Dr. Florence Eid-Oakden - CEO and Chief Economist of Arabia Monitor (Moderator)

Dr. Florence Eid-Oakden is the CEO and Chief Economist of Arabia Monitor. She has been a professor of economics and finance at the American University of Beirut and a visiting professor at INSEAD and HEC Paris. Formerly head of MENA research at JP Morgan, Dr. Eid-Oakden has also worked with the World Bank on Latin America and on North Africa, and subsequently, on the buy side as a hedge fund investment professional. She serves on the Board of Directors for the Arab Banking Corporation International Bank in London and for Bank ABC Jordan, the Arab Bankers Association of North America in New York, and sits on the Advisory Council of the Al Faisal University College of Business, Saudi Arabia. She has served as a Trustee of the American University in Paris, and a Director of Shuaa Capital in Dubai. Recently she served as a member of HSBC’s Middle East Financial System Risk Advisory Committee. Dr. Eid-Oakden received her Ph.D. in Organization Economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) with a joint MIT-Harvard Doctoral Committee, under the supervision of Nobel Laureate Professor Bengt Holmström. She is fluent in Arabic, English, French and Spanish, with a working knowledge of Italian and Portuguese.

Mr. Khalid Nassereddin Al Khatib-State General Reserve Fund (SGRF), Oman

Khalid is a member of the Local Initiatives team at the State General Reserve Fund (“SGRF”), the sovereign wealth fund of the Sultanate of Oman. With a focus on Oman, Khalid is responsible for executing on greenfield projects, generating new concepts and developing investment opportunities, localizing some of the fund’s international investments, and advising and assisting state owned enterprises and connecting them to the SGRF’s global network. Most recently, Khalid was responsible for articulating an infrastructure fund concept dedicated to investing in Oman’s infrastructure, sourced its deal pipeline and assisted in setting it up.

Khalid Al Khatib brings forward 10+ years of experience in the fields of Investment and finance. He has previously worked at Schlumberger and PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. Moreover, Khalid sits on a number of boards of companies and investment committees of the fund’s investment vehicles.

Khalid has an MBA in Business Strategy from Hitotsubai University, Graduate School of International Corporate Strategy, Tokyo, Japan and a BSc. in Finance from the College of Commerce and Economics, Sultan Qaboos University, Sultanate of Oman.

Mr. Abdullah Sulaiman Alsakran-General Manager, Research and Economic Studies Department, Saudi Fund for Development (SFD)

Mr. Abdullah Sulaiman Alsakran has been the General Manager of the Research and Economic Studies Department, Saudi Fund for Development (SFD) since 2015. Meanwhile, he has been a member of the ICD Board of Directors, Executive Committee, and Chairman of the Audit Committee from 2015 to 2018. He is also an advisor for the Board of Directors for the Arab Group of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). He played the role as a Chief Negotiators’ member on the establishment of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), 2015. What’s more, he is a member in several committees, conferences, seminars and workgroups. He has a Ph. D in Economics and Finance.

Mr. Seethapathy Chander-Senior Advisor to the President, AIIB

Mr Seethapathy Chander holds a Bachelor of Technology degree in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology-Delhi, and post graduate diplomas in Business Management and Human Resources Management from the Indira Gandhi Open University, India. A specialist in high voltage power systems, he has over 40 years of work experience in power systems design and construction, electric power utility management, public sector development, private sector investments, information technology, and public private partnerships. He is currently a director on the Boards of three companies in India, and is an advisor to the World Energy Council, India as well as the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, Beijing, China. He also serves on the governing council, and as a part-time, adjunct faculty at the NTPC School of Business, Noida, India.

Mr Chander’s work experience spans Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka in South Asia; Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Georgia in Central Asia; Oman in the Middle-east; Cambodia, Laos, Indonesia, Myanmar, the Philippines, and Thailand in South East Asia; and China. He has travelled extensively in North America, South America, Europe, Japan, Korea, and Austrasia, in connection with his work, and leisure.

