina Kasrawi heads the Corporate Communications department and in this capacity has overall responsibility for the communications policies and strategic positioning for Mumtalakat at a corporate level and overseeing media relations and communications strategy at Mumtalakat’s businesses.

Ms. Kasrawi joined from Abu Dhabi General Secretariat of the Executive Council, where she advised on strategic communications. Previously she was Director of National Communications for the Bahrain Economic Development Board, carrying out strategic communications planning and execution of campaigns around the launch and implementation of Economic Vision 2030.

She has over 19 years of global experience in communications, strategy and international development, in the GCC, US, and Europe. This includes roles as a Communications Consultant at the World Bank.

Ms. Kasrawi holds an MBA in Finance and Marketing from Columbia Business School, New York, an MA in Public Relations and Crisis Management from American University, Washington D.C. and a BA in English Literature and Linguistics from Kuwait University.

Mr. Jameel Al Sharaf
Vice President Information Technology

Mr. Jameel Al Sharaf joined Mumtalakat in May 2008 as Vice President Information Technology and is responsible for the overall IT strategy implementation and planning.

Mr. Jameel Al Sharaf started his IT career in 1991 as a systems engineer specializing in IBM systems where he worked for four years before moving to Investcorp. In 2007, he joined BMI Bank as Head of IT before starting work at Mumtalakat in May of 2008.

Graduating in 1991 with a BEng Honours in Engineering Systems, Computing and Control from the University of Huddersfield, UK, Mr. Al Sharaf also has an MBA from DePaul University, Chicago.  In 2004 he left the University of Virginia with an executive diploma in leadership from the Darden Business School.

Mr. Ahmed Al Ali
Finance Manager

Having spent much of his early career working within the Ministry of Finance in the Investment Department as the Head of Operations, Mr. Ahmed Al-Ali was responsible for back-office processing of transactions of directly managed investments as well as the periodical management of information systems amongst other responsibilities. In Jan 2007, Mr. Al-Ali moved from the Ministry to Mumtalakat where he continues to look after the processing of transactions with regards to investment and divestment activities as well as managing Mumtalakat liquidity and financing facilities. Mr. Al-Ali has a BSc Degree in Accounting from the University of Bahrain. In 2006 he completed the Executive Management Development Program, Darden school of Business Administration, University of Virginia.

Mr. Varghese Mathew
Finance Manager
 
Mr. Varghese Mathew joined Mumtalakat as Financial Controller in April 2008. In this role Mr. Mathew is responsible for overseeing Mumtalakat’s corporate accounting; preparing consolidated financial information; assisting in new financial systems; preparing budgets; assisting business planning and forecasts; liaising with internal and external auditors and ensuring that Mumtalakat’s financial reporting is compliant with IFRS. Previously, he was Assistant Manager at Ernst & Young, Bahrain. Mr. Mathew is an Associate Member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India.

Mr. R.S. Radhashankar
Finance Manager
 
Mr. R.S. Radhashankar, Finance Manager, joined Mumtalakat as Senior Associate in the Finance department in April 2010.  He is responsible for corporate MIS, budgeting, financial planning & analytics. Mr. Radhashankar has over 8 years of experience in the fields of financial and management reporting, financial advisory, capital market services, corporate finance and management audit services. Prior to joining Mumtalakat, he was Assistant Manager at KPMG Bahrain, where he was a key member of the team executing various projects in Financial Advisory Services. Prior to that, he worked with Infosys technologies in Bangalore, where he was responsible for financial reporting and part of the corporate finance team

Mr. Radhashankar is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India. He also holds A.C.C.A and C.P.A qualifications.

Mrs. Dana Buheji
HR Manager

Mrs. Dana Buheji started working for Mumtalakat in 2007 and is now the Human Resources Manager. Her responsibilities include overlooking the HR functions within the organisation as well as supporting the HR needs of Mumtalakat’s portfolio companies. Prior to her move to Mumtalakat, Mrs. Buheji worked for the Ministry of Finance. During her five year post at the Ministry, she held the position of Senior Financial Analyst and was then later promoted to Head of Privatisation, Government Shareholding Directorate. Whilst in this role, she was in charge of the coordination and success of all Government privatisation initiatives.

A graduate from Concordia University in Montreal, Canada, Mrs. Buheji has a Bachelor of Commerce degree majoring in Finance and minoring in MIS. She also holds a CIPD Certificate in Personnel Practice from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), UK. Currently, she is undertaking a CIPD Postgraduate Diploma Human Resources Management.


Mr. Yusuf Al Samahiji
Office Manager

Prior to moving to Mumtalakat as Office Manager, Mr. Yusuf Ahmed Al Samahiji started his career at Investcorp Bank where he spent approximately 14 years. The move to Mumtalakat came after spending several years developing his interpersonal & communications skills and becoming efficient in all aspects of office automation. A highly organised individual and an asset to the team, Mr. Al Samahiji effectively manages all aspects related to his job of an ever growing Mumtalakat team.
Mr. Al Samahiji holds a number of diplomas and certificates related to his field of work and specifically in Computer & Managerial Sciences. He continues to improve his skills over the years gaining other qualifications and relevant training.