ABANA is pleased to announce the election of four new directors to its Board of Directors, following elections concluded at the 2022 Annual Meeting of Members on January 21. The new directors are: Marwan Elaraby, Partner, Shearman & Sterling; Heather Ibrahim-Leathers, Founder, Global Fund for Widows; Nicolas J. Kahale, Partner, DeaconCapital Asset Management; and Carolyn S. Weimer, Managing Director – Partner, The Carlyle Group.
ABANA re-elected the following directors to its board for an additional three-year term: Joud Abdel Majeid, Deputy CFO, BlackRock; Marwan Azzi, Partner, Gibson Dunn; and Thana Al-Mufarrej, Director, Wafra Inc.
Four board members concluded a second three-year term on the board: Wael Bayazid (ABANA Vice-Chair), Mohamed El Beih, Hani Beyhum (ABANA Treasurer), and Mahmoud Salem (ABANA Vice-Chair).
Following the annual meeting, Amr Nosseir, ABANA Chair for the past year, was chosen to stay on as Chair for the next year.
Newly-elected directors:
Marwan Elaraby, Partner, Shearman & Sterling
- Marwan Elaraby is a partner in the Capital Markets and Mergers & Acquisitions practices. He currently serves as Head of the Dubai Office and Global Head of Corporate. Marwan advises clients on M&A, private equity and project development transactions, as well as governments on strategic and regulatory matters. He also advises both issuers and underwriters on initial public offerings and bond offerings. Marwan represents sovereign-owned, corporate and private equity clients including Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), EFG-Hermes, Investcorp, NEOM Company, Ripplewood Advisors, ASMA Capital and Qalaa Holdings.
Heather Ibrahim-Leathers, Founder, Global Fund for Widows
- Ms. Ibrahim-Leathers founded Global Fund for Widows following the passing of her grandmother in 2009. Since then, the Global Fund for Widows has raised over $1,000,000 for economic empowerment programs in Egypt, India, Tanzania, Nigeria, Bolivia, and the Dominican Republic. With its focus on training and financing widows and female heads of households into building sustainable and inelastic micro-enterprises, the Global Fund for Widows has enabled more than 10,000 widows to become economically empowered and self-sustained.
Nicolas J. 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.
Carolyn S. Weimer, Managing Director – Partner, The Carlyle Group
- Carolyn Weimer is a Managing Director – Partner and Head of Investor Relations for Global Investment Solutions. In this role, she leads the AlpInvest Investor Relations team which comprises 17 professionals across New York, Amsterdam, Hong Kong and Tokyo. Since joining Carlyle 21 years ago, Carolyn has held various roles helping to build the Investor Relations Group. Along the way she has played key roles in relationship management, new product development and fund formation. She is based in Washington, DC.
Re-elected directors:
Joud Abdel Majeid, Deputy CFO, BlackRock
- Joud Abdel Majeid is the Deputy Chief Financial Officer at BlackRock. Previously, she was Managing Director, Chief of Staff to the Chairman and CEO, and Chief Operating Officer of BlackRock Solutions. Prior to joining Blackrock, Ms. Abdel Majeid was Senior Vice President, and Head of Strategy and Corporate Development at E*TRADE Financial. Prior to E*TRADE, Ms. Abdel Majeid was a management consultant at Booz & Company where she advised retail and commercial financial institutions on key strategic, performance improvement, and organizational decisions.
Marwan Azzi, Partner, Gibson Dunn
- Marwan Azzi is a partner in the New York office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher and a member of the firm’s Private Equity Practice Group. Mr. Azzi’s practice focuses on representing private equity houses, infrastructure funds, and strategic clients on private, domestic, and cross-border acquisitions, disposals, joint ventures, and co-investments. He has extensive experience in the infrastructure sector in the U.S. and Latin America and in cross-border M&A across Latin America. Prior to joining Gibson Dunn, Mr. Azzi was a partner at White & Case LLP.
Thana Al-Mufarrej, Director, Wafra Inc.
- Thana Al-Mufarrej is a Director at Wafra, responsible for capital raising and establishing and developing partner relationships. Ms. Al-Mufarrej joined Wafra in 2005, where she participated in the firm’s sponsored investment management training program. Prior to joining Wafra, she worked at Fidelity Investments Brokerage Company as a Financial Analyst and at Teradyne as a Process Engineer.