Abdulla Mohammed Al Awar was appointed as the Chief Executive Officer of Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) Authority in June 2009. As a leader of the organisation, he oversees the development and accomplishment of the overall strategy of the centre, provides thought leadership to the senior management team, and publicly represents the authority. He also works to ensure the overall performance of the organisation by overseeing the development of process and systems, management of financial and human resources, nurturing of high-level client relationships, and the development and delivery of key strategic messages. Additional commitments include ensuring a sustainable and seamless delivery of client services, which involves a careful integration of client facing and support activities, developing and providing world-class infrastructure and services, maintaining a sustainable fee structure, and ensuring the delivery of maximum value to establishments of the centre.

Before assuming the role of CEO, he served as the Managing Director of DIFC Authority until 2009, where he attracted leading financial institutions to operate in the centre. He also created an ideal platform for non-financial and professional service providers that support the development of the financial services industry.

He launched his career in 2001 as part of the founding team of the knowledge and information cluster that grew into Dubai Knowledge Village and Internet City, attracting regional and international institutions to Dubai as a Regional Sales Manager.

In addition to his role at DIFC Authority, he is also on the Board of Directors of Borse Dubai and Dubai Executive Jets Ltd, and has been a member of the H.H. Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Program for Leadership Development since 2005.

Abdulla holds a Bachelor’s of Science Degree in Business Administration from the University of Colorado at Boulder, USA.

Nabil M. Ramadhan, Deputy CEO and Chief Operating Officer, joined DIFC Authority in June 2006 as Chief Human Capital Officer and then he was promoted in 2008 to Chief Corporate Development Officer. In his current role, he is responsible for leading the overall Operations Division of DIFC Authority, which includes Human Capital, Real Estate, Security, Information Technology, Procurement and administration, and Operational Excellence departments, by ensuring smooth delivery of Operations of DIFC Division in an efficient manner and providing quality support services to the DIFC organization, develop DIFC real estate in line with the overall DIFC strategy and ensuring quality delivery of DIFC property operations.

Nabil also contributes towards DIFC Authority’s strategy and business plan, with a specific focus on the strategic direction of the Operations Division.

Before joining DIFC, Nabil worked for Dubai Properties as Director of Human Resources, where he set up their human resources ‎department. Prior to that, he was the head of Human Capital Services at Dubai Technology & Media Free Zone. Nabil started his career as Management Trainee at Emirates Group in performance development department.

Nabil participated in the Dubai Government Excellence Programme and is a graduate of the Mohammed bin Rashid ‎Leadership Programme.

Nabil is a member of Human Resources Development Committee in the Banking and Financial Sector. He is also a board member of Indemaj, the independent non-profit organisation that supports the development of quality education in all UAE Government School, with a particular focus on rural areas.

Nabil holds a B.Sc. degree in Industrial Engineering from University of ‎Arizona, USA.

Kevin Birkett is Managing Director – Business Development at the DIFC Authority. In this role within the Business Development Unit of the DIFC Authority, he contributes to the future growth of DIFC by developing and managing DIFC’s business and client development plans in line with the DIFC vision, in addition to overseeing Business Services and fulfilling executive management responsibilities. Mr. Birkett, brings considerable experience to the position from a long career in the City Of London.

Mr. Birkett, whose professional qualifications were previously registered by both the UK Securities and Futures Authority and the US Securities and Exchange Commission, served many years at Merrill Lynch in a range of roles, focused on Europe and the Middle East (EME) region, He joined Merrill Lynch International Bank in 1982 and later became Head of Business Unit, EME. In 1996 with a change of focus to wealth management he transferred to Merrill Lynch Global Asset Management where he became Sales Director with responsibility for the EME region.

Mr. Birkett began his professional career at National Westminster Bank, which later became part of the Royal Bank of Scotland Group, and Morgan Guaranty Trust Co.

Dr. Nasser H. Saidi has been the Chief Economist at the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) Authority since 2006. Dr. Saidi is also the Executive Director of the Hawkamah-Institute for Corporate Governance and The Mudara Institute of Directors at the DIFC.

Dr. Saidi is a member of the IMF’s Regional Advisory Group for MENA and Co-Chair of the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD) MENA Corporate Governance Working Group. He is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Public & Institutional Investors Industry Agenda Council and also a member of the Private Sector Advisory Group of the Global Corporate Governance Forum, an institution of the World Bank driving global corporate governance reforms. He is also Chair of the regional Clean Energy Business Council.

Dr. Saidi has recently been appointed to the Board of Directors of the International Corporate Governance Network (ICGN), whose members collectively represent funds under management of around $ 12 trillion.

In 2011, he was named among the 50 most influential Arabs in the world by The Middle East magazine, for the third consecutive year.

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, 1993- 1998 and 1998-2003. He was a Member of the UN Committee for Development Policy (UNCDP) for two mandates over the period 2000-2006, a position to which he was appointed by former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, in his personal capacity.

He has written a number of books and numerous articles and publications addressing macroeconomic, capital market development and international economic issues in the MENA region and is the author of, “Corporate Governance in the MENA countries: Improving Transparency & Disclosure”. His research interests include macroeconomics, financial market development, payment systems and international economic policy, 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 pursued a career as an academic, serving as a Professor of Economics at 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 U.S.A, a M.Sc. from University College, London University and a B.A. from the American University of Beirut.

