Speakers

Mr. Arif Shaikh is a Senior Risk & Compliance Advisor in the UAE with stints with different institutions in the area of Risk Management, Compliance, Corporate Governance etc. He has been the advisor to HE the Governor of the Central Bank of the UAE for Risk, Compliance and other banking services and is a Board Member on a CBUAE Subsidiary. Prior to this role, he has been the Senior Executive Vice President / Group Chief Risk Officer at First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB); he has been associated with the Group since Jan 2001 with responsibilities including Enterprise Risk Management function, Information Security, Group Compliance Function, Group Legal function and the overall Corporate Governance of the bank. He has set up these functions at FAB from scratch and has developed the current risk framework at FAB on a global basis.

He has had stints on the Board of CBUAE/FAB subsidiaries and external companies in the Real Estate, Islamic Finance, Dubai First, FGLB, etc. Prior to joining FAB, Mr. Shaikh has worked with HSBC, ANZ Grindlays Bank, Standard Chartered Bank, KPMG & PWC covering a variety of positions including Risk Management, Audit, Finance, Trade Finance, Corporate Banking, Branch Management, Banking Consultancy, etc. Mr. Shaikh has had working stints in different parts of the world apart from his current base in Abu Dhabi.

Mr. Shaikh holds a Bachelors Degree in Commerce, Bachelors Degree in Law and is also a qualified Chartered Accountant with the Indian Institute of Chartered Accountants and a member of the Indian Institute of Bankers.

Bennett Borden, a lawyer and data scientist, has established himself as a leading authority on AI governance and algorithmic bias testing. With extensive experience in the U.S. intelligence community, he has built a reputation as a trusted counsel to major generative AI companies and Fortune 500 companies. He advises multinational clients regarding data privacy, security, and related regulatory compliance. Having studied at Oxford, Georgetown, and NYU, Bennett is a Partner and Chief Data Scientist at DLA Piper. He has been a Chambers ranked lawyer annually since 2015 and was the Financial Times North American Innovative Lawyer of the Year in 2020.

Clarence is the Head of International Banking Group at First Abu Dhabi Bank, leading the bank’s business growth across the FAB’s International network.

He was previously from Westpac Banking Corporation where he was the Chief Operating Officer, Asia and the Chief Executive, Singapore. He spent his entire career in the financial services industry, primarily in Structured and Corporate Finance, and has previously worked at PwC, Rabobank, Macquarie Securities and Temasek Holdings.

Clarence speaks English, Malay and Chinese. He studied Organizational Leadership at Oxford University and holds Bachelor of Laws and Bachelor of Economics degrees from Monash University, Australia and a Master’s in Applied Psychology from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.

Outside of work, Clarence sits on the board of Aidha, a charity focused on empowering blue collar migrant workers through financial and personal development education.

Danny E. Sebright was appointed in June 2008 as President of the U.S.-U.A.E. Business Council, the key organization building commercial ties and growing business opportunities between the two countries.

Previously, Mr. Sebright worked at the geo-strategic advisory firm The Cohen Group from 2002- 2016. Prior to this, he served as the Defense Department’s Director of the Policy Executive Secretariat for the global war on terrorism from 2001-2002 during Operation ENDURING FREEDOM in Afghanistan and Operation NOBLE EAGLE. He was awarded the Department of Defense Exceptional Civilian Service Award for his service to his country.

Mr. Sebright also served in the Office of the Under Secretary for Policy at the Department of Defense from 1995-2001, advising the Defense Department on the Middle East Peace Process, regional arms sales, and counter-proliferation initiatives. Mr. Sebright coordinated and implemented U.S. foreign military sales to Israel and many other countries in the Middle East. He received the Paul H. Nitze Award for Excellence in International Security Policy for his work on the Middle East Peace Process. Prior to this, Mr. Sebright served with the Defense Intelligence Agency from 1984 to 1995 as a career intelligence officer, earning numerous Intelligence Community awards for his service.

Mr. Sebright earned a Master’s Degree in Public Administration from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government in 2001. He earned his BA in International Affairs from the George Washington University in 1984.

Mr. Sebright is a member of the International Institute of Strategic Studies and serves on the advisory boards of a number of philanthropic organizations including Children’s National Medical Center in Washington DC, and the Eisenhower Institute at Gettysburg College. He is passionate about giving back to college students, teaching a seminar on the Middle East at Gettysburg College and mentoring students at his alma maters.

Dhiraj has over 20 years of banking experience in a wide range of roles across India and the UAE with organizations like RAKBANK, ADCB, Mashreq, HSBC and ICICI Bank. He was appointed as RAKBANK’s Managing Director of Business Banking in January 2017. Dhiraj also Co-chairs the UAE Banks Federation’s SME Committee, which advises government entities and the Central Bank of the UAE on matters related to banking.

