The role of the Chief Financial Officer is often perceived as a cookie-cutter position focused primarily on cash flow management. Yet this could not be further from the truth.
The most effective CFOs prioritise long-term strategy, positioning their organisations to sustain alpha while navigating emerging risks that could disrupt performance across quarters and markets.
Methodology
Recognising this complexity requires a rigorous assessment framework that balances both qualitative and quantitative factors.
Finance Middle East has identified the top 30 CFOs across the GCC using four key criteria: financial performance, long-term strategy, mergers and acquisitions, and finally leadership efficacy.
Together this list showcases the region’s most influential finance leaders operating across sectors setting the benchmark for CFO excellence in the GCC. All research was carried out prior to the change in leadership at DP World.
Jump to Your CFO:
Huda Abdulla, CFO of Emirates Islamic
Abdulla is the CFO of Emirates Islamic, the Islamic banking arm of the Emirates NBD Group. With over 25 years at the Emirates NBD Group, Huda has built a distinguished career marked by progressive leadership roles.
She began as a Personal Services Officer at Emirates Bank, managing HR services, before transitioning into finance and assuming various senior finance roles within Emirates NBD Finance.
In 2013, Huda joined Emirates Islamic as Vice President – Business Performance, where she played a pivotal role in developing performance management tools and delivering critical financial and operational insights to the CEO and Board. Appointed CFO in 2019, she now drives policy, strategy, and value creation initiatives.
Adil Abdullah Al-Fahim, CFO of Dubai Airports
Adil Abdullah Al Fahim is responsible for leading the organisation’s financial and supply management strategies, while also overseeing enterprise assurance, risk, compliance, and legal functions. He joined Dubai Airports in 2008 as Vice President of Finance, shortly after the entity’s formation, with a mandate to establish and develop its first finance function.
Under his leadership, a robust and high-performing finance department was built to support the company’s ambition of becoming the world’s leading international airport.
In 2014, Al-Fahim was promoted to Senior Vice President, Corporate Services, expanding his remit to include procurement and legal functions. Today, Dubai Airports’ supply management operation is recognised as one of the most advanced procurement teams in the Middle East.
Prior to joining Dubai Airports, Al-Fahim held several senior roles within the Dubai Government and currently serves on multiple boards. He is highly respected for Dubai Airport’s recent investment by the UK Government, totalling GBP £3.5B, late last year as the CFO looks to the new Dubai airport: Al-Maktoum International (DWC).
Khalid Fahed Al-Mayouf, CFO of Kuwait Telecommunications Company stc
Al-Mayouf has sustained stc’s financial growth in 2025. The first six months of 2025 saw the Kuwaiti telecommunications firm boast a revenue of KD174.6M (5% YoY gain, 2025) while net profit totalled KD17.3M (2.7% YoY gain, 2025).
Al-Mayouf previously worked in government and international corporations where he led a series of high-level acquisition opportunities in addition to leading the strategic vision as CFO at Sehati for Information Technology in KSA (2021-2024).
Earlier in his career, he led the strategic restructuring of the Bahri Group, implementing new processes, centralising the group financial reporting, whilst ensuring alignment between the parent company and subsidiaries.
Karim Bennis, Group CFO of e&
Bennis has delivered impressive management, strategic planning, and governance at e&. In 2024, Bennis consolidated revenues AED59.2B (10.1% gain YoY) whilst consolidating net profit of AED 10.8B (4.3% gain YoY). This momentum continued into the first nine months of 2025 with consolidated net profit of AED11.8B (39.7% gain YoY).
He has built on strong financials using long-term strategy to translate e&’s priorities into clear capital allocation and performance discipline across the portfolio (telco and non-telco). This has allowed e& to complete the firm’s acquisition in the service and infrastructure companies of PPF Telecom across Bulgaria, Hungary, Serbia, and Slovakia with the holding company named ‘e& PPF Telecom.’
This transaction expanded e&’s exposure to Serbian market, leading to the acquisition of Serbia’s SBB for €825M, whilst also consolidating e&’s position in South Asia: specifically, Pakistan. Under his leadership, e& has become the largest stakeholder of the Vodafone Group (16.6%). On governance, Bennis has made considerable capital gains in AUM: e& sold its 40% stake in Khazna Datacentres at a value of $2.2B (2025), producing a capital gain of $1.4B.
Together Karim Bennis’ achievements have strengthened its short term financial commitments whilst consolidating e&’s market position in the (non-)telco market across Europe, the GCC, and South Asia.
Ziad Chalhoub, CFO of Majid Al-Futtaim Holding
Chalhoub is the Chief Financial Officer of Majid Al-Futtaim Holding.
