Focus on Middle East

Ambassador Robert Lauer is accredited to the United Arab Emirates and IRENA, the International Renewable Energy Agency.

He has previously been in charge of Digital and Security Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs.

Prior to that Ambassador Lauer headed the Embassy in Bangkok with a wide regional mandate.

Zeeshan is a Partner at EY Luxembourg and a Certified Independent Auditor in Luxembourg (réviseur d’entreprises agréé).  Zeeshan is part of EY’s Financial Services practice and has more than 15 years of experience in audit and business advisory services. He is specialised in servicing specialised investment funds and Islamic finance structures.  At EY, he is leading initiatives and services to Infrastructure funds, the Middle East and Islamic finance.

Before coming to Luxembourg, Zeeshan was working with another Big4 in the United Arab Emirates.

Bashar Al-Natoor is Fitch Rating’s Global Head Islamic Finance. Mr Al-Natoor is responsible for coordinating all Islamic Finance activities across Fitch’s Sovereign, Financial Institutions, Corporate, Structured Finance, Infrastructure and Insurance teams, bringing together dedicated analytical and industry expertise into a centralised and focused Islamic finance group.

Mr Al-Natoor has more than 19 years’ experience in the Islamic Finance market. Since joining Fitch in 2007, he has overseen Fitch’s Sukuk criteria and Islamic Finance practices, undertaken research and written numerous published articles on Islamic Finance. Mr Al-Natoor joined Fitch as a director in the EMEA Corporates group based in Dubai. He was responsible for analysing EMEA issuers, with focus on Middle East and Turkish issuers in the construction, property and telecommunication sectors. Prior to joining Fitch, Mr Al-Natoor spent seven years at the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) in key roles including Investment Officer in the Treasury Department, a Senior Credit Analyst in Risk Management and Senior Technical Assistant to the Vice President of Finance & Administration. Before working with IDB, Mr Al-Natoor was a senior auditor for four years at Arthur Andersen.

Mr Al-Natoor graduated with an MSc in banking and financial studies from the Arab Academy for Finance and Banking Science and a BS in finance and banking from Amman University. Bashar is also a Certified Bank Auditor (CBA), a Certified Risk Professional (CRP), a Chartered Market Analyst (FAD-CMA), and a Certified Risk Analyst (CRA).

Dr. Al-Suwailem is currently Acting Director General and Group Chief Economist, Islamic Development Bank Institute, a member of the Islamic Development Bank Group, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

Before joining the Institute in 2004, Dr. Al Suwailem managed the Research and Development Center at Al-Rajhi Bank, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. He worked at the Institute of Islamic and Arabic Sciences in America, Virginia; Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, Illinois, USA; and King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

He obtained his M.A. from Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, Illinois, in 1990, and his Ph.D. from Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri, in 1995.

He authored several books and papers on Islamic economics and finance.

Dr. Abdelilah Belatik is Secretary General of the General Council for Islamic Banks and Financial Institutions (CIBAFI), an international organisation affiliated with the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation. At the helm of CIBAFI, he brought the organisation to international arena by building working relationships with international multilateral institutions, international standard setting organisations and regulatory and supervisory authorities. Dr. Abdelilah Belatik is also Chairman and Founder of Turritopsis, the Strategic Institute of Sustainable Development, Brussels, Belgium.

Dr. Belatik is a multi-lingual finance professional with twenty years of experience including in leadership positions, in major financial centres from Europe, the United States, Asia and the Middle East. He was Assistant Secretary General at Malaysia based Islamic Financial Services Board (IFSB) where he led the preparation and rollup of the IFSB’s Strategic Performance Plan (SPP) 2012 – 2015 in accordance with Integrated Result Based Management framework. He has worked for 9 years with PricewaterhouseCoopers in Luxembourg, New York, and Hong Kong, in the Assurance and Business Advisory Services, Financial Services practice.

Dr. Belatik holds a Doctorate of Business Administration and a Master’s degree in Applied Business Research from Switzerland; MSc in Business Engineering and a Bachelor of Arts in Commercial Sciences from Brussels; and a Certificate of Artificial Intelligence from the University of Oxford, United Kingdom. He has held and holds membership positions in a number of international boards and committees, including those of the International Assurance and Auditing Standard Board (IAASB), the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB), External Advisory Group of the IMF the Waqf Fund in Bahrain, and the Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI). He is also member of the Committee of the Royal Award for Islamic Finance by the Securities Commission Malaysia and Central Bank of Malaysia

Farmida Bi, CBE, has been our EMEA Chair since May 2018 and based in London. She has more than 25 years of experience in capital markets and Islamic finance transactions, advising on English and New York law, and is also our European Head of Islamic Finance. She joined the firm as a partner in 2008.

Farmida continues to advise clients and her practice is diverse, including sovereign bonds and programmes, Islamic finance, project bonds, restructurings and regulatory issues. Her clients include sovereigns and other government-related entities, international financial institutions and corporate service providers.

In addition to her constitutional role as Chair of the firm’s Partnership Committee, her focus has been to enhance the firm’s Corporate Social Responsibility programme, which includes sustainability, diversity and inclusion and pro bono.

Farmida is named as a ‘leading individual’ for Islamic finance and debt capital markets in The Legal 500 UK 2020; was listed in The Lawyer‘s Hot 100 for 2019; has been awarded ‘Best in Banking and Finance’ twice at the European Women in Business Law Awards; and was named one of the five most powerful Muslim women in the UK in The Times‘ inaugural Muslim Women Power List.

She is a graduate of Downing College, Cambridge and qualified as a solicitor in 1992, and as a New York attorney in 1999.

Farmida was awarded a CBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours in 2020 for services to the law and to charity.

