Mr. Abou Zaki has over 25 years of experience in Al-Iktissad Wal-Aamal Group, where his innovative approach was a major drive for the Group’s diversification. His main focus has been to help the Group’s development into a leading force in conferences and business events in the region.

In the process, Mr. Abou Zaki developed a close working relationship with government leaders, policy makers, as well as a wide spectrum of leading figures in business and banking. He also contributes to regional policy forums and is a frequent commentator on regional and global events.

Mr. Abou Zaki also serves as the Deputy Editor in Chief for Al-Iktissad Wal-Aamal Magazine and is a Board Member in Al-Iktissad Wal-Aamal.

- Chairman & CEO, Borsa İstanbul
- President, Federation of Euro-Asian Stock Exchanges (FEAS)
- Member, World Federation of Exchanges (WFE) Board of Directors

Mr. Turhan has been the Chairman and CEO of Borsa İstanbul since January 1, 2012. He was appointed as Deputy Governor on May 8th 2008. Previously, Mr. Turhan was elected as member of the Monetary Policy Committee by the Board on June 7th, 2006, while on April 1st 2004, he had been elected as Board Member by the General Assembly of the Central Bank of Turkey. He also served as a member of the Advisory Board of the Contemporary Turkish Studies Chair at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) European Institute until the end of 2011.

Mr. Turhan is a member of the Leaders' Circle as well as the Advisory Board of the Global Economic Symposium organized by the Kiel Institute for the World Economy. He served as Managing Editor and Editor in Chief in sectoral journals published on banking, finance and finance technologies.

Mehmet Simsek was elected to Parliament in the general election on July 22, 2007. He was appointed as the Minister of Finance on May 1, 2009. Prior to that, he was the State Minister for Economic Affairs during August 2007 - April 2009.

Prior to joining politics, Mr Simsek was the chief economist and strategist for emerging Europe, Middle East and Africa region at Merrill Lynch in London for 7 years. He also served as senior economist and bank analyst for Deutsche-Bender Securities from 1998 to 2000. Mr Simsek spent about a year in New York where he worked for UBS Securities in 1997. Prior to that, he was a senior economist at the US Embassy in Ankara for almost four years.

A native of Batman, Mr Simsek earned his B.Sc. in Economics from Ankara University in 1988. After working as research assistant in the chair of international economics and economic development, he was awarded a state scholarship to the University of Exeter (UK), where he earned his M Phil in Finance and Investments in 1993.

Mr Simsek is fluent in English.

Mr. Grifferty founded and leads The Gulf Bond and Sukuk Association (GBSA) the independent industry association representing the Arabian Gulf fixed income market.

Prior to founding GBSA, he served as advisor for the US Treasury on sovereign debt and bond markets, where he advised over forty countries and regional organizations. He has also consulted for the International Monetary Fund and Arab Monetary Fund.

Prior to his international career, Mr. Grifferty was a senior vice president at Government Finance Associates, providing problem-solving financial advisory services to US state and local governments and public authorities. A sought after speaker at international conferences, he is also frequent contributor to the financial press.

Mr. Grifferty has degrees from New York University and Georgetown University in Public Finance and International Relations, respectively.

Mr. Al Monayea is Vice Chairman, MD & CEO of Liquidity Management House the wholly owned subsidiary of Kuwait Finance House (KFH). He has more than twenty five years of experience in investments and corporate finance, in both government and private sectors and currently holds key board positions in a number of companies.

Prior to joining KFH, he was with Kuwait Investment Authority (KIA), for 15 years, where he was instrumental in setting-up the Direct Investment Department of KIA and is a key contributor for the development of Islamic capital market.

Mr. Al Monayea holds a B.S. Degree from Kuwait University and has completed the Executive Finance Program of INSEAD, France.

Ozgur Kutay has been Citi Country Officer for Kuwait since January 2012.

Ozgur has been with Citi since 1994 in a variety of roles. Prior to his assignment in Kuwait, he was serving since 2007 as the Country Risk Management Officer for Turkey. Previously, he served as head of the Risk Analysis Unit for Turkey, Global Portfolio Management where he had responsibility for a portfolio comprised of corporations, public sector and financial institutions clients located in Turkey, and some of the CIS including Azerbaijan, Georgia, Armenia, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan. Ozgur is currently Level 2 Senior Credit Officer.

Ozgur has also held the posts of Head of Financial Institutions and Public Sector for Turkey, Caucasia and Central Asia and ICG Branch Manager for Ankara, Turkey where he was responsible for building and maintaining our corporate relationships and supervising Ankara Branch operations. Prior to joining Citi, he worked for Deloitte Touché in a World Bank-funded Financial Management Improvement Project for the Turkish Electricity Authority and later for Intergraph, a Fortune 500 technology company. Ozgur received his B.Sc. in Electronics Engineering from Middle East Technical University in 1989 and an MBA from the University of Florida in 1991.

Mr. Ozcan started working for Odeabank as Assistant General Manager responsible for Economic Research and Strategy to later become Head of Economic research and strategy. He previously was Chief Economist and Head of Strategy at Türkiye Vakıflar Bankası.

Mr. Ozcan started his career as an Associate at the Banking and Financial Institutions Department at the Central Bank of Turkey in 1999 and was assigned as Senior Associate in the following years. After having worked for seven years at the Central Bank, he joined the BRSA as Chief Advisor to the Chairman and held this position between 2006-2009.