Since his appointment, he has focussed on building the diverse portfolio across the 29 malls, seven hotels, and five mixed-use communities serving over 600 million customers annually. In 2024, the group recorded assets of $18.7B and reported revenues of $9.2B. Last year, the firm has focussed on its 30 new stores across its luxury retail portfolio in the UAE and KSA: this sector touches on brands such as Eleventy, Corneliani, and Poltrona Frau.
Beyond growing the diverse portfolio, Chalhoub plays a central role in shaping the Group’s sustainability agenda, integrating environmental, social, and governance (ESG) principles into business operations and driving initiatives that promote responsible, long-term growth.
Before joining Majid Al Futtaim, Chalhoub spent 20 years at IBM, including 14 years in finance leadership roles in New York.
Rizwan Chowdhury, CFO of Arton Capital
Chowdhury has consistently delivered strong financial performance at Arton Capital.
He has materially improved profitability, maintaining highly accurate and compliant financial reporting, whilst optimising the firm’s cash flow to reduce any dependency on external debt. Arton Capital has increased EBITDA margins by 8-12 percentage points through disciplined cost optimisiation and revenue mix improvement, while strengthening operating cash flow by 15-20%. Mr Chowdhury was responsible for optimising the capital structure by accelerating accounts receivable collections, reducing DSO by 15 to 20 days.
Chowdhury’s contribution to the firm’s long-term strategy and growth is also strong. He has partnered with the CEO and Board to translate strategic objectives into scalable plans, by aligning capital allocation with return thresholds and cash-generation capacity.
Scaling-up through M&As has led the firm with high-value transactions that have strengthened the market position, optimised capital allocation, and enhanced shareholder value at Arton Capital. For instance, Chowdhury has led the acquisition of a tech platform in Europe, called Sheppa, expanding Arton Capital’s capacity to develop solutes on sales management and the Enterprise Tech infrastructure.
Costs were therefore reduced by up to 25%, ensuring sustainable growth while preserving balance sheet strength. The firm has also executed partnerships with leading firms, namely Sotheby’s, VIP Global, and Techcom Bank.
As a leader and mentor, Chowdhury has achieved zero voluntary turnover across his teams, maintaining employee engagement scores above 95%. A culture of trust, mentorship, and professional growth is crucial for Mr Chowdhury.
Faisal Falaknaz, Group CFO of Aldar Properties
Falaknaz became Aldar Properties’ CFO in 2023.
As part of his role, he is responsible for a broad remit that includes the firm’s finance, investor relations, and sustainability verticals. He also sits across the group’s various executive management committees and boards. In 2015, Aldar delivered a 30% net profit growth raising AED 6B driven by a strong performance across all platforms.
International buyers made up 77% of total sales last year, whilst the firm developed sales of AED 28.5B in the first nine months of the year. During his career, Falaknaz has worked at several senior roles across UAE sovereign wealth funds namely Mubadala Investment Company, and Emaar Properties.
Aldar Properties aims to focus on scaling development and investment platforms in 2026.
Lama Ahmed Ghazzaoui, CFO of Saudi Awwal Bank
Ghazzaoui is widely respected and has sustained SAB’s success in recent years.
Ghazzaoui has built on SAB’s financial growth, achieving a net profit of SAR 8.07B (2024) reflecting an uptick of 15% YoY. SAB has also expanded its digital capabilities, expanding its share of the digital payments market to 17.3%.
The bank launched a SAB 360: an AI powered platform streamlining onboarding processes via an enhanced KYC platform, reducing processing time by 40%. Ghazzaoui was appointed Chief Financial Officer in March 2021. She is widely respected in the industry and has considerable experience in all aspects of accounting and finance for financial institutions.
Hesham Heikal, Group CFO of Emaar Properties
Heikal has led Emaar Properties to a strong financial performance based on portfolio strategy, quality, and sustainability. Heikel has built on Emaar’s 2024 growth with a 22% YoY uptick in property sales (2025). Revenue has increased by 49% YoY as of September 2025. Heikel leads an impressive land bank portfolio with up to 660M sq ft. mixed use development opportunities.
This land portfolio supports Emaar’s future growth whilst its strong credit rating (BBB+, S&P) and ESG agenda (A, MSCI) positions the Emirati real estate firm as a master of long-term value creation, high quality, and on par with consumer trends.
The firm’s portfolio is also expanding beyond property with malls, hospitality, leisure, and commercial leasing opening a sustained cash flow overseas: this segment accounts for 35% of Emaar’s total EBITDA for 9M (2025).
Maged Ibrahim, CFO of Salik Company
Ibrahim has served as Chief Financial Officer of Salik since 2022, leading the Company’s financial strategy, capital structure optimization, and capital markets positioning during a transformative period of growth.
