 Abdullah Alrowaiti
Finance and Administration Director,
SADAD Payment System, Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency, KSA
Abdullah Alrowaithi is the Director of Finance and Administration at SADAD, which is established by SAMA ( the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency) which is the largest electronic payment system which intends to route in excess of US $1 Billion this year integrating both the government and private sectors in the kingdom. |
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 Daren Warner
CFO,Regional Head of Business Finance,
Standard Chartered Bank, Global Markets, MENA & Pakistan
In Daren’s extensive career he has worked in the profession and with organisation across Europe and southern Africa, but recently in Botswana, with Standard Chartered Bank, he worked with the regulators to further develop their own risk framework. Now based in Dubai, he set up the bank’s global market division and then moved back to finance as CFO global markets where he develops strategy for MENA, North Africa and Pakistan. He is responsible for both the Business Finance Analytics Function and the Product Control Function |
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 Colin O’Malley
Chief Financial Officer,
Limitless, UAE
Colin began his professional career with the National Health Service in the UK before moving to BUPA with a focus on management and financial reporting for the Group Treasury function. He later transferred to the Middle East region with BUPA as part of the team that set up a new medical insurance venture to serve the Saudi Arabian market.
Upon completion of this assignment in 2000, he moved to Dubai where he has since held a variety of senior financial management roles within the media, telecoms support services, pharmaceuticals and most recently real estate industries - all with a start up /rapid growth bias with a strong focus on establishing robust systems and processes to facilitate business growth. |
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 Ali F Said
Group Finance Manager,
Cemena Holding, Gulf Finance House, Bahrain
Mr. Ali Said is Investment Director with Venture Capital group at Gulf Finance House. He was previously with Lafarge Group managing cement production costing and integration of new plants in North America. He has over 9 years of corporate finance and managerial accounting experience in the manufacturing, pharmaceutical, distribution and building material industry. Ali is a CMA and holds a MBA from Canada. |
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 John Petty
Director,Petty Presentations;
Representational Councillor, CPA Australia
and Past Member of IFAC PAIB, Australia
John is a four times winner of inclusion in IFAC FMAC/PAIB International Articles of Merit Awards for Distinguished Contribution to Management Accounting and Past Chair of CPA Australia’s Strategic Business Management Center of Excellence. He has extensive experience both as a successful practicing management accountant and as a teacher and educator. |
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 Shanker Rajagopalan
Vice President Management Accounting,
Emirates Airline, UAE
Shanker has over 2 decades of experience with the Emirates Group, in leadership, strategising roles. The turnover of the Group currently exceeded UAE Dirhams 41 billion. He now leads a team of finance professionals in the Group Management Accounting function through delivery of financial planning, annual budgeting and forecasting, financial reporting to executive board, business performance management using metrics finance due diligence on acquisitions, its leverage and project financing arrangements and review and supporting the Fuel Risk Management program. |
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 Marlies van Loon
Finance Director,
Beiersdorf, Middle East
Appointed in September 2006, Marlies van Loon heads the Finance and Controlling department of Beiersdorf Middle East FZCO. This company is part of Beiersdorf Group, one of the leading international companies for skin and beauty care (NIVEA, Hansaplast, Eucerin, Labello, 8X4, Atrix). Beiersdorf Middle East FZCO is based in Dubai and looking after the Middle East & West Asia region. Marlies joined the company in 2000 as a Commercial Controller at Beiersdorf the Netherlands.