Dr. Ehab Elsonbaty is a Partner in our New York Office and serves as Chair of the Middle East Initiative at DLA Piper. He advises DLA Piper’s inbound and outbound clients, including Middle Eastern clients doing business in the Americas or Americas clients seeking to do business in the Middle East. Ehab’s extensive transactional and regulatory experience with Middle Eastern government entities, sovereign wealth funds, family offices and both private and publicly traded companies enables him to provide efficient and effective legal support in a wide variety of business matters. His experience extends to jurisdictions such as Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, Dubai, Egypt, Qatar, Jordan, Kuwait, Libya, Lebanon, Oman and Saudi Arabia, among others.

Francesco leads the Financial Services Middle East Consulting practice, where he helps clients navigate complex challenges and opportunities in the region – mostly on strategy, digital banking and AI. He has more than 20 years of management and entrepreneurship experience across 15 countries, across Italy, Eastern Europe, Latin America and Middle East.

Mrs. Iva Hamel is the Resident Representative of the World Bank in the United Arab Emirates and leads the World Bank’s country engagement in UAE.

Prior to this post, she was a Senior Private Sector Specialist in the Finance Competitiveness and Innovation Global Practice of the World Bank, leading business environment reform programs in the Middle East, Eastern Europe, and South Asia.

Prior to joining the World Bank, she worked as a management consultant in Cambridge, MA, USA.

Mrs. Hamel holds an MA in International Finance and Economics from Johns Hopkins University, and a BA in Economics from Colby College, USA.

Arthur Mete Guney is Regional Head of Services, Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa. In this role, he is in charge of developing and executing strategy for Mastercard Services to build a technology, data and talent driven business. After leading 10 markets in Southern Europe as a cluster manager for five years and becoming market leader in his cluster, he moved to Dubai to lead Mastercard Advisors to scale this business by diversifying business lines and products with a very strong team.

Mr. Guney joined Mastercard in 2005 as a product sales specialist, supporting customers in Southern Europe to develop new consumer credit products and improve performance of existing portfolios. Then, he became an account manager looking after biggest customers in his region. Prior to Mastercard, Mr. Guney worked as a management consultant in various parts of the world and accumulated 6 years of experience in business strategy and customer relations in a wide range of industries covering financial services, pharmaceuticals, and telecommunication. He is also a mentor to startups and particularly fintechs in the region and globally via Endeavour Dubai, Mastercard Incubation Center and his engagement at First Drop Ventures.

Mr. Guney holds a double major degree of Industrial and Civil Engineering from Bogaziçi University. He continued his education at INSEAD, France to study his MBA. He is a father of two sons and he is on his never ending journey of self-consciousness by practicing Sufism and Yoga

Before starting his journey with Al Maryah Community Bank, Mr. Khayata spent 18 months in Berlin workingon transforming classical financial services into blockchain based disruptive solutions. His project involvedglobal technology experts and business leaders who collaborated on developing the concept of communitybanks on basis of the latest crypto based concepts.

During his 29 years in senior positions with leading banks and innovative financial institutions in the UAEsuch as National Bank of Abu Dhabi, First Gulf Bank, Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank, Finance House and CAPMinvestment, he has delivered exceptional retail banking products like the first Credit Card in the UAE back in1994, and developed progressive and out of the box corporate banking solutions for diverse segments.

Mr. Khayata has very significant presence in the capital and equity markets. He has lead formation ofmultiple greenfield entities in financial sector and has managed multiple corporate transformations. He hasbeen in equity and IPO market for over 25 years, with special focus on IPO Advisory, IPO Management andparticipated in starting Abu Dhabi Stock Exchange. In most recent IPO for Fertiglobe, he handled all externalstakeholders and provided strategic, professional and operational guidance to Al Maryah Community bankteam. He ensured the vision of the first fully digital IPO is achieved and ensured great investor / customerexperience.

With strong footing in customer orientation, blended with focus on technology and blockchain, Mr. Khayatais now continuing his journey to make Al Maryah Community Bank a premier hub of innovation and prestige. Mr. Khayata holds Master’s degree in Banking and Finance from the University of Hull (UK), and is an Alumnaof Harvard Business School in Leadership Management.

Ramana Kumar is the Chief Executive Officer of Magnati, which is the payments subsidiary of First Abu Dhabi Bank and Brookfield. Ramana has been instrumental in driving many strategic and innovative initiatives in payments space.Ramana has special interests around innovation/ fintech/ data and artificial intelligence / blockchain and the impact on the payments space.