Chiara Caprioli is Senior Business Development Manager and Sustainable Finance Expert at the Luxembourg Stock Exchange.

With long-standing experience in business development, capital markets and sustainable finance, she specialises in the listing of debt securities, with particular focus on sustainable fixed-income products. Chiara managed the launch of the Luxembourg Green Exchange, the first ever platform entirely dedicated to the listing and trading of green and sustainable securities around criteria of enhanced transparency and disclosure in September 2016, and is currently in charge of expanding the group’s international recognition and client base around listing and data services for sustainable products. She also acts as a Lecturer within the LGX Academy.

As a graduate in International and Diplomatic Relations from the University of Trieste and Erasmus student at the KEDGE business school in Bordeaux, Chiara is also certified in Primary Markets by the International Capital Markets Association (ICMA) as well as Certified Sustainable Finance Expert by the Frankfurt School of Finance. She is also actively involved in various industry committees and working groups in the field of sustainable finance.

Ammar Dabbour, Managing Partner and Founder of Euris Group, held different positions as senior private banker, associate director and Head of the Middle East North Africa (MENA market) desk with different top banks, board member in an investment banking in London.

He has many years of experience in portfolio and client relationship management of leading financial institutions in Luxembourg and MENA countries.

With strong relationship in the MENA countries he has been involved in private equity activities where he acted as a private advisor offering a broad range of services to private clients, institutions and corporations. He built his career on his expertise in finance, Islamic finance and knowledge of the MENA market.

Kamal has more than 17 years of experience in the Asset Management and Real Estate industry in Luxembourg. Currently as Head of Operations at Wafra Capital Partners Luxembourg, he is supporting the financial and asset management of several real estate and leasing Sharia compliant products, with a total gross asset value of more than 1 billion Euros.

Prior to that, Kamal spent more than 7 years in the audit practice of PricewaterhouseCooopers Luxembourg. His clients’ portfolio included among others investment funds (traditional and alternative) promoted by leading UK, French and Middle East asset management companies.

Kamal expanded his experience in the Investment Management industry to Islamic Finance. He obtained his Islamic Finance Qualification (IFQ) from the London Securities & Investment Institute and participated in a number of audits of Sharia compliant funds.

He is a regular participant to Islamic Finance conferences in Europe and the Middle Eastern region.

Kamal graduated in 2004 in Business Engineering from Hautes Etudes Commerciales de Liege (University of Liege – business school).

Maroun Jalkh is the CEO of Azimut (ME) Limited, ADGM, Abu Dhabi, the Azimut Group Islamic and Alternative Investments hub in the MENA region. He covers the institutional segment in the Middle East for the Group and has 20 years of experience in the private banking and investment management industry throughout various senior positions.

Prior to his role with Azimut, Maroun headed the European institutional sales for ABN AMRO wealth and asset management business generating USD 5+ billion of net new assets. He also served as member of the Investment Committee and Executive Committee.

Maroun holds a Master’s Degree in Finance from EM Lyon Business School, and a BSc in Finance from Saint Joseph University of Beirut. He also holds a compliance certificate from AMF, the French Financial Markets Authority (AMF).

Marco Lichtfous leads the Strategy and Regulatory Strategy department in the Advisory unit at KPMG. He has accompanied scores of Financial Institutions from inception to full-scale rollout. He has accumulated a large experience in Business Development, Operations Transformation and Digital Transformation in particular, leveraging these to create and restructure organizations in order to capitalise on differentiation and industrialisation opportunities.

Marco has supported the setup of several Chinese player in Luxembourg (e.g. Bank of Communication, China Construction Bank, China Merchant Bank) and has worked with major insurance players during his career (e.g. AXA, AIG, Delta Lloyd, Loyds of London, AoN).

Marco has assisted the Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority (SAMA) in building the capabilities for Basel 3 supervisory requirements. He helped them design and implement supervisory procedures that would allow best in class supervision. He assisted them in restructuring the entire supervisory organization as well as designing specific supervisory methodologies and approaches for the various types of supervised entities.

Before joining KPMG, he demonstrated his expertise in these fields for 7 years at Deloitte Advisory and Consulting. Prior to that he was head of prudential supervision at the Banque centrale du Luxembourg (BcL). He moved to the BcL from the Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier (CSSF). Marco was also a member in these functions of various Working Groups at the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS) and the European Banking Authority (EBA).

Before this career in Supervision, Marco acquired over 10 years’ experience in strategic consulting, restructuring, change management and corporate finance with top employers. He held positions of Associate Director at Omega Capital (M&A Advisory), Vice President Strategic Planning & Business Development at American Express, Head of Insurance Desk at A.T. Kearney Management Consultants and Senior Manager at Renaissance Worldwide Strategy Ltd., all in London and New York.

Marco holds an MBA from the Anderson School at UCLA and a Master in Finance & Economics from Universität Trier in Germany.

Philipp von Restorff currently is Deputy CEO at Luxembourg for Finance (LFF), the agency for the development of the Luxembourg financial centre.

Prior to his appointment at LFF, he was serving as Head of Communication of The Luxembourg Bankers’ Association (ABBL), where he also held the position of Secretary of the Board of Directors.  Philipp has been Chairman of the European Banking Federation’s Communication and CSR Steering Committee from 2014-2018. Before joining the ABBL he worked for the Luxembourg Information and Press Services of the Luxembourg Ministry of State. 

He is elected member of the Board of Directors of LuxFLAG, the Luxembourg Finance Labelling Agency, as well as of the Luxembourg Sustainable Finance Initiative. Philipp is lecturer at the Luxembourg House of Training and financial education volunteer at “Jonk Entrepreneuren Luxembourg”, a branch of the Junior Achievement Network (JA).