The recent establishment of the Bank of London and The Middle East (BLME) in the UK has seen a slew of hires, with eight new directors and an entire Shariah board.
BLME’s new board now comprises eight directors, of which five are non-executives. Its directors have a mix of conventional and Islamic banking and finance experience from careers that have encompassed wholesale and investment banking in the UK and the Middle East.
Yacob Al-Muzaini has been elected as non-executive director and chairman of the Board of BLME. He is also the chairman and managing director of Boubyan Bank. He has more than 20 years of leadership experience in private and public sector financial institutions.
Humphrey Percy is now the executive director and CEO of BLME, bringing with him more than 30 years of banking experience focusing on treasury, foreign exchange and global markets at Barclays Merchant Bank from 1980 to 1986, Barclays de Zoete Wedd (BZW) and Barclays plc from 1986 to 1994 as global head of foreign exchange, West LB from 1995 to 2002, and ICAP from 2004 to 2005.
Mr Percy has held various roles as CEO, managing director, general manager and head of global financial markets. He is experienced in building new businesses and has managed start ups within BZW, West LB and ICAP as well as founding his own company, SGM-FX Ltd in 2002.
Richard Williams is now BLME’s new finance director and executive director. He qualified as a chartered accountant with KPMG in 1980. His early career in investment banking was with Chase Manhattan, Credit Agricole S.A. and Bankers Trust. He spent 10 years at Robert Fleming & Co, initially as the first group risk manager and then set up the global equities derivatives business which took him to a brief spell in Tokyo and three years in Hong Kong at Jardine Fleming.
Mr Williams has experience in venture capital, having worked at Legal & General Ventures and has been involved in a number of start up companies.
Nigel Denison has been elected as the bank’s executive director and head of markets. He has held a number of senior posts with Barclays Bank Group and WestLB over the past 25 years. He has extensive experience of the European and US markets, and more recently has focused on the Islamic market. His roles have included a number of client facing positions in sales, relationship management and treasury together with wide exposure to trading.
Fuad Saleh Al-Shehab is now the non-executive director of BLME and general manager of the investment group at Boubyan Bank. He has more than 25 years experience in investment banking encompassing fixed income, equities, real estate and direct investments, having previously worked as managing director of Global Securities House Ltd., one of Kuwait’s leading investment groups.
Waleed Khalid Al-Omar is also a non-executive director of BLME and an executive manager of direct investments at Boubyan Bank where he leads origination activities, drives investment research and valuations, negotiations and due diligence activities, and monitors investments through to exit.
Mr Omar has more than 17 years experience in business development, finance, operations and integration of technology into customer business models.
Frank Vermeulen is BLME’s new non-executive director. He has worked in the banking and financial markets industry for over 35 years, spanning the Netherlands, Canada and the UK and has extensive experience of working in the Middle East. He has retained strong connections in the Middle East and is a Board member, committee chairman or advisor to a number of Saudi Arabian financial institutions.
Lastly, Neil Holden is the non-executive risk director of BLME. He has more than 20 years experience in financial institutions in various senior risk management roles. Apart from BLME, he holds non-executive directorships at Quadrant Risk Management International Limited, and Stanbic International Insurance Limited.
BLME’s Shariah board comprises Sheikh Professor Abdulaziz Khalifa Al-Qassar, Sheikh Dr Esam Khalaf Al-Enezi, Sheikh Dr Mohammed Daud Bakar and Sheikh Dr Muhammad Imran Ashraf Usmani.