Mr. Amadou Diallo-Director, Economic and Social Infrastructure, Islamic Development Bank

As the current Director of Global Practices, Economic and Social Infrastructure at the Islamic Development Bank (IDB), Mr. Amadou Thierno Diallo leads the Bank’s engagement in the areas of economic and social infrastructure both in urban and rural settings to support its 57 member countries development efforts. This engagement includes the formulation of views and positions on key development challenges, the development and implementation of strategies across economic and social infrastructure topics as well as the development of mechanisms for engaging PPP financing and the private sector. Previously, he was the Acting Director of the Agriculture and Rural Development Department and Director of the Office of the Vice President Operations at the Bank.

He also served at the African Development Bank as Resident Representative of the Bank in Bamako, Mali and Manager of the Energy and ICT Division. He also has more than 10 years of experience in the private sector in the US and in Guinea.

Mr. Diallo holds a B.S in Mining Engineering from the GAN Polytechnic Institute of Conakry, Guinea, an MS in Mineral Economics from Montana Tech, the University of Montana, an MBA in Finance, and a Master’s in Public and International Affairs, from the University of Pittsburgh, United States.

He has also completed numerous development and leadership courses offered by Harvard University, London Business School, Ashridge Business School, HEC Montreal, the World Bank Institute, the International Monetary Fund, the Institute of Public Partnerships–private, etc.

Mr. Atter Hannoura-Head of PPP Unit, Ministry of Finance, Egypt

Engineer Atter Hannoura has +34 years of professional experience in different capacities and business sectors. He is a holder of a Law Degree, Cairo University/2016, Diploma in Large Procurements ITO/Italy/2004 and a B. Sc. Engineering/(ICT) Alexandria University in 1981.

Eng. Hannoura is a PPP Expert, with solid procurement, and contract management experience. Professional business experience is mainly gained due to working at multinational organizations since 1997, ten years at the USAID, and the World Bank as a Management Information System (MIS) and Procurement Expert, Experience then extended to cover the full Project Management, Financing and Contract Management in the MENA Region.

Since Feb 1st, 2007, Eng. Atter Hannoura has joined the Ministry of Finance/Egypt to participate in establishing the PPP Central Unit.

Eng. Hannoura was appointed by the Minister of Finance to be the Director of the PPP Central Unit. Work included but not limited to being the Director of the Central Department for PPP Projects, Tendering Affairs & Contract Management. Eng. Hannoura was also responsible for implementing PPP initiative on a national basis and drafting the PPP legal frame work in Egypt since May 2011.

Hannoura strongly managed feasibility studies, preparation and tendering of several PPP projects in Utilities, transportation, health, education, ports, and communication sectors in addition to creating additional PPP pipeline projects.

Eng. Atter has the capability at linking work objectives to organizational goals as well as implementing business and technology solutions. Acting as a Strong advocate of innovative actions to help the PPP Central Unit retain a leading edge, this was also coupled by broad exposure to various cross-functional commercial and corporate affairs.

Eng. Hannoura worked as a Deputy General Manager, Business Development Director, and Vice President for different Regional and Local Organizations with a strong customer’s needs & a continuous stakeholder engagement. Such variance provided high exposures in senior and broadly based wider commercial aspects such as legal, logistics, sales and distribution experience in wide business aspects in the Egyptian and Middle Eastern markets.

Hannoura is also a board member of Alexandria Bank (Intesa San Paolo) since March 2012 to-date, and board member & Chairman of El Reef El Masry Holding for the reclamation of 1.5 million feddans/Egypt.

Mr. Osama Suleiman-Director, The Public-Private Partnership Unit (PPPU), Ministry of Finance, Jordan

Mr. Sulieman have experience shared between the public and private sector, where he worked as a financial analyst in the securities company subsidiary of a local bank for a five years, with responsibilities including conducting the fundamental analysis of annual and periodic financial statements of public shareholding companies listed in Amman Stock Exchange and International Investor relations. In 2000 Mr. Sulieman moved to the Executive Privatization Commission (EPC), EPC is a governmental entity responsible for the execution of privatization programs, during his work for around fourteen years, he participated in many transactions, prepared TORs and RFPs for selection of consultants and negotiated with preferred bidders (Investors). In June 2014, he moved to a PPP unit in the Ministry of Finance to act as Public Private Partnership Advisor to the Government of Jordan. In June, 2016, Mr. Sulieman was appointed as a Director of PPP unit, during his work in PPP projects he has gained extensive experience in the field of financial analysis and financial modeling to assess the facilities and the preparation of feasibility studies and procurement procedures for PPP projects.