Dr. Mazen Soueid is the Chief Economist at BankMed, one of the largest banks in Lebanon with presence in Saudi Arabia and Turkey. From August 2008 until December 2009, he was also Economic Advisor to the Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora, and from January 2010 onward, he has been advising PM Siniora in his capacity as head of the Future Parliamentary Block. Prior to joining BankMed, Dr. Soueid worked as an Economist at the International Monetary Fund, particularly in the Asian, Middle Eastern Departments as well as the Capital Markets Department. At the IMF he worked on a range of issues and countries like Venezuela, Korea, Mexico, and the Philippines. He had also worked in Deutsche Bank in London and New York covering the Middle East. He taught Finance and Economics at Brown University and the American University of Beirut. He holds a PHD in Economics from Brown University. Dr. Soueid is the author of the best-selling book “The Lebanese Economic Project” which won an award for “Best Book on the Lebanese Economy” published in 2010 by Capital Issues.

Mr. Ahmad Saleh Al Marhoun is the Director General of Muscat Securities Market.

He previously held the position of General Manager at Financial Services Company.

Prior to that, Mr. Al Marhoun was a Financial controller & Management team member in Oman Refinery Company.

With more than 12 years executive level experience at Thomson Reuters, Mr. Moftah now leads the Dubai-headquartered operation in his new role as Managing Director, Global Growth & Operations for the Middle East, Africa and Russia.

He brings a wealth of experience and ‘local’ knowledge to the position. He covers over 90 countries with diverse areas of responsibility including client operations, acquisitions and business management. He most recently led the Rapidly Developing Economies (RDE) team for the financial and banking sector.

Mr. Moftah began his career in the Client Training Department at Thomson Reuters before embarking on the first in a series of international assignments as a key member of the risk management systems team in Rome, Italy - specializing in sales - followed by a short time in Milan working in finance.

He subsequently spent two-and-a-half years working between London and San Francisco as an Investment Associate for Reuters Venture Capital Group, investing over US$100 million across 16 companies. After taking two years out to pursue a Master's degree, he returned to London as Regional Head of Business Direct for EMEA, turning around sales significantly during his four-year tenure. Basil was then appointed Managing Director for Middle East & Africa for two years, substantially growing the business despite difficult market conditions.

Mr. Moftah is a regular speaker at high profile international conferences, including the MENA Private Equity Conference and the recent World Economic Forum in Egypt and again in St. Petersburg, Russia. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering from the American University in Cairo and Master's degree in Business Administration from Harvard.

Mr. Johnston was appointed as Chief Executive of the DFSA in June 2012. He joined the DFSA in November 2006, as Managing Director, to head-up the Policy and Legal Services Division.

He was admitted to practice Law in Australia in the early 1980’s and spent most of his career in the private sector. He held a number of senior positions within the financial sector and was CEO of one of Australia’s major Trustee Companies.

During that time, he played a leading role in the Trustee industry and served on the National Council of the Trustee Corporations Association.

In 1999, Mr. Johnston joined the Australian Securities and Investments Commission where he held the position of Executive Director, Financial Services regulation, and spent several terms as an acting Commissioner. In 2005, he took up a position with the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission as a Special Advisor.

Mr. Johnston is a past Chairman of the Joint Forum, which comprises representatives of the major international regulatory standard-setters (IOSCO, IAIS and the Basel Committee). He is a member of the Technical Committee of the IAIS, the global standard-setting body for insurance regulation, and is a member of the Board of Directors of the Financial Planning Standards Board (FPSB).

Hayeck currently heads the asset management division at TNI. He successfully launched several MENA long equity strategies that have delivered consistent out performance in addition to a regional unconstrained strategy - ‘MENA Special Situations Fund’, one of the few regional alternative funds. Hayeck was the first regional manager to launch an UCITS compliant umbrella structure, further strengthening TNI’s franchise in the institutional universe.

Barış Aksoy is a Regional Director at Intel Capital focusing on technology investments in Turkey, Middle East and N Africa regions. Most recently, Barış was based in Intel Capital - Silicon Valley focused on making and managing global investments in the rapidly-growing Internet and Media segments. Prior to joining Intel Capital, Barış was an investor at University Venture Fund and was an early employee of Calix (NYSE: CALX), where he held product management and development roles. Earlier in his career, Barış started and grew the West Coast sales office for Alcatel’s semiconductor subsidiary. Barış serves on the Board of Advisors for Yetizen Accelerator, and actively mentors young entrepreneurs for SeedCamp, Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator, TurkTechNet, StepOne, and entrepreneurship classes at various universities around the world. Also, Barış is a Kauffman Fellow, and holds an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and also a BSc in Electrical Engineering from Istanbul Technical University.

- Chairman & CEO, Borsa İstanbul
- President, Federation of Euro-Asian Stock Exchanges (FEAS)
- Member, World Federation of Exchanges (WFE) Board of Directors

Mr. Turhan has been the Chairman and CEO of Borsa İstanbul since January 1, 2012. He was appointed as Deputy Governor on May 8th 2008. Previously, Mr. Turhan was elected as member of the Monetary Policy Committee by the Board on June 7th, 2006, while on April 1st 2004, he had been elected as Board Member by the General Assembly of the Central Bank of Turkey. He also served as a member of the Advisory Board of the Contemporary Turkish Studies Chair at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) European Institute until the end of 2011.

Mr. Turhan is a member of the Leaders' Circle as well as the Advisory Board of the Global Economic Symposium organized by the Kiel Institute for the World Economy. He served as Managing Editor and Editor in Chief in sectoral journals published on banking, finance and finance technologies.