He played a central role in Salik’s landmark IPO on the Dubai Financial Market, raising USD 1 billion in a transaction oversubscribed 49 times: one of the region’s most successful listings. Since then, he has strengthened financial governance, enhanced balance sheet resilience, and driven disciplined capital allocation.
Under his leadership, Salik delivered outstanding FY2025 results, with revenue rising 35.1% year-on-year to AED 3,096.9 million and net profit after tax increasing 33.4%, supported by variable pricing implementation, full-year contribution from new toll gates, traffic growth, and optimized concession economics.
Ibrahim’s prudent leverage strategy, strong free cash flow generation, and commitment to transparency directly strengthened Salik’s credit profile. In 2025, Moody’s Ratings reaffirmed Salik’s A3 rating with a stable outlook, while Fitch Ratings upgraded the Company to ‘A’ (from A-) with a stable outlook, reflecting confidence in the Company’s financial resilience and governance under his stewardship.
Beyond financial performance, he elevated Salik’s capital markets standing, positioning the Company as the leading corporate for Investor Relations in Dubai and among the most honored companies in Emerging EMEA.
Prior to joining Salik, Ibrahim served as Financial Expert (Advisor) at the Roads & Transport Authority in Dubai from 2010 to 2022, advising on infrastructure funding strategies and public sector financial optimization.
Ibrahim attributes Salik’s achievements to disciplined execution, strong governance, and the collective dedication of its leadership and teams—driving sustainable growth and long-term value creation.
Shehzad Janab, CFO of Binghatti Holding
Janab has led the Binghatti Holding, one of the UAE’s rising stars in the real estate market, since 2023. He has overseen the firm’s financial rebranding – of their property stock – tilting it from medium value to high value assets. In turn, the firm reported YoY net profits of 145% (AED2.66B).
Last year, the firm established Binghatti Capital Limited: a DIFC based asset management firm with plans to target the management of USD1B in Shariah-compliant private credit.
The move, under Janab, is seen as a bid to deepen the firm’s long-term vision of long-term investments as the real estate market continues to see sustained profits YoY.
Mohamed Kharbash, CFO of Rotana Media Services
Kharbash has prioritised revenue integrity and financial reporting, in turn reducing financial leakage at Rotana.
The recent 2025 partnership, with the STC Group, to advance digital ads in KSA suggests revenue integrity is key to this. Real time forensic reporting, under Kharbash, has allowed Rotana to move the firm away from post-campaign reconciliation toward a pre-approval model. By mandating cost approvals occur before capital is committed, finance can reduce the margin for error in reporting.
Moving beyond the traditional role of a “gatekeeper” is key for Kharbash. Growth in the media sector requires a focus on technology rather than content. High growth digital assets are being prioritised, under Kharbash, such as OOH and OTT platforms. By implementing a resilient finance architecture, the CFO is future proofing the company against market volatility. Any focus on contract-backed cash flows ensure that the firm’s aggressive expansion is built on a foundation of long-term financials than speculative debt.
The CFO is leading M&As as the Group navigates its digital pivot this year. Kharbash led the structuring of the exclusive media sales agreement, which designates RMS as the advertising partner for STC TV. RMS has also worked alongside Saudi Signs Media Co. to launch the Riyadh metro digital screen network, including the financing and deployment of over 2, 600 digital screens. Divestment from Rotana Podcasts and Podeo alliance is future-proofing RMS’ future M&A decisions at C-Suite
Under Kharbash, the finance function has evolved from a transactional department into a centre for “strategic architecture.”
Rajaa Khoder, Group CFO of Merit Incentives
Khoder brings over 15 years of leadership in investment banking, asset management, and corporate finance. Khoder now works in engagement tech and loyalty following a career spanning industrials, general trade, and fintech.
Khoder made history as the first female CFO in the GCC to lead a company to an IPO, successfully guiding the region’s first fintech player to a Main Market listing on Tadawul. The transaction was later awarded IPO of the Year 2024 by the Saudi Capital Markets Authority.
Throughout her career, she has led enterprise-wide cost optimisation programs and introduced automation across finance operations, including real time reporting, budgeting, and forecasting. Her leadership philosophy centres on aligning financial performance with long-term value creation.
Capital discipline and organisational scalability underpin Khoder’s growth strategy. She co-led companywide transitions from legacy operating models to API-first, SME-led platforms and spearheaded multi-year IPO and capital markets readiness programs.
She has embedded AI driven dashboards and FinOps automation into the finance function, enabling agile, data-led decision-making.
Among her notable milestones is the negotiation of a venture debt facility that doubled in value from $10M to $20M while materially improving commercial terms. This strategic financing extended the firm’s runway, preserved equity, and strengthened investor confident during a period of constrained growth-stage capital. She has built and led finance organisations across Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt, and other international hubs overseeing FP&A, FinOps, tax, treasury, and internal control functions.
