Executive Officers

Asar Mashkoor, 48
Chief Executive Officer and Chairman and Director Nominee

Asar Mashkoor has recently joined FIM in April 2021 as Managing Director of Private Investments, primarily to lead the firms SPAC initiative. Asar brings with him 23 years of global investment banking and business development experience. From 2014 to March 2021, he was with Emirates NBD Capital in the UAE as Head of Corporate Finance. Prior thereto, he was with QInvest in Qatar as Head of Investment Banking actively covering the Middle East, North Africa and Turkey and has built deep and extensive relationships with corporates and investors. Asar has led some of the marquee transactions in the region and is highly experienced in mergers & acquisitions, IPOs, capital markets and corporate finance. He also served on the board of Panmure Gordon plc, a listed UK broker-dealer regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Prior to moving to the UAE, Asar worked at Merrill Lynch in London for 7 years and with HSBC in London and Tokyo for 3 years. He holds a B.Eng in Information Systems Engineering from Imperial College London and is a UK qualified Chartered Accountant from the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales.

Arif Mansuri, 51
Chief Financial Officer

Arif Mansuri has over 25 years of global experience in global markets and banking having worked in global institutions such as Bank of America Merrill Lynch, UBS, Wells Fargo and Citibank in London, Hong Kong and Mumbai. Since July 2020, he has been Chief Operating Officer of FIM where he is responsible for operations, finance, strategic business development and product development. From September 2014 to July 2016, he was with Wells Fargo Securities. During his 15 years at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, he was instrumental in setting up a number of industry leading alternative funds businesses and was also Chairman of board of directors of Merrill Lynch Investment Solutions (MLIS) and Torrus Funds platforms. MLIS went on to win a number of industry leading awards including HFR Best UCITS Platform award in 2011,2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 and grew into a multi-billion dollar AUM business. Arif has an extensive business network across EMEA, Asia Pacific and India. He holds a Master’s Degree in Finance degree from London Business School.

Hedi Ben Mlouka, 42
Investment Principal

Hedi Ben Mlouka is the founder and CIO of FIM since 2008 which has an unmatched track record of delivering returns over the last 12 years that are several multiples of those of the underlying EM and Frontier Markets. He is a board member of Fawry, the first fintech unicorn in the MENA region with an IPO exit – an investment which yielded a 57% IRR as at 31 March 2021 and 10.2x cash on cash return for FIM’s funds. Hedi also led investments in Kaspi (88% return), a super app in Kazakhstan offering digital banking, payments and e-commerce services to almost half of the country’s population, Systems Ltd. (128% IRR), a market-leading IT services and payments company in Pakistan and regional healthcare and education providers such as Mouwasat (24.5% IRR) which eventually become market leaders as well as cornerstone and anchor investments in many emerging markets IPOs where FIM played a critical role in bringing successful businesses from private to public markets. During his tenure at Merrill Lynch, he played a key role in the development of capital markets in many emerging and high growth markets and notably the MENA region. He has been entrusted with the management of significant regional mandates from first tier global institutional investors including US university endowments and some of the largest SWFs globally. Hedi has a Master’s Degree in Finance and Economics from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Suveer Arenja, 36
Investment Principal

Suveer Arenja is Director – Private Equity Investments at FIM since August 2019 where he developed a strong network covering the Middle East and North Africa markets. He led the pre-IPO investment in Taaleem, Egypt’s largest higher education platform, which listed on the Egyptian Stock Exchange (EGX) in April 2021 yielding a return of 153% IRR for the fund and has been instrumental in FIM’s exit of Fawry, the MENA region’s first fintech unicorn, through an IPO on the EGX , yielding a return of 57% IRR for the fund. Prior to FIM from September 2016 to July 2019, Suveer specialized in the education sector in MENA and SEA as Director – Investments & Strategy at Al Najah Education. There he was responsible for M&A and management of a portfolio of 10 K-12 schools and 35 nurseries across the GCC, Singapore and Malaysia. Before Al Najah, Suveer was at L Capital, the investment arm of LVMH, where he worked on several landmark transactions in the consumer sector across India and Middle East, developing a strong network of advisors and companies across both geographies. He played a key role in the fund’s first PIPE transaction in PVR Ltd., India’s largest cinema chain, whose market capitalization catapulted to over $1bn, yielding a 3.5x cash on cash return for the fund. Suveer also led the fund’s expansion into the Middle East by sourcing and leading the investment in iconic luxury dates and café brand, Bateel.

Anvita Varshney, 39
Investment Principal

Anvita Varshney, an investment principal since the date of this prospectus, having recently started working with FIM, has worked across 4 continents, and brings rich international experience in entrepreneurship and in investments, having had her start at technology giant Google, having helped build two technology unicorns: Lazada, OLX, and having managed investments for Naspers, Dubai Angel Investors from February 2016 to the present, and AV Capital Partners since September 2020. She has strong business relationships with the founders and VC ecosystem in MENA, South East Asia, and India and co-founded Dubai Angel Investors and AV Capital Partners seeking to invest in disruptive technology startups in the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and India with combined 50+ tech investments to date. She is also an advisor to the board of a multi-family office, Taurus Wealth with offices in Dubai, Singapore, and Switzerland. Anvita was from 2015 to 2017 the COO of Naspers Group (renamed Prosus) managing their online classifieds companies (Dubizzle, OLX) for 18 countries in the Middle East and Africa, along with tech investments for Naspers. These classified businesses were later valued at ~$1bn+. She has also served as the Regional Managing Director of Rocket Internet from 2012 to 2015 where she became the Regional Managing Director of the biggest e-commerce company, Lazada in Southeast Asia which got later acquired by Alibaba after 4 years from launch, with the last valuation at $3.17bn in 2017. Anvita has also worked with Google, Motorola, and Cadence in Silicon Valley. She was named as 45 most Powerful Profiles by Linkedin in the Middle East and given the “Incredible Women” award in MEA. She is an active speaker and also serves as the jury/advisor at various forums such as Techstars, Yournest VC, IvyCapventures VC, Finovate, Equity Room, and Cryptolabs. Anvita completed an MBA from INSEAD, France, and a Computer Engineering degree from India.