Badr Buhannad, Chief Audit & Risk Officer, joined DIFC Authority in July 2010. Badr was appointed to head the Audit & Risk Division at DIFCA. Within his capacity, he oversees all matters related to internal audit, and enterprise risk management. In his role he reports to the Audit Committee and Board of directors in the progress of the Internal Audit Plan and in Emprise Risk Management.  He works closely with the management team of DIFCA in highlighting areas of improvement, key risk pockets within the organization.

In addition to his current role he is the Secretary of the audit committee of DIFCA Board of Directors.

Badr has extensive experience, going back approximately 11 years, in the Internal Audit field. His previous role at Dubai Silicon Oasis Authority was Vice President – Internal Audit, where he reported directly to the Vice chairman and CEO. He has established the Internal Audit Function in Silicon based on the International Auditing Standard due to his success in Silicon he was assigned to extend his role to Dubai Airport Freezone Authority to support in restructuring the Internal Audit Function and building the team there.  He worked closely in DAFZA with the Director General and the Executive team in highlighting the audit results and monitor departmental action plans.

Prior to DSOA Badr spent 6 years in Dubai world and Port and Customs Freezone his last position there was assistant manager – Internal Audit were his main domain was in supervising the internal audit plan for Dubai Customs and reporting the results to Dubai Customs Senior Management and Director of Internal Audit.

Badr holds Bachelor in Business Administration and Higher Diploma in Accounting from Higher Colleges of Technology.

Rajesh Pareek, Chief Financial Officer, joined DIFC Authority in January 2011. Rajesh is responsible for overseeing the entire spectrum of strategic financial planning and execution, while adhering to DIFC Authority’s values of transparency, efficiency and integrity in all financial matters.

Rajesh is a Chartered Accountant with over 15 years of extensive experience advising key clients with the Big 4 accounting firms across a broad range of services.  Prior to joining DIFCA, Rajesh was a Director at KPMG working for more than 8 years. He brings with him significant advisory experience across a range of financial services including financial due diligence, review of business plans & underlying assumptions, cash flow analysis, restructuring and M&A advisory.  He has significant experience working with government related entities and worked on some of the key restructuring projects in 2009 and 2010.  Rajesh has also worked with leading regional private equity houses, corporates and family businesses, advising them on numerous M&A transactions both locally and internationally.

Prior to joining KPMG, Rajesh worked with Arthur Andersen, Ernst and Young and Lodha & Co in India where he had conducted various financial audits, accounting and reporting assignments including audit for statutory purposes, reporting under IFRS, Indian & US GAAP, business process reviews, assistance in managing business risks and on call assignments.

Rajesh is an Associate with the Institute of Chartered Accountants, India. He also holds a Bachelors of Commerce (Honours in Finance and Accounting).  Rajesh has participated in a wide range of training programmes both locally and internationally across US, UK, China, Europe, India and Sri Lanka.

Roberta Calarese, Chief Legal Officer, joined DIFC Authority in February 2011. She is responsible for setting up the long term plan for the overall functioning of the division of Legal Affairs. This includes developing and maintaining the DIFC legal framework in line with international best practices and industry standards, providing strong legal support to the business lines and assisting senior management and the DIFCA board to identity and manage potential and actual legal risks both internal and external.  Roberta also provides guidance and input for policies and procedures that define the guidelines and controls within the Legal Affairs division.

Roberta has a long and vast experience in DIFC, having joined the DFSA in 2002 as Director of Policy and Legal Services.  In her long standing career with the DIFC, Roberta has been instrumental in establishing the legal and regulatory framework of the DIFC. 

Roberta’s legal and compliance experience also includes time spent with Prudential Bache, ABN AMRO and Goldman Sachs, in both London and Dubai.

Roberta graduated with honours from the University of Warwick, and received her Masters in International Legal Finance from University College London.

Chirag heads the Strategy Department that is primarily responsible for supporting strategy development at the DIFC Authority.  The Strategy department focuses on expanding the “depth” and “breadth” of the financial services and related sectors development through a combination of strategic thinking, planning, provision of value-added research and effective initiative management.

The Strategy Department also leads Strategic Planning effort for DIFC, which serves DIFC’s Industry and sector research needs and monitors financial services sector trends globally and within the DIFC region. The Strategy department also acts as the internal consultant and incubator for new strategic ideas for DIFC.  

Chirag is a member of the DIFC Executive Team, DIFC Authority Legislative Committee and DIFC Registration Review Committee.

Chirag has worked in strategic and high impact influencing positions (Strategic Consulting, Industry and Government/SWF) in major emerging market blocks of South Asia and MENA in a period where these regions saw dramatic shifts and development of the Financial Services Industry.  Chirag has Financial Services domain knowledge across asset management/mutual funds, capital markets/securities brokerage, custody, financial retailing, investment advisory, investment banking, private banking, risk management, consumer banking, cards and retail lending, regulatory policy and wealth management.

Prior to working at DIFC, Chirag worked with American Express as Head of Business Development and Special Projects, working on strategy, business transformation/reengineering, business development and strategic partnerships, idea incubation, product management, compliance, six sigma projects/initiatives.

Prior to working at American Express, Chirag worked for Andersen Business Consulting where he was responsible for Financial Services Business Consulting.  During his tenure at Andersen, Chirag got exposure in wide ranging roles across the consulting chain.

Chirag has a Master’s degree in Business Administration (MBA Finance), a Bachelor’s degree in Commerce and is also a qualified Chartered Accountant.