Martin joined the DFSA in March 2006 as Managing Director, Markets and has overall responsibility for the DFSA's regulation of the Dubai International Financial Exchange (DIFX) and other future exchanges that may receive authorisation to operate within the DIFC. Martin was previously a Senior Executive at the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX). Over a career at the ASX spanning some 30 years, Martin has gained wide ranging experience of the operations of the Exchange. He has held various positions at the ASX including Company Secretary and General Counsel as well as managing the Membership / Intermediaries and Enforcement functions. Martin holds a Bachelor of Law degree from Sydney University, is a solicitor and has had a long involvement with industry associations aimed at fostering and developing Commercial and Corporate Law communities in Australia.

Rashed Al Baloushi joined Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX) in April 2000 where he played an instrumental role in the establishment of the market in November 2000.

Al-Baloushi started his career at ADX as Manager of the Clearing, Settlement, Depositary & Registry (CSD) Department.

Prior to joining ADX, Al-Baloushi was Head of Registrar & Depository at the Abu Dhabi Fee Zone Authority.

Al-Baloushi has an MBA from UAE University and a Bachelor of Science in Computer Information Systems from Benedict College, Columbia, South Carolina.  

Mr Hewett bears a wealth of international commercial experience in exchanges and business expansion activities which stretches over two decades. He is responsible for the commercial development of the Bahrain Financial Exchange (BFX) including all product development, sales and marketing activity.

Mr Hewett has held a number of business development and marketing roles at the London Metal Exchange (LME) – the world’s premier metals and industrial materials exchange. He joined the LME in 2000 having responsibility for developing and implementing marketing strategies, as well as all communication activities for existing and new financial products. In the course of his time at the LME, he progressed into new business expansion roles, focussing on revenue development and the commercialisation of key business activities. He has been heavily involved in a number of commodity based products including launching steel and industrial materials futures contracts to the financial and industrial markets. His exchange experience has afforded him the opportunity to develop strategic relationships with international commodity exchanges, and work with associated exchange partners in the development of product and exchange initiatives. Mr Hewett went on to assume the role of a Deputy Commercial Director at the LME, responsible for ensuring the achievement of the LME’s growth strategy while maintaining its position as a market leader and innovator.

Prior to joining the LME, Mr Hewett held numerous positions with organizations such as Xerox where he was involved in developing sales and marketing strategy for a number of products and services.

Mr Hewett holds a BA (Hons) in Business Studies and a MBA from Newcastle University. He has lectured regularly on hedging programmes and managing price risk on the LME, as well as introducing industry to the workings of exchanges. He has also lectured on international marketing and marketing technology for the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM).

Mr Andre Went is CEO of the Qatar Exchange (QE). Before joining QE in 2009, Mr Went spent more than 20 years in a variety of roles at NYSE Euronext. From 2005 Mr Went was responsible for the management of the market data and index businesses of Euronext. Prior to that he was director of strategy and market development. In the 1990s, Mr Went co-led the introduction of a new trading system for the Amsterdam Stock Exchange.

The Qatar Exchange (the successor to the Doha Securities Market) was created on June 19, 2009 following the signing of an agreement between Qatar Holding and NYSE Euronext. This strategic partnership is designed to establish QE as an international exchange and to pave the way for Qatar to take a prominent role in global capital markets.

Steve is responsible for Fidessa’s strategic development. This includes the development of new geographic markets and strategic partnerships and driving new industry initiatives.

As part of this Steve heads up the firm’s strategy in response to the new post-MiFID trading landscape, managing the firm’s initiatives in conjunction with both the established exchanges and the new and emerging alternative liquidity venues and dark pools. Steve has also played a significant part in bringing the Fidessa Fragmentation Index (FFI) and the Fragulator™ to the wider trading community. He provides a regular commentary on the issues surrounding fragmentation of the markets on the community forum that was launched at the end of 2008.

On joining Fidessa in 2004 Steve led the development of the company’s multi-asset trading capabilities. For four years, he worked to extend the core strengths of the Fidessa platform and ensure that all enhancements support an asset agnostic architecture to deliver multi- and cross-asset trading across its product lines globally.