He was the key driver in creating Magnatiwhich is carved out of FAB and turning into one of the most innovative and progressive payment solutions provider in the UAE. He led the company launch many “first in the market” initiatives including payments modernization, driving data driven business growth and monetizing data,cashless initiatives, financial inclusion, AI and Metaverse.

Magnati’s payment as a platform offers merchants and fintechs to come together on one platform providing substantial benefits to the ecosystem and fostering innovation and growth.

Mr. Kumar has always been one of the trendsetters in the region for innovation and challenging status quo. Magnati’stremendous success in the market is attributed to his leadership and passion for making a difference. Under his leadership and success this year, Magnati is geared up to be Middle East and Africa’s leading payments solution provider.

Ramit Arora is the President and co-founder of Biz2X and its parent company Biz2Credit. Ramit heads the company’s operations and handles large bank and client relationships. He oversees all strategic web initiatives, credit operations, and sales initiatives for Biz2X and Biz2Credit. Under his leadership, the firms have expanded rapidly in India, Australia, and soon, the Middle East.

Before co-founding Biz2Credit in 2007 with his brother, Rohit Arora, Ramit worked with a Fortune 500 consulting company as a finance solutions architect. He has over 10 years of experience in the financial services space, dealing in commercial finance. He gained considerable understanding about financial services risk management during his stint at Citibank.

In 2011, Ramit Arora was named among New York’s “Top Entrepreneurs” by Crain’s New York Business. He is a frequent speaker at conferences focusing on small businesses. Ramit holds a bachelor's degree in business management and a master’s degree in accounting.

In 2011, Ramit Arora was named among New York’s “Top Entrepreneurs” by Crain’s New York Business. He is a frequent speaker at conferences focusing on small businesses. Ramit holds a bachelor's degree in business management and a master’s degree in accounting.

CEO of Biz2X and Biz2Credit, Rohit is one of America's top experts in small business lending and the use of FinTech to streamline the funding process. He was named New York City's “Top Entrepreneur” by Crain’s New York Business. He has met with top executives from the Federal Reserve and SBA and was invited to the White House by the President's Council of Economic Advisors to update economists on matters related to small business lending.

Rohit oversees the widely reported Biz2Credit Small Business Lending Index, a monthly report that analyses loan approval rates, as well as these annual reports:  1) Women-Owned Business Study, 2) Top 25 Cities for Small Business, 3) Latino-Owned Business Study, 4) Top Small Business Industries Report

• Senior contributor for Forbes: weekly columns on Small Business Strategy
• A frequent speaker at top industry events, including Money 20/20, American Banker Conferences, LendIt, AltFi, and Frontiers of Digital Finance, which Biz2Credit co-sponsors with Columbia University
• Rohit is often quoted by The Wall St. Journal, CNBC, Fox Business, Washington Post, NY Times, Bloomberg, Fortune, American Banker, and others.

Rohit has his Keen interest and expertise in:

• The impact of artificial intelligence and data in the finance industry
• The intersection of technology and finance
• How new data and technology are transforming credit decisions
• The evolving landscape of banking: The role of digital lending and underwriting
• Balancing risk and growth: The importance of deposits and lending in banking policy
• The rise of fintechs and alternative capital: Opportunities for financial growth
• Economic trends, forecasting, and data for small businesses
• The effects of government policies on small business financing
• Exploring efficient partnerships between Fintech and Financial Institutions for reaching underserved SMBs
• Anticipating equity market disruption in 2023 and the transformative shifts in company financing.

In his capacity as Deputy Head of GCIB in MENA, Wael has responsibility under the CEO to supervise functions across Corporate and FI Coverage, Trade Finance and Treasury. Furthermore, Wael heads directly the corporate coverage team for the countries Saudi, Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain as well other non presence countries like Iraq and Libya. More recently, Wael has been additionally entrusted with the task of supervising the Treasury in Dubai and Riyadh

Wael has over 25 years of experience of Relationship Management, Financial Investment Structuring, Proprietary Trading & Treasury Sales. He joined MUFG in 2014 from Credit Suisse where he was in charge of Product Solutions for HNWI, Family Offices and Investment Companies – a multi asset role that included servicing clients across Structured Finance, Investment Portfolios, M&A & Corporate Finance. Prior to this, he was an Executive Director with Credit Agricole CIB in charge of ME Structured Credit & Interest Rate Sales. Covering Financial Institutions and Corporate needs on liability hedging and asset investments. Also, under his purview was structuring of Islamic Notes to investors. Earlier in his career, Wael spent 8 years with Citibank Bahrain, trading interest rate derivatives and then later heading the Treasury Marketing Unit and lastly the Structured Products Desk.