Prior to Beiersdorf, Marlies worked in various fields of Finance and Controlling at Philips Electronics. The experience of Marlies covers all areas of management accounting, financial accounting, commercial controlling, supply chain controlling and treasury. |
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 Professor Mike Tayles
Director of the Research Centre in Accounting and Finance,
Hull University Business School, UK
Mike Tayles is a Chartered Management Accountant. He has worked in various manufacturing industries, holding such positions as group management accountant and financial controller. He has consulting and research experience in both manufacturing and service business. In the academic world he has been Programme Director of a Degree in Accounting and Financial Management at Loughborough University, Head of Management Accounting at the University of Huddersfield and is now Professor of Accounting and Finance at the University of Hull. Mike’s research interests include management accounting practices, cost system design and activity-based cost management, accounting involvement in quality management and developments in strategic management accounting including Accounting for Intellectual Capital. Various aspects of this work have been financially supported and subsequently published by UK Accounting Bodies. He has presented papers at national and international conferences, published papers in professional and international academic journals and research reports. |
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 Torsten Kleine Buening
Head of Risk Quantification,
Emirates Bank Group, UAE
Mr. Kleine Buening is in charge of the group‐wide Risk and Economic Capital quantification, including the Internal Capital Adequacy Assessment, and responsible for the Risk Model Governance at Emirates NBD. He started his career as Group Project‐Manager of the Basel II IRB implementation for Volksbank AG in Austria and Central Eastern Europe and established a group‐wide Risk / Basel II Architecture and heading communication with the different regulatory authorities. He has worked at SAMBA Financial Group as Assistant General Manager of the Risk Management Group successfully led the development of Risk Models for Retail and Consumer Business and the set‐up of a group‐wide Integrated Capital Planning & Assessment Process. He was instrumental in the definition and application of Economic Capital. |
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 John McGrann MBA ACMA AIMC
President, Drive ERP, Cyprus
John McGrann MBA ACMA AIMC describes himself as an 'Oracle Manager' and has a practical and professional approach with well developed business management, financial and applications skills; gained through 15 years working on a range of project and support assignments for UK public sector and international private sector organisations. He is on a mission now helping clients drive optimal value from ERP systems. |
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 Chris Jackson
Head of Finance and Management Faculty,
ICAEW, UK
Chris is Head of the ICAEW Finance & Management Faculty, which he set up. He is also deputy chairman of the IFAC Professional Accountants in Business Committee, and was a technical adviser to that committee for 10 years. Chris was admitted as a member of the Institute with Deloitte Haskins & Sells (now part of PWC), London in 1980. Chris has extensive experience of working in industry. Four years with a pharmaceutical multinational, performing management audits throughout Europe was followed by a European Treasury position. Chris also spent five years with an aerospace multinational and held financial control positions. |
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 Alan Fell
Director,
Alan Fell Consultancy Ltd., UK
Alan Fell is a highly experienced specialist in corporate performance management having spent more than 25 years involved in a wide range of performance management disciplines – both in policy formulation and practical application roles – and more recently as both a consultant and trainer. Alan’s experiences cover an extensive range of financial management activities – from investment appraisal to budgeting, cost management to strategic planning, profit contribution analysis, capital management and the Balanced Scorecard. For much of his working life he worked at a major UK bank: in his most recent line management role he was Head of Planning and Finance for a major division with 3,000 staff and an annual turnover in excess of US$1bn. For the past 12 years he has operated as an independent management consultant and trainer, concentrating on a range of financial performance management disciplines, especially budgeting, strategic management and Balanced Scorecard. Alan is a highly experienced conference and seminar leader, having facilitated well over 150 events in the last ten years across the UK, Europe, Middle East, Far East, South Africa and the USA. He is a very regular visitor to the Gulf, and has frequently presented at conferences and seminars with IIR Middle East in addition to consulting with a wide number of Gulf and Middle East organisations. |
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 Ashish Kumar FCCA, ACA, BSc (Hon)
Group Finance Manager,
Majid Al Futtaim Properties, UAE
Ashish has worked at KPMG in Dubai for 10 years in assurances services and currently works for Majid Al Futtaim Properties LLC, where his responsibilities include consolidation and IFRS financial reporting. Over the years, Ashish has gained significant experience in consolidation, acquisition accounting, accounting for construction contracts, real estate development and asset management accounting and private equity fund management accounting in accordance with IFRS. Ashish has been providing training courses for over 5 years on industry specific accounting standards to auditors, accountants, investment banking and private equity analysts. Ashish is an ACA (ICAEW), FCCA and is currently studying for MBA with Manchester Business School. |
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 Mario Gay
COO,
Mindware, UAE
Mario Gay is a professional manager with fifteen years of international experience. He developed a career within Intel Corporation where he has held several positions with assignments in Italy, Germany, France and UK. His last positions at Intel were: EMEA Credit Director and Investment Manager with Intel Capital group in London. In September 2007 he moved in Dubai to join MDS (Middle East Data System) one of the largest IT group in the region with the role of CFO/COO. He is member of the advisory board and responsible for group’s acquisition strategy. |
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