Prior to joining Fidessa Steve was the founder and CEO of specialist derivatives software house Future Dynamics which was one of the companies at the vanguard of the shift from open outcry to screen based trading in world derivatives markets. This business grew to be one of the major facilitators of workflow based derivatives trading and was eventually sold in 2004.

Andrew is responsible for new product design and implementation and product management primarily for the Electronic Trading Services unit at Nomura.

In his current role, this work has extended to include the development of Nomura’s dark pool offering NX, leading the team that created the first investment bank based MTF dark pool.

Additionally the role covers smart routing, dark routing, and all MTF access and coordination. Outside of cash equities, Andrew has taken the electronic offering into new asset classes, covering Sector Swaps, Custom Index Swaps, Convertible Bonds and listed derivatives. The team additionally manages all the electronic vendor relationships, covering implementation of Nomura’s product suite on third party vendor platforms.

Following the acquisition by Nomura of the European and Asian equities business of Lehman Brothers, Andrew managed the team that lead the electronic product integration. Andrew originally joined Lehman Brothers in 2004 to oversee the implementation of the firm’s new global connectivity system and market side connectivity platforms, focussing on the cash equity DMA and algorithmic trading franchise and related electronic services.

Prior to Lehman Brothers, Andrew spent 7 years at Dresdner Kleinwort initially in front office product development and then for 5 years as head of the firm's institutional connectivity and order management activity. Having grown up in Hong Kong, Andrew started working in the sell side in that market 22 years ago in 1987. He has qualified as a Chartered Accountant at KPMG and also worked at JP Morgan.

President, Futures Business Development, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Oversaw establishment and development of the company since its inception. A member of the Savola (SAU:2050) Risk committee and previously an Assistant Professor at King AbdulAziz University. He holds PhD and MSc degrees both in Operations Research from the University of Lancaster (Forecasting and Optimization) and University of Southampton (Faculty of Mathematical Studies) respectively.

Basab Banerjee heads the IT Team at DGCX and has been associated with the Exchange since inception in 2005. He overlooks the technology initiatives and IT operations at DGCX.

Basab has more than 14 years of varied experience in the design & deployment of Application & Exchange Technology. Prior to joining DGCX, his expertise has been instrumental for setting up different world-class Exchanges like Multi Commodity Exchange of India Ltd. (MCX), IBS-Forex and Inter-connected Stock Exchange of India Ltd.

Ali Alomran heads Business Systems Division in Arab National Bank (ANB). He directs ANB’s technology projects and banking applications. Prior to joining ANB in 2003, he spent 10 years in Banque Saudi Fransi (BSF) where he led International Brokerage immediately after 2000 US market drop. He restructured business and recovered market position. Before that, he managed IT application development in BSF. Ali spent 16 years in banking and he is particularly interested in future Saudi banking and banking technology architecture.

Fadi joined ING Investment Management, Dubai, as Director of equities and the senior fund manager. Most recently, Fadi was a senior fund manager in the Asset Management division at NBD Investment Bank where he managed the two flagship funds (MENA equities and GCC balanced funds). Fadi was previously at Noor Capital where he was a Senior Vice President heading up the Asset Management division. He also worked for Damac Invest as a Senior Investment Manager, where he co- managed a multi billion Dirham portfolio invested in the MENA region. He was responsible for leading a team covering Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, UAE and other emerging markets. Prior to that, Fadi was the Head of Research at Al Jazira Bank in Saudi Arabia.

Fadi brings more than ten years of experience in portfolio management, research & asset allocation, and holds a Bsc in Economics from the University Of Jordan. Fadi is also a candidate for the CFA level III in June 2010.

After graduating with first class honours from Oxford University, Anjali actually began her career producing TradeTech conferences but found the buzz of the trading floor so alluring that she decided to work for a bank. Anjali has worked at HSBC since 2006 and, after starting out in equity sales, she became a trader and has been trading cash equities in the Gulf region for 3 years. She recently relocated from London to Dubai where she is now based.

