Members are invited to vote in the ABANA Board of Directors election. Electronic ballots and voting instructions have been sent in separate emails to all members.
The current Board of Directors has nominated a slate of eight candidates for (re-)election by the membership, to fill eight open positions on the board; each (re-)elected director will serve a three-year term.
The voting deadline is February 10th, 2025, at 5:00 PM EST and the results will be announced at the Annual Meeting beginning at 5:30 pm on the same day. To register for the annual meeting, please click here.
*Per ABANA’s By-Laws, only members in good standing as of January 22, 2025, are eligible to vote. If you are a member and have not received the ballot email, please note that it is sent from invitations@mail.electionbuddy.com. Therefore, please make sure to check your inbox/junk mail folders for that email address or send us an email at events@abana.co for assistance.
Candidates and their bio’s are listed below:
- Marwan Elaraby, Partner, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, LLP
- Heather Ibrahim-Leathers, President, WISE Global Impact
- Nicolas Kahale, Partner, DeaconCapital Asset Management
- Carolyn Weimer
- Mohamed El Gazzar, Senior Partner, I Squared Capital
- Salim Samaha, Partner & Global Head of Energy, BlackRock
- Sherif Lotfi, Head of Corporate Finance Advisory & Solutions, Strategic Solutions Group, Investment & Corporate Banking, Mizuho Securities USA
- Laila Kassis, Partner, Bain & Company
Biographies:
Marwan Elaraby
Partner
Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, LLP
Marwan Elaraby is the partner in charge of the Dubai office where he is a member of the Mergers & Acquisitions and Capital Markets Practice Groups.
Marwan advises clients on M&A and private equity transactions, as well as governments on strategic and regulatory matters. He also advises both issuers and underwriters on equity and debt securities offerings.
Marwan represents sovereign-owned, corporate, and private equity clients including Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), ADQ, Investment Corporation of Dubai, EFG-Hermes, Marriott International, and Investcorp.
Marwan is ranked by Chambers Global as a leading individual for Corporate/M&A (Band 1) and Capital Markets: Equity in the UAE and as a leading individual in Egypt for Corporate/M&A, Capital Markets, and Projects & Energy. Chambers Global also ranks him in the Middle East-wide tables for both Corporate/M&A and Capital Markets. He is highly regarded by IFLR1000 for M&A and Private Equity.
Chambers Global states that Marwan is “a phenomenal lawyer,” someone who is “super-commercial, very sharp and reads situations well” and “widely respected for his capital markets skills, with particularly notable experience in the UAE and Egypt.” Clients note that Marwan is “flexible and able to adapt to market conditions that can change very quickly” and someone who can “come up with innovative solutions to resolve any issues that arise.
Marwan received his Juris Doctor from Columbia University School of Law and his Bachelor of Arts from the American University in Cairo, majoring in Economics. He is fluent in English, Arabic, and French.
He is admitted to practice in the State of New York.
Heather Ibrahim-Leathers
President
WISE Global Impact
Heather Ibrahim-Leathers is a financial engineer and expert in fixed-income structured products. A graduate of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, she enjoyed a distinguished career in alternative investments at JPMorgan and Credit Suisse before turning her focus to social impact. As President and Founder of the Global Fund for Widows, Ms. Ibrahim-Leathers has raised over $10 million to tackle widowhood, a key source of global poverty. Through her microbank financial inclusion innovation, she has directly economically empowered over 115,000 beneficiaries by establishing over 300 proprietary microbanks around the world.
In addition to her financial acumen, Ms. Ibrahim-Leathers is a passionate advocate for widows’ rights, regularly speaking at the UN Security Council, US Congress, and the House of Lords. Her strategic advocacy led to the adoption of the world’s first UN General Assembly resolution AR 76/252, calling for global social protections for widows.
Recognized for her groundbreaking work in financial inclusion and women’s rights, Ms. Ibrahim-Leathers has earned multiple accolades, including a nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize 2021, Reputation Poll’s 100 Most Reputable Africans 2025, Crain’s 2023 Notable Nonprofit Leaders, and the Business Council for Peace Women Forward – Financial Catalyst Award.
Nicolas Kahale
Partner
DeaconCapital Asset Management
Nicolas J. Kahale is a senior asset management business development professional with total funds raised in excess of $15bn from SWFs, central banks, pension funds, supranationals, official organizations, and financial institutions in the Middle East, Africa, Europe, and Central Asia.
Mr. Kahale worked for the asset management divisions of Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Salomon Brothers, and Babson-Barings. He is currently a partner with DeaconCapital Asset Management.
He is a current member of the Columbia Business School’s UK Alumni Board. He also served as President of the AUB North American Alumni Board and as Trustee for the NY International House’s UK charity.
Mr. Kahale has organized clients’ seminars and customized training programs and has served as a speaker at many conferences and events. He previously taught at Columbia Business School and Baruch College. He is multilingual in English, Arabic, and French.
Carolyn Weimer
Carolyn Weimer spent more than 24 years at Carlyle most recently as a Partner and Global Head of Investor Relations at AlpInvest, Carlyle’s $80+ billion Global Investment Solutions business. In that role, she oversaw a team of 26 people based in New York, Amsterdam, Hong Kong, and Tokyo focused on servicing world-class institutional investors and raising new capital for AlpInvest strategies. Prior to that role, she served Carlyle in several key roles in relationship management, new product development, and fund formation.
