Recent Executive Moves in Banking & Financial Services – MENA

Contact RRA consultant | Kanu Rajguru

Appointments News

September

• ALLIANCEBERNSTEIN (AB) has appointed Jean-Paul Hobeika as Managing Director – Middle East and Africa Institutions, based in Dubai. He will oversee AB’s strategic relationships with institutional investors, working with clients in the region on investment strategy, asset allocation and knowledge sharing and is responsible for strategy and business development for the broader institutional team as well as developing close relationships with institutional clients in the region. He will report to Willem van Gijzen, Director of CEMEA Institutions. Hobeika joins with more than 20 years of experience in the asset management industry and in the region. Most recently, he was the Head of Middle East for Northern Trust Asset Management for the past six years. Jean-Paul has previously worked for Candriam Investors Group, Societe Generale and their asset management arm, Lyxor AM.
  
  
• BANQUE SAUDI FRANSI (BSF) has appointed Bader Hamad AlSalloom as Chief Executive Officer of the bank. Since June 2022, AlSalloom has been the Acting CEO and Head of the Wholesale Banking Group following the resignation of Rayan Mohammed Fayaz, who joined the Kingdom’s mega-project NEOM, as Deputy CEO. Before joining BSF, AlSalloom was Deputy GM - Corporate Banking at Saudi Investment Bank (SAIB) for over 1.5 years and prior to this spent 15 years at SABB where he was latterly the Deputy GM for Commercial Banking having started his career as a RM - Corporate Banking in 2004. 
  
  
• CREDIT SUISSE ASSET MANAGEMENT has appointed Jo McCaffrey as Head of Distribution and Head of EMEA.  She replaces Colin Fitzgerald, who Credit Suisse said has left for personal reasons.  McCaffrey joined in March 2022 as Head of Product for the Asset Management division. Prior to that, she ran the global product team at PineBridge Investments. She has also worked at State Street Global Advisors, where she handled strategy, delivery, maintenance and client advocacy for active and passive funds in Europe and Asia.
  
  
• HSBC has appointed Julian Wentzel as the Head of Global Banking for MENAT. Wentzel has transferred from London where he was the Head of Global Banking for the UK and International Europe having joined HSBC as Head of Banking for Africa 7 years ago. He brings more than 25 years of banking experience across client coverage, capital markets and advisory. He previously worked at Macquarie Group for almost 10 years latterly as Head of Cash Equities Europe and before this at Cazenove as Head of Equities for over 8 years. He succeeds Gareth Thomas, who takes on the role of Chief Risk Officer for MENAT.
  
  
• HSBC has appointed Dinesh Sharma as Regional Head of Wealth and Personal Banking (WPB) for EMEA starting 1st September. Dinesh joins from Citibank, where he is CEO, Consumer Bank, Middle East. He will remain based in the UAE and will lead the next phase of growth for HSBC’s WPB franchises in MENAT and Europe, putting a clear focus on driving high value customer acquisition and digital transformation. Dinesh recently led the repositioning of the UAE as a global wealth management hub for Citibank, and has extensive leadership experience across personal banking, wealth management and risk in the Middle East, Europe and Asia.
  
  
• HSBC SAUDI ARABIA has promoted Faris AlGhannam to Chief Executive Officer from the 1st October. AlGhannam has held a series of senior roles in HSBC Saudi Arabia, most recently as Deputy CEO. He began his banking career in 2005 and relocated to the UK in 2006 to work in capital markets and corporate finance with international financial institutions, before joining HSBC Saudi Arabia in 2011. AlGhannam succeeds Rajiv Shukla, who was appointed Senior MD and Advisor to the Regional CEO after leading HSBC Saudi Arabia as CEO since April 2019. Shukla’s appointment is also effective from 1st October. In his new role, Shukla will provide strategic support and counsel to the board and management and work on advancing certain franchise initiatives with external and internal stakeholders as part of HSBC Group’s continued investment in the Kingdom.
  
  
• JULIUS BAER has appointed Tarun Jalali as a Group Head, NRI Dubai, succeeding Kunal Sumaya who will relocate to Singapore to assume Michael Baechli’s role as a Group Head Global India and Japan Singapore. Baechli, Group Head NRI and Japan Singapore head, has decided to relocate back to Switzerland. Jalali is a highly experienced banker with more than 20 years of wealth management experience in Dubai and India. He was previously from Emirates NBD Private Bank where he worked for close to seven years, most recently as Head of South Asia Business & Africa. Prior to that, he was the head of the UAE Premiere Banking at HSBC and a Citigold Relationship Manager for the NRI market. Jalali will be based in Dubai and report to Rahul Malhotra, Head Private Banking Global, India & Developed Markets. The appointments are effective 1st September.
  