Jalal Faruki has over 8 years of experience in Brokerage and Asset Management between the USA and UAE. He started his career in the USA as a stockbroker with DMG Securities, than worked with ProFund Advisors as an institutional Trading Representative. In 2006, he moved to the UAE with Al Mal Capital where he has held several positions in the proprietary, asset management and brokerage departments.

Jalal holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Information Technology from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.  

Dr. Saidi is a former Minister of Economy and Trade and Minister of Industry of Lebanon (1998-2000), and former First Vice-Governor of the Central Bank of Lebanon (1993-2003). He is a Member of the UN Committee for Development Policy and has had a distinguished career as an economist having served as economic adviser and director for various government organizations, central banks and financial institutions in the Arab countries, Europe and Central and Latin America. Dr. Saidi also pursued a career as an academic, as a professor of economics at the Department of Economics of the University of Chicago, the Institut Universitaire de Hautes Etudes Internationales (Geneva), and the Université de Genève, and AUB. He has a recent book, "Corporate Governance in the MENA countries: Improving Transparency & Disclosure", and has published widely on macroeconomic, capital market development and international economic issues the region. His research interests include macroeconomics, financial market development, payment systems and international economic policy, and ICT; he actively promotes e-Government initiatives in the MENA region

Sami joined Robeco in January 2009 from Fairfax PLC, where he was the Senior Executive Officer handling private equity placements in the MENA and Asia regions.

Prior to that, Sami worked as Vice President at Deutsche Asset Management as well as Regional Sales Manager for Invesco Perpetual. On the buy-side, Sami worked as a Manager at Dubai Islamic Bank, where he was part of the team responsible for the $1 Billion Sukuk for the Dubai Airport Expansion. His other UAE experience includes ADIA, Clearstream Banking, Ernst & Young and Reuters. Sami is a CFA Charterholder and a graduate of McGill University where he earned a Bachelors Degree in Accounting and Management Information Systems.

Deon Vernooy has been involved in the asset management industry in a variety of roles over the past two decades. He started his career in 1988 in South Africa as an equity analyst in the aftermath of the 1987 meltdown on world equity markets. This role was followed by senior roles in investment strategy, portfolio management and general management. He is a qualified Chartered Financial Analyst and is currently the Senior Executive Officer at Emirates Investment Services.

Stuart Adams has been the FIX Protocol EMEA Regional Director since March 2009. Working closely with members, exchanges, ECNs and regulators across the region, Mr. Adams is responsible for building stronger relationships with this market sector and generating a greater understanding of how the FIX Protocol may be used to increase market efficiency. Mr. Adams has worked in the financial technology sector for more than 20 years, most recently as Head of European Operations at Portware, where he was responsible for setting up the firm’s London office and developing senior industry relationships to establish the business in Europe. Prior to this, Mr. Adams undertook a number of different assignments including the position of Managing Director of AKJ, a technology solutions provider for the hedge fund and asset management community, SEO of Brut ECN Europe and Institutional Sales Director for Instinet Global Services. In addition to his current position at FPL, Mr. Adams continues to work as an independent consultant within the financial services industry.

Bob Currie is Editorial Director and co-founder of Financial Services Research, a quarterly journal that reports on investment performance, risk and operational efficiency in the financial services industry. Prior to his current role as financial commentator, Bob worked for much of the 1990s as lecturer and researcher in the UK university sector, specialising in international political economy and development strategy for emerging markets.

He is author of published books in development economics and a Global Securities Operations workbook for the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment.

Bob graduated in BSc (Hons) Physics from Imperial College London and has Masters and Doctoral qualifications in International Political Economy.

Born in Algeria where he’s lived for ten years, moving to Abu Dhabi and then Paris, Sido earned a BS in Mathematics and a Master in Mechanical Engineering. He began his career as an IT consultant then worked as a trader for insurance company Coface. From there, Sido joined Swift for five years first as an instructor in training and later in Sales. He left Swift to join Caceis (former IXIS IS) in Paris where he gained extensive project manager and sales experience during five years. Since rejoining Swift in 2007, based in Dubai, Sido has been an account manager for the countries of the region. Sido has been appointed Regional Head for MENA since Jan 1st, 2008.