Following a landmark IPO and subsequent role as Chief Investment Officer, Khoder founded her own financial advisory firm. Through this platform, she supports private companies with capital raising and IPO readiness, mentors founders, strengthens governance, and crafts investor-facing financial narratives.
Her work reflects a core belief that finance leaders should be ecosystem contributor rather than just internal operators.
Erdi Kursunoglu, Group CFO of Zahid Group
After 28 years of Executive and Board experience with international corporates – namely Ericsson, Walmart and Coca Cola across emerging markets – Kursunoglu is leading the Zahid Group to bring the Finance department to global standards and to outperform peers in the region.
Kursunoglu is co-leading the strategy exercise for future growth. He is working with one big global consulting company to shape the strategy, across the next three to five years, through profitable growth and improved free cash flow via better capital allocation. This exercise includes identifying industries, to invest and divest, across our 80 plus firms owned or invested in by the Saudi-based Zahid Group.
Kursunoglu also improved the capital structure (debt-to-equity ratio) and financing cost reduction through new financing methods: this includes centralised and automated methods, a reduced number of reports, and the introduction of zero-based budgeting with the delivery of good opex reduction.
He has also changed the team structure to optimise business function. Kursunoglu changed team organisational structure and ways of working to get closer to businesses, whilst also promoting job rotation within the team, starting individual career planning with key team members, and starting career mapping for all finance roles alongside external consultants.
Litesh Lalchandani, CFO of Tabby
Lalchandani has been instrumental in transforming the fintech start-up into a scalable, capital-efficient firm over the past decade through a robust treasury strategy.
Recognising that a digital business requires a digital treasury as its backbone, he led a strategic partnership with HSBC that enabled the firm to operate at speed, optimise capital management, and scale its securitisation capabilities.
Under his leadership, the firm has raised over USD 3 million in debt and equity financing from a strong investor base, including HSBC. Lalchandani has helped successfully launch one of the MENA region’s most successful and securitised pay-now-pay-later platforms, serving both businesses and consumers.
Rohit Malhotra, CFO of DAMAC Properties
Since his recent accession to the CFO position at DAMAC, Malhotra is focussed on the exponential growth and diversification of the Group. He is bringing standardisation, financial discipline, and rigour to every part of the organisation whilst embedding technology-driven solutions to enable efficient outcomes.
A particular focus of Malhotra revolves around DAMAC Digital; the Group’s digital arm committed to providing AI ready data centres. Malhotra’s focus comes as the Group expands into North America with the UAE-conglomerate’s chairman – Hussain Sajwani – committing to $20B outlay in AI data infrastructure.
Malhotra, with the direction of Sajwani, will shape the future of AI capacity in the U.S. market.
Amol Mankani, CFO of A.R.M Holding
Mankani has strengthened the firm’s financial position while supporting its strategic evolution from a pure built-to-lease portfolio toward an integrated built-to-lease and built-to-sell model. He has implemented disciplined cost controls, optimised operating margins across our self-owned assets, and enhanced cash flow visibility through rigorous budgeting and forecasting processes.
These initiatives have improved C-Suite decision-making and reinforced stakeholder confidence. Mankani has effectively balanced leverage with liquidity to support portfolio growth while maintaining prudent risk management.
Operating in a capital-intensive real estate environment requires a clear and disciplined approach to portfolio strategy, with a focus on asset quality, sustainable yields, and balance sheet resilience. As CFO, Mankani plays a central role in shaping the firm’s commercial model, ensuring scalable growth while preserving financial stability. This approach has enabled the company to anticipate market cycles, actively manage interest rate exposure, and navigate construction cost volatility.
Mankani has also built and led a high-performing finance function aligned to both operational excellence and long-term strategic growth. Clear accountability frameworks and progression pathways enable the team to develop deep expertise across financial control, FP&A, tax, and treasury.
As the company prepares to expand into built-to-sell developments, he has proactively upskilled the finance organisation by introducing capabilities in development finance, feasibility analysis, and project-based reporting—ensuring the function is future-ready and equipped to support the firm’s next phase of growth.
Nauman Mian, CFO of BAYT.COM
Under Mian, Bayt has grown exponentially since his appointment as CFO in 2009.
He has established himself in Dubai for over a decade, leading the Middle East’s number one job site. He has led the firm to significant growth, with a database of 47M job seeker profiles and over 5M monthly page views.
Renowned UAE-based firms, including e&, Bateel and Al-Futtaim, are using Bayt to hire their workforce according to the platform. AI has helped Bayt in its business model, through sifting potential employees for firms, whