Haissam Arabi is the founder of Gulfmena. Haissam has more than 17 years experience in the financial arena of which the last 15, he spent specializing in equity investments in MENA markets. He guided the structuring of several regional mutual funds and specialized portfolios and he also incubated new trading strategies, some of which will form an integral component of Gulfmena’s investment  strategies. Prior to forming Gulfmena, Haissam worked with SHUAA Capital, a leading regional investment bank based in Dubai for 8½ years as Managing Director, having founded its asset management division. In his capacity as SHUAA Capital’s lead fund manager, he also ran the firm’s long-only equity funds, both conventional as well as Shari’ah compliant, until June 2008. During his tenure, Assets under Management grew from USD 18.0 million in 2001 to over USD 1.85 billion by June 2008. Haissam enjoys both a regional and an international media profile and makes frequent public appearances on TV, radio, conferences, periodicals and prime daily newspapers.

Marc Hambach is a co-founder of Gulfmena. Marc has extensive experience in regulatory, legal and operational affairs. His responsibilities include fund control and portfolio risk management, middle office, back office, finance, product structuring, HR, IT and legal and compliance oversight. Previously, Marc worked with Haissam Arabi at SHUAA Capital as COO of the asset management division. Prior to that, He served for 5 years as Associate Director Supervision & Head of AML at the DFSA, the financial services regulator in the DIFC which he joined in 2003 and where he assisted in setting up the regulator and the regulatory regime. Marc was responsible for the Prudential and Conduct of Business supervision of several large European, U.S. and regional institutions in the areas of asset management, fund administration, private banking, investment banking and Islamic finance. From 1999 to 2003 he worked for Clearstream International, the Luxembourg based clearing house in a number of executive positions. Marc started his career at a German law firm and subsequently engaged as a legal consultant focusing on IPOs. He holds a Masters Degree in Law from the Ruprecht-Karls-University, Heidelberg, Germany and is an INSEAD Alumni and a Certified Anti Money Laundering Specialist.

Walid Hage has over 7 years experience in asset management. Walid joined Gulfmena in August 2009 as Head of MENA Sales and Business Support. From June 2008 to August 2009, he worked as Relationship Manager in the capital markets department at SHUAA Capital, a leading regional investment bank where he was part of the regional sales team advising Institutional Investors and qualified High Net Worth Individuals on regional equities and fixed income.  Until June 2008, Walid worked with Haissam Arabi as Relationship Manager in the asset management department at SHUAA Capital, where he set up and supervised the business support department and helped set up the client services department. Prior to joining SHUAA Capital in May 2006, he worked as Relationship Officer in the Corporate Banking Group at United Arab Bank in Dubai. Walid is a qualified financial adviser and holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Banking and Finance from the Lebanese American University in Beirut. He is a CAIA designee and a member of the CAIA Association®.

Marwan Shurrab joins Gulfmena as Assistant Fund Manager and Chief Trader. Marwan has over 6 years experience in asset management focused on equities and derivatives primarily in the MENA markets. Prior to joining Gulfmena, he worked at SHUAA Capital as Chief Technical Analyst in the asset management division. Marwan was also Assistant Fund Manager working closely with Haissam Arabi on the Arab Momentum Fund, an internally incubated alternative investment strategy that focused predominantly on market liquidity and investor sentiment, momentum analysis and tactical strategies. He was also in charge of incorporating other alternative trading strategies which focused opportunistically on equity arbitrage, IPOs and convertibles. The incubator’s alternative trading strategies will form one of the investment components or overlay strategies for Gulfmena’s flagship fund. Prior to joining SHUAA Capital Marwan worked as Investment Strategist in the asset management department at Prime Group, an Egyptian based regional investment bank. He holds a Bachelor Degree of Arts with a Double Major in Economics and International Law from the American University in Cairo, and is a Market Technicians Association Affiliate since 2005.

Samer Darwiche joined Gulfmena in September 2009 as Financial Analyst. Prior to joining Gulfmena, Samer worked as Financial Analyst at GulfMerger, a leading Mergers and Acquisitions House in Kuwait where he supported and executed discrete tasks across the deal origination and execution process, as well as several business-building initiatives. Among the deals, he worked on a buy-side mandate for a regional fixed income brokerage firm. Samer also worked on a sell-side mandate for two Kuwaiti construction material companies and a sell-side mandate for a Kuwaiti consumer finance company. He graduated in June 2008 and holds a Bachelor of Business Administration with Distinction from the American University of Beirut.