International Advisory Board

 Dr. Shuja Ali has spent the last decade managing Istithmar World, one of the government of Dubai’s private equity and real-estate fund. Following the restructuring at Istithmar World in 2009, Dr. Shuja Ali was appointed to the firm’s Executive Management Team. As Chief Investment Officer (CIO), he reported directly to the Board of Dubai World and was responsible for all aspects of managing the fund and the staff. Dr. Ali was in charge of exiting the entire portfolio in a managed process, including follow-on investments (~$900m between 2010-2015), and ultimately all divestments. This process was completed in October 2016, adding over $4bn in realized net cash value since 2009.

Richard Allison, a former VP at GE Capital Structured Finance Group, has been negotiator and underwriter in numerous large scale investment projects. He has B.A. and M.B.A. degrees from Maryland and Yale Universities.

Guy Fish, currently VP of Fletcher Spaght Ventures, was a consultant at BCG and an equity analyst at Sanford Bernstein. He sits on the Massachussets Board of Registration in Medicine and Board of Overseers of Deaconess Medical Center. He has MD and M.B.A. degrees from Harvard and Yale Universities.

Dr Ali Soliman has  a B.Sc. (Honors) in Economics from Cairo University, an M.A. in Development Economics from the American University in Cairo, and a Ph. D. in Economics from the University of Iowa, USA. He is currently Chairman of the UN- Association of International Civil Servants, an Egyptian NGO (2014-). He also taught economics at the British University in Egypt, Future University, Cairo University, and a number of other Universities in Egypt and the US. He is the former Chief Executive Officer of the Islamic Corporation for Development of the Private Sector, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, 2001- 2007.  (ICD is a multilateral finance organization  of 56 Islamic countries, established in 1999 with a capital of US $ 500 million). He also served as Undersecretary and Senior Undersecretary, Ministries of  Economy and International Cooperation, Egypt, 1992- 2001; and as Asst. General Manager of MIDB, an investment bank, Cairo, 1981-1988,  and was World Bank/UNDP Economic Advisor to the governments of the Maldives and Saudi Arabia. He served on the Board of Directors of banks and financial companies in Egypt, Sudan, UAE, and Yemen. Dr Soliman has published ten books and contributes widely in magazines and newspapers.

Fouzul Kabir Khan is the Chairman and CEO of Keystone Business Support Company Limited. Previously, he was the General Manager of IDCOL, an infrastructure finance company whose shareholders include tje World Bank. Dr. Khan has also taken important responsibilities including Deputy Minister at the Ministry of Power Energy and Mineral Resources and Professor at North South University. Besides, he has taught at the University of Massachussets and the National University of Singapore. His recent book, Project Finance, published by Prentice Hall, has become one of the basic books in its field. Fouzul holds a Ph.D. degree from Boston university.

Hakan Gunay is an executive with extensive international business experience in the fields of project financing and private equity. He worked on developing large infrastructure projects and closed numerous private equity deals in more than 20 countries in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Caucasus and Central Asia while he was based in Turkey, Belgium, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Dubai.He obtained his Bsc. degree in Management from the Middle East Technical University and his MBA degree from Cass Business School, City University as a British Council Chevening Scholar.