At ABANA’s January 18, 2017, annual meeting, the Association’s membership elected two new directors to its board and reelected four. The new directors join a 20-person body of finance professionals who serve three-year terms leading ABANA. Those elected and reelected:
- Elissar Boujaoudé, Head of Central Banks & Public Pension Funds, HSBC Securities USA
- Hani Habbas, Principal, Solajan Group
- Samaa Haridi, Partner, Hogan Lovells
- Lotfi Karoui, Managing Director, Goldman Sachs & Co.
- Omar Wohabe, Partner, Wohabe Law Offices LLP
- Abbas F. (Eddy) Zuaiter, Managing Member, Zuaiter Capital Holdings
ABANA Chair Mona Aboelnaga Kanaan, Director Faten Sabry, Board Secretary Samaa Haridi and President Susan Peters reported to the membership at the meeting, highlighting a year of accomplishment for the organization. In 2016, ABANA rebranded to reflect its global reach, adding new programming and membership options. 2016 was another strong year for ABANA in terms of programming: we hosted over 1,600 guests at programs ranging from the third annual ABANA Summit @ Bloomberg and the 2016 ABANA Award Dinner honoring BlackRock Chairman and CEO Laurence Fink to a new series of small roundtables for business leaders. This year also saw the launch of the ABANA Institutional Investors Roundtable launched by board member Mohamed El Beih.
Looking forward, Ms. Aboelnaga Kanaan announced some upcoming speaker and event highlights, and the news that longtime staff leader and ABANA President Susan Peters will be stepping from her position. Peters will continue to support ABANA as a Senior Advisor, and Ms. Aboelnaga Kanaan expressed ABANA’s optimism about its current search for the next ABANA executive director.