Prior to joining Carlyle, Ms. Weimer was a Client Service Analyst at Wellington Management Company, LLP in Boston. As a member of Wellington’s Public Funds Group, she served as a liaison between the firm and some of its largest clients.
Ms. Weimer received an AB, in biology and comparative area studies from Duke University. She currently holds Series 63, 82, and 24 licenses.
Mohamed El Gazzar
Senior Partner
I Squared Capital
Mohamed El Gazzar is a Senior Partner of I Squared Capital, responsible for the infrastructure strategy in Europe. Mohamed is part of ISQ’s Executive Committee, Investment Committee and Operating Committee, where he heads the Human Resources subcommittee. He sits on numerous boards and DATs including but not limited to Conrad Energy, nLighten, Cube Cold Europe and Aggreko.
Since joining I Squared Capital, Mohamed has led the acquisition and development of portfolio companies encompassing power and utilities, energy, transport and logistics, digital infrastructure, environmental infrastructure and social infrastructure.
Some of the power and utilities investments that Mohamed has led include Energia Group in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland; T-Solar, a solar PV portfolio with operations predominantly in Spain which was sold in 2020; and Conrad Energy, a UK independent power producer providing highly flexible generation; Aggreko, a leading global provider of mobile modular power, temperature control and energy services. In the transport and logistics space he led the 2018 acquisition of TIP Trailer Services, the largest pan-European trailer and truck lessor with presence across 17 countries in Europe and Canada; Cube Cold Europe, a pan-European cold storage platform focusing on acquiring and developing small to medium sized cold storage facilities across strategic areas such as ports and logistics hubs; and Arriva, a bus and rail operator. In 2019, Mohamed was involved in the acquisition of Domidep, I Squared Capital’s first investment in the social infrastructure space and one of the largest elderly residential care providers in France. In the digital infrastructure space, Mohamed led the acquisition of EXA, a leading pure-play operator of critical telecom infrastructure networks, which was completed in 2021. More recently, Mohamed led the acquisition of Applus, a global leader in the testing, inspection, and certification (TIC) sector.
Before joining I Squared Capital, Mohamed spent 12 years at Morgan Stanley, most recently as an Executive Director of Morgan Stanley Infrastructure (MSI), a global platform for infrastructure investments at Morgan Stanley Investments Management.
Mohamed holds an L.L.B. with Honors from Warwick University in the United Kingdom.
Salim Samaha
Partner & Global Head of Energy
BlackRock
Salim Samaha is a Partner at Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), which was acquired by BlackRock in October 2024.
Mr. Samaha is GIP’s Global Head of Energy and a member of GIP’s Investment and Operating Committees. Mr. Samaha is based in New York and is responsible for overseeing GIP’s power/renewables, midstream/LNG, and new energies investment activities globally.
Prior to joining GIP, Mr. Samaha was a senior banker in the Global Energy Group of Credit Suisse’s Investment Banking Division and an investment banker at Lehman Brothers in its Global Power and Project Finance Group.
Mr. Samaha serves as a Board Director of Eolian, Rio Grande LNG and Columbia Pipeline.
Mr. Samaha received a B.Com. degree in finance and accounting from McGill University in Montreal, Canada, and is a guest lecturer and member of McGill University’s Desautels Faculty of Management Expert Panel.
Sherif Lotfi
Head of Corporate Finance Advisory & Solutions
Strategic Solutions Group
Investment & Corporate Banking, Mizuho Securities USA
At Mizuho, Sherif works closely with both Private Equity/ Asset Managers and Corporate Clients, structuring unique transactions to solve complex financing problems. As well as advising on corporate finance policy, risk management, and strategy.
From 2006-2015, Sherif was a Managing Director and the Head of Corporate Advisory Americas, for the Royal Bank of Scotland where he concentrated on corporate finance policy, risk management, and strategy for large US corporations similar to his current role at Mizuho.
Prior to joining RBS, Sherif was at Ernst & Young, LLP for 11 years (partner 1998-2006). He worked with multinationals to analyze international organizations, structure domestic and cross-border funding strategies yielding major cost savings and improved returns.
Prior to Joining EY, Sherif taught finance at Columbia University and served on the Staff of the Council of Economic Advisors in the Executive Office of the President under Presidents Bush (41) and Clinton.
Sherif holds graduate degrees in Economics from Columbia University, a Master of Public Policy from Harvard University and a Bachelor of Science from Tufts University.
Laila Kassis
Partner
Bain & Company
Laila Kassis is an expert in the firm’s Private Equity, Technology and Healthcare practices and works at the intersection of these areas.
Since joining Bain in 2011, Laila has honed robust cross-industry expertise, specializing in commercial and operational due diligence for private equity clients, as well as portfolio company value creation for technology and healthcare clients.
Her sector specializations include vertical and horizontal software, healthcare IT, revenue cycle management, healthcare payer, and specialty benefit management.
Within the private equity sphere, Laila’s additional capabilities include sector screening and review, blueprint and value creation planning, commercial excellence, and M&A strategy.
Prior to joining the firm, Laila held positions at Spectrum Equity Investors, Key Venture Partners, and Bear, Stearns & Co. Inc.
She holds an MBA and an MPA from Harvard University, from which she graduated with high distinction as a Baker Scholar and was the recipient of both the Rubenstein and George Fellowships. She also holds bachelor’s degrees in economics and foreign affairs with Distinction from the University of Virginia, where she was an Echols Scholar and a Fulbright Scholar.