Mohamed Khalifa, 35
Investment Principal

Mohamed Khalifa, an investment principal since the date of this prospectus, is Managing Director, EFG Hermes Private Equity where he is responsible for analyzing, evaluating and leading the firm’s private equity investments. Mohamed is a board member of EFGEMS Education Limited and an investment committee member of the Egypt Education fund, a $150m established in partnership with GEMS Education. The fund manages 6 K-12 schools with total capacity of 10k students in Egypt. Since joining EFG Hermes in 2010, Mohamed has co-led the development of the EUR 1.3bn Vortex renewable energy platform and the sale of the Vortex wind energy platform (457 MW) to JP Morgan Asset Management in December 2018, recording a EUR 110m gain and 13% IRR on the investment. Before Vortex, Mohamed co-led the US$ 445m joint buyout of listed jewelry retailer “Damas” in 2012, oversaw its turnaround and completed its exit in 2014 yielding a 40% IRR and cash-on-cash return of 2.1x. Prior to EFG Hermes, Mohamed spent 3 years in investment banking at HC Securities and Investments. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from Cairo University.

Board of Directors

Iyad Malas, 56
Director Nominee

Iyad Malas, a director since the date of this prospectus, is a seasoned executive with over 30 years of experience in various senior roles, spanning many countries and industries, including real estate, retail, leisure and entertainment, financial services, Industrial businesses and investments. Since August 2020, he has been the Chief Executive Officer of Al Ghurair Group, one of the largest family conglomerates in the UAE focused with businesses spanning manufacturing,  real estate and banking. From May 2015 to May 2020, Iyad was a partner at Gateway Partners, a PE Fund focused on investing  in East Asia, South Asia, Middle East and Africa.  From April 2009 to May 2015, he was CEO of Majid Al Futtaim Group, one of the largest family conglomerates in the Middle East operating extensive businesses in real estate, hospitality, retail and leisure & entertainment in 15 international markets including the iconic Mall of the Emirates and the Carrefour franchise.  Mr. Malas is an advisor to a number of family offices and is an investment committee member for a number of PE and VC funds focused on the Middle East Region.  He has served on many boards and is currently a board member of 3 listed companies, Mashreq Bank and National Cement Company in the UAE and BinDawood Holding in Saudi Arabia. Iyad also held various roles over the 15 years he worked at the International Finance Corporation (affiliate of the World Bank). He lived in Lebanon, USA, India, Egypt and the UAE. He is a CFA charter holder and holds an MBA from The George Washington University School of Business.

Julie Abraham, 48
Director Nominee

Julie Abraham, a director since the date of this prospectus, is the Chief Legal and Compliance Officer for FIM where she has been since June 2011. She is credited with maintaining an overlay of industry best practice standards across FIM’s operations, which led to FIM adopting an SRI initiative and becoming a signatory of the UNPRI. Julie is a member of FIM’s board of directors and is an authorized person with the Dubai Financial Services Authority. She has considerable experience managing internal control audits and routine operational due diligence processes of major institutional investors, and interfaces with regulatory bodies globally. Prior to joining FIM, Julie’s work included a broad legal practice in corporate, M&A and VC financing with Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP, before turning her focus to the asset management space with Maples and Calder. Julie was admitted to the practice of law in 2001 and has a joint civil law/common law degree (LL.L-LL.B) as well as a B.Com from the University of Ottawa.

Richard Berman, 78
Director Nominee

Richard Berman, a director since the date of this prospectus, has a career spanning over 35 years of venture capital and merger & acquisitions experience. In the past 5 years, he has served as a director and/or officer of over a dozen companies and is currently a director of five US public companies- since June 2015 at Cryoport Inc. (cryogenics); since June 2019 at Comsovereign Holding Corp. (defense); BioVie Inc. (Biotech); since October 2005 at Advaxis Inc (biotech) and since September 2019 at Cuentas, Inc. (fintech). Over the last decade he has served on the board of 5 companies that have reached over one billion in market capitalization – Cryoport, Advaxis, EXIDE, Internet Commerce Corporation, and since 2015 at Ontrak (Catasys). Previously, Richard worked at Goldman Sachs; was Senior Vice President of Bankers Trust Company, where he started the M&A and Leveraged Buyout Departments. He was a Director of the Stern School of Business of NYU where he obtained his B.S. and M.B.A. degrees. He also has U.S. and foreign law degrees from Boston College and the Hague Academy of International Law, respectively and is based in the U.S.

Gavin Teo, 38
Director Nominee

Gavin Teo, a director since the date of this prospectus, has been a General Partner at Altara Ventures since September 2020, where he focuses on early-stage investments in Southeast Asia technology. From May 2016 to April 2020, he served as General Partner at B Capital Group, a global venture growth fund where he led the firm’s investment committee and managed investments in digital health and consumer internet. Earlier in his career, from February 2012 to May 2016, Gavin was an investor at Comcast Ventures, and earlier a product manager at Zynga and a management consultant at Bain & Company. Gavin currently serves on boards of numerous technology companies including Sampingan, a blue-collar job platform in Indonesia and Galen Growth, a global healthcare technology incubator. He previously served on the boards of Atomwise, AImotive, Bright.md, Fishbrain and SilverCloud Health. Gavin earned his M.B.A. from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where he graduated as a Palmer Scholar, and holds a B.A. in Economics from Claremont McKenna College.