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H.E. Mohammed A. El-Kuwaiz
Chairman at CMAH.E. Mohammed A. El-Kuwaiz was appointed as the Chairman of the board of the Capital Market Authority (CMA) of Saudi Arabia in July 2017. Prior to being Chairman, Mohammed was Vice Chairman of the board of the CMA since August 2016. Furthermore, Mohammed was the Co-founder and CEO of Derayah Financial Company. He was formerly a management consultant with McKinsey & Company. Prior to that, he worked in investment banking and corporate finance with Samba Financial Group. Moreover, Mohammed has served in various roles in the financial and corporate industry. Mohammed obtained an MBA from New York University’s Leonard N. Stern School of Business, specializing in finance and entrepreneurship. He holds a Bachelors of Administrative Sciences with Honors from King Saud University in Saudi Arabia majoring in Law
John Gollifer
CEO of GCC BDIJohn Gollifer, joined the GCC Board Directors Institute (GCC BDI) as Chief Executive Officer on 15 November 2023.
John was General Manager of the Middle East Investor Relations Association (MEIRA) from January 2019 to 14 November 2023 where he led MEIRA’s development and growth as the go-to professional body for Investor Relations (IR) in the region. Prior to that, he led the UK’s IR Society from 2012 to 2018. In both roles, John was responsible for spearheading partnerships with other independent, not-for-profit organisations, including GCC BDI. John led IR training for the International Certificate in IR in the Middle East and prior to this, in Chile, Indonesia, Japan, Nigeria, Singapore, Thailand, Turkey and the UK. From 2016 to 2018, John lectured at the University of Liverpool in London on the MSc. in Strategic Communication for the IR module which he created. In 2018, John was awarded an Honorary Fellowship of the UK’s IR Society in recognition of his services to IR.
John spent 11 years at the Singapore Exchange where he was Senior Vice President and responsible for investor relations, among other roles in corporate strategy and communications. He established and ran the IR Professionals Association of Singapore from 2006 to 2008, is a multiple IR award winner and created and taught an IR course at the Singapore Management University from 2009 to 2012.
John was trained as a banker and spent 15 years from 1985 to 2000 in Asia and Europe in corporate finance and equity capital markets. He worked for: Barclays Bank as International Manager; Hoare Govett Asia as Senior Manager and Head of Corporate Finance; ABN Amro Rothschild as Assistant Director - Equity Capital Markets, Asia; and at BNP Paribas as Director - Equity Capital Markets, Asia and Australasia.
John has a BA (Hons) degree from Loughborough University, UK, the International Certificate in IR, Diplomas in Banking (ACIB) and Marketing (ACIM) and MBA degree from Henley Business School, UK. John has lived and worked in Dubai, Geneva, Hong Kong, Jakarta, London and Singapore. He is married and has 5 children and 3 grand-children.
Jan Bladen
External Associate at GCC Board Directors InstituteAs a UAE Residents for the last 20 years, Jan carries a wealth of experience in Corporate Leadership across the MENA Region. Raised across the region as a child, Jan’s spouse is an Arab, his children speak Arabic at home and he has spent more than half his life living in the MENA Region.
Internationally recognized as a speaker, practitioner and thought leader in Corporate Governance, Jan has extensive Board Room experience as a Chairman, independent Board Member, Board Committee Member and as a Board Governance Advisor.
He is an accredited “Trainer of Trainers” in the Corporate Governance Board Leadership Program of the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and World Bank and qualified as the 1st accredited Non-Executive Director / Board Member with the Institute of Directors (Mudara IoD) in Dubai. He further attended Harvard Business School’s “Making Corporate Boards More Effective”
Jan played an instrumental role in the founding of the UAE’s two financial hubs; He spearheaded the launch of Abu Dhabi Global Markets (ADGM) as the Senior Executive Lead and Advisor to the Board of Directors and co-led the establishment of the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) as the founding Chief Operating Officer of the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA). Previously, Jan spent nine years with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) based in both Geneva and Dubai/
He believes that the role of Boards and C-Suite Leadership in the Middle East is becoming significantly more challenging as the need for strong governance and the institutionalisation of businesses expands rapidly. Unlocking growth and shareholder value will be one of the key challenges over the next decade. Jan is the Managing Partner of Governance Creed (Board Assessments, Skill Set Mixes, Subsidiary Governance Frameworks, Nominations and Board Rotations, Board Strategy Retreats) and sits on several Boards, as either a Chairman, Trustee or Non-Executive Board Member. Fluent in English, French and Spanish, Jan obtained an MBA (Summa Cum Laude) from Lausanne and holds both British and Swiss Nationalities.
Mohammed Moumena
Managing Partner at Edward Ke. Kelley & PartnersMohammed Moumena is a seasoned executive and consultant with more than 25 years of professional experience in corporate and family business environments and in the executive search industry.
His career in executive search started in 2006 when he co-founded Edward W Kelley & Partners (EWKP) a company specializing in executive search and Human Capital consulting with offices in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and Dubai, UAE. EWKP works in the private and semi-government sectors including closed joint stock companies and family business conglomerates providing executive search services for Board members, CEO’s, and other C-level positions. Mohammed has built a team of consultants with expertise in global executive search and Human Capital consulting combined with deep knowledge and experience of developed and emerging markets especially in the GCC.
Along with his activities in the executive search industry, Mohammed sat for the last 10 years as independent Board Member in a number of public and closed joint stock companies listed in Saudi Arabia and operating in the financial services, asset management, contracting, retail, facility management, and healthcare sectors where he contributed his knowledge and experience in corporate governance, human capital, strategic planning, budgeting, and financial oversight. He also sat as a Chairman and/or member of various Board Committees including Nomination & Remuneration, Investment, Audit, Risk, and Corporate Governance.
Mohammed was the Chief Executive Officer of Moumena Investment Group, based in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia from 1998 to 2022. The group has been involved in real estate development, hospitality, trade, and contracting, with investments in Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom, and Lebanon. He restructured the group reallocating assets and divesting unprofitable businesses and ultimately transformed the group from an operational to an investment entity, focusing primarily on Saudi Arabia and the UK.
Mohammed highly values environmental protection, business ethics, benevolence, and charity as evidenced throughout his dedication and work as an executive Board Member of Al-Wedad Charity Foundation, the first Saudi charity operating across all regions of the Kingdom and devoted to the care of orphans whose natural parents are unknown, and his contributions to enhancing the care of orphans since 2012.
Mohammed is Saudi national and holds a B.S. in Marketing from King Fahad University of Petroleum and Minerals in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, graduating in 1996. He also completed a 24-month Management Trainee Program in the Marketing Department at Unilever in Dubai, UAE.