  
• LAZARD announced the firm had hired Sarah Al-Suhaimi as Chair of Lazard’s Financial Advisory business for MENA and also as Chair of Lazard Saudi Arabia. Sarah is a prominent figure in KSA having held a number of senior leadership positions in KSA including serving as Chair of the Saudi Stock Exchange (Tadawul) since 2017. She previously served as CEO at SNB Capital (Formerly NCB Capital) and earlier in her career held roles at Jadwa Investment and Samba Capital. Since 2021, she also serves on several boards including those of Saudi Airlines and Saudi Telecom Company.
  
  
• LAZARD KSA has also hired Wassim Al Khatib and is expected to join in a senior role at Lazard’s Middle East business. Citigroup has confirmed Al Khatib’s resignation and said Carmen Haddad, Vice Chairperson for Citi Middle East and Country Officer in Saudi Arabia, will be the Acting CEO as the bank seeks to replace Al Khatib. He was previously Head of Investment Banking at NCB Capital and was one of the key bankers on the IPO of Saudi Aramco in 2019.  In May, Lazard Asset Management had appointed Fadi El Haddad as a Director of Institutional Sales and Marketing, MENA.
  
  
• THE CENTRAL BANK OF KUWAIT has named Sahar Al-Rumaih as its Deputy Governor, the first Kuwaiti woman to hold the position.  Sahar replaces Yousef Al-Obaid as his term had expired. Al-Rumaih was the Deputy CEO for Corporate Banking at Ahli Bank of Kuwait (ABK). Prior to that Sahar was with Commercial Bank since 2000 and has held the positions including General Manager of the Banking Services Sector as well as Acting General Manager International Banking Sector.

August

• BAHRAIN ISLAMIC BANK (BISB) has promoted Jawad Abdulhadi Humaidan to Chief Corporate & Institutional Banking Officer having joined BisB in 2018 as Senior Manager - Corporate Banking and Institutional Banking. Humaidan has over 17 years’ experience in banking and has previously held roles with National Bank of Bahrain, Mashreq Bank and Standard Chartered Bank. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics from Carleton University, Canada and a MSc. in Finance from DePaul University in Chicago, US.
  
  
• DUBAI ISLAMIC BANK has hired Shushmeet Trikha as Head of Wealth Management Investment Products. He was previously Head of Investment Products, Private Banking at First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB) for more than 8 years. Before joining FAB, he was working at the erstwhile National Bank of Abu Dhabi in investment sourcing and product development – global private banking. Trikha has extensive experience in private banking, wealth management, liabilities, investments, and bancassurance/bank takaful, spanning leading international financial centres of Middle East, South Asia, India, Africa and Europe. With more than 21 years of experience in the banking sector including with Qatar Islamic Bank, Rajhi Bank, ABN Amro Private Banking and Mashreq Bank in Dubai.
  
  
• EMIRATES NBD CAPITAL KSA has promoted Jawad Kiwan to Chief Executive Officer. Kiwan was previously the Head of Wholesale Banking Group – KSA for over 4.5 years. Before this he spent 10.5 years at Alawwal Bank (Formerly Saudi Hollandi Bank) where he was latterly Regional Head of Corporate Banking Group for almost 6 years having initially joined as Corporate Relationship Manager. Prior to this he held roles with both Doha Bank and Citi.
  
  
• GULF INTERNATIONAL BANK (GIB) has appointed AbdulJabbar Al-AbdulJabbar as the Head of Private and Affluent Banking. AbdulJabbar has more than 22 years of experience across wealth management, asset management, private and retail banking. Before joining GIB, he was the Senior Vice President and the Regional Head of Private Banking – Central Region at Riyad Bank. He previously worked at NCB Capital and Samba Financial Group. AbdulJabbar has also held Board Member positions in several funds, including AlAhli REIT Fund (1), Al Ahli Hospitality Fund, and SNB Equity Funds. He holds a MBA from the University of Reading in the UK.
  
  
• HSBC ASSET MANAGEMENT (HSBC AM) has appointed Ali Karmali as the Head of Institutional Business for Middle East and Africa. He will report to Maria Ryan, Head of Institutional Business UK, Nordics, Middle East and Africa. Karmali has more than 20 years of institutional experience. He joins from First Sentier Investors (formerly First State Investments) where he spent 19 years, including 9 as Head of the Middle East and Africa out of the UK, UAE and Singapore. Before this, he held various roles covering the institutional business and asset consultant relationships across Australia and New Zealand.
  
  
• JULIUS BAER has hired Jonathan Conner and Thomas Kloss as Senior Relationship Managers for its Middle East and Africa team in Geneva headed by Yvan Wicht. Conner joins from JP Morgan, where spent 14 years providing wealth management services to UHNWI’s and families from the Middle East out of New York and Geneva. During this time he has been a Senior RM, Team Head and Middle East Market Manager. Prior to joining JP Morgan, he was Chief of Staff to the CEO of Citigroup Private Bank. Kloss joins Julius Baer from HSBC Private Bank in Geneva, where he was responsible for managing client relationships across the Middle East. He worked at HSBC Private Bank for more than a decade, including in HSBC’s Qatar local office in Doha.
  
  
• MASHREQ BANK has appointed Muna Al Ghurair, as its new Group Head of Marketing & Corporate Communications. She brings over 20 years of experience in communications, marketing, sales and business development with a track record with leading payments and financial institutions in the region. Muna has expertise in brand building and leading stakeholder communication programs, especially during mergers and acquisitions. Prior to joining Mashreq Bank, she was the Group Chief Marketing Officer at Network International where she led the PR and communications strategy for Network’s IPO in 2019 on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) – the largest UK IPO at the time of listing.
  
  
• STANDARD CHARTERED BANK has promoted Ayesha Abbas to Head of Consumer, Private and Business Banking in the UAE.  She will be responsible for executing the bank’s strategy and building the business in the retail banking business across the UAE while focusing on growing the bank’s digital offering, wealth management and affluent proposition, in addition to strengthening client relationships.  Abbas joined Standard Chartered in February 2019 as General Manager, Head of Priority and Premium Banking and Branch Network in the UAE, also covering Pakistan, Oman and key African markets. Before joining Standard Chartered, Abbas spent 18 years at HSBC. Abbas will report to Rola Abu Manneh, CEO for UAE and Bongiwe Gangeni, Regional Head of Consumer, Private and Business Banking in Africa, the Middle East and Europe.
  
  
• STANDARD CHARTERED BANK has appointed Manpreet Gill as the Chief Investment Officer for EMEA. Based in Dubai, Gill will report to group CIO Steve Brice and will retain his current role as the Head of the CIO Office’s Fixed Income, Currency and Commodity (FICC) strategy. In his expanded role, Gill will be responsible for the CIO Office’s coverage and capabilities for the EMEA region. Previously, he has worked at Barclay’s wealth unit as its Asia strategist and as an economist and FX strategist at Indian lender ICICI Bank. Gill has more than 18 years of financial experience, including over 10 years at Standard Chartered. Gill holds a Master’s degree in economics from Delhi University and a MBA from INSEAD Singapore.
  
  
• THE SAUDI BRITISH BANK (SABB) has appointed Bandar Al-Gheshayan as Chief Retail Banking and Wealth Management Officer. He will lead the strategy, including branch network, private banking, digital banking and payments. Al-Gheshayan has over 22 years of experience, 16 of which he spent in the Saudi banking sector. He joined SABB in 2012 and has held several leadership roles, the most recent being Chief Operating Officer for Retail Banking and Wealth Management since 2018. Prior to that, he was the Regional Head of Retail Banking and Wealth Management from July 2016 to June 2018. He holds a Master’s degree in international management from the University of Liverpool, UK.
  
  
• VISA has announced the appointment of Salima Gutieva as Vice President and Country Manager - UAE. Salima replaces Shahebaz Khan who has been appointed as SVP, Head of New Payment Flows for CEMEA. Salima will be based in Dubai and will be responsible for market strategy and supporting clients and government partners in the UAE in meeting growing demand for seamless, secure digital payments. Salima has 16 years of experience with Visa in various business development positions, including Head of Sales for Visa in Russia.

July

• BANK OF AMERICA has hired Yazaid Al-Salloom to run its business across Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Bahrain. He will replace Motashar Al Murshed who left to join the Shura Council after nearly 12 years of service. Yazaid joined from Standard Chartered where he was most recently Managing Director and CEO of the bank’s Saudi Arabia business between 2020 and 2022. Prior to 2020, he headed the Financial Institutions Sales team across MENAP and Turkey based out of the Dubai office.
  Earlier in his career, Yazaid worked for HSBC Dubai splitting his time across the DCM, Investment Banking and Fixed Income Institutional Sales teams. Before this he has held roles with Deutsche Bank and Merrill Lynch. Yazaid obtained his MBA and Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration from the University of San Diego, US.
  
  
• J.P. MORGAN announced Hani Deaibes and Ahmed Salem as Co-Heads of Investment Banking for MENA. Deaibes joined J.P. Morgan in 2007 and is Head of the Middle East Debt Capital Markets team. He has over 20 years of experience in capital markets and investment banking. Prior to J.P. Morgan, Deaibes spent 7 years at Merrill Lynch in London, where he led their MENA debt capital markets business. Salem joined J.P. Morgan in 2011 as Head of Investment Banking for Bahrain, Egypt, Kuwait and Oman, based in Dubai. He has over 20 years of experience in client coverage and investment banking. Prior to J.P. Morgan, Salem spent two years at Deutsche Bank and 11 years at Citi, where he led investment banking coverage efforts for key markets and clients in the MENA region. They will report to Dorothee Blessing and Conor Hillery, Co-Heads of Investment Banking EMEA and regionally to Khaled Hobballah, Senior Country Officer for MENA.
  
  
• LGT BANK SWITZERLAND has created a new team devoted to business with external asset managers (EAMs) in the UK and Middle East and marks the next step of LGT’s EAM expansion and increases the team dedicated to international business to eight Relationship Managers. Dominic Walther will be the Head of EAM for the Middle East.
  
  
• MASTERCARD announced the appointment of Adam Jones to lead its operations across MENA Central cluster in his new role as Country General Manager. Adam is responsible for Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Bahrain, and Iraq markets. Adam joined Mastercard in 2015 as Head of Commercial Products for Middle East and Africa responsible for product and sales. Before joining Mastercard, Adam served as the Head of Commercial Business for American Express Middle East and North Africa, based in Dubai, UAE.
  
  
• TARABUT GATEWAY, the largest open banking platform in MENA, has appointed Nino Ocampo as the Chief Product Officer. He has 20 years of experience in the financial services space across global organizations such as HSBC, TransUnion, and FedEx. Before joining Tarabut Gateway, Ocampo was working at TransUnion – the global consumer credit reporting agency - where he led their global open banking portfolio. He spent most of his career at HSBC, over 17 years, latterly as the Global Head of Open Banking and Customer Preferences. During his time at HSBC, he transformed the bank’s ability to exchange data and partner with third parties in a growing open banking ecosystem in key markets.
  
  
• THE SAUDI BRITISH BANK (SABB) announced the appointment of Yasser Ali Al-Barrak as Chief Executive Officer of Corporate and Institutional Banking, effective 1st July. Yasser joined SABB in 2012 and has held several leadership positions, the most recent being General Manager of Global Corporate and Institutional Banking since May 2019, and Co-Head of Global Banking from 2017 to 2019. Yasser also served as Head of the Public Sector from 2013 to 2017. He is also a Board Member of Alawwal Invest Company, as well as the SABB Takaful Company's Board of Directors.

Contact

Contact RRA consultant | Kanu Rajguru

Kanu Rajguru
Kanu Rajguru oversees Banking & Financial Services for Middle East & Africa and is a member of the global financial services practice. He has over 26 years executive search and recruitment experience and has completed searches in over 35 countries including for the past 16+ years across the Middle East & Africa.
Mobile: +971 50 845 2830
kanu.rajguru@russellreynolds.com
www.linkedin.com/in/kanurajguru/

Burak Gorbon
Based in our Dubai office, Burak Gorbon is a member of the Middle East leadership team and also heads the firm’s Turkey operations. He advises regional and global clients on their leadership teams and boards. Burak’s focus is on recruiting CEOs, other C-level executives and non-executive directors. He is a trusted advisor to a wide range of  Banks, and other  financial institutions.
Mobile: +971 52 646 5256
Burak.gorbon@russellreynolds.com
www.linkedin.com/in/burakgorbon

Nic Cutts
Nic Cutts is a senior member of the firm’s global Leadership & Succession Practice and Head of Financial Services Advisory Services for Russell Reynolds EMEA. He is a (UK) Chartered Psychologist with over 20 years international consulting experience, having assessed and coached many C-level executives. He has led several large scale M&A and transformation initiatives in the financial services sector, where his consulting services have focused on individual, team and organization-wide initiatives.
Mobile: +971 55 560 9820
Nic.cutts@russellreynolds.com
www.linkedin.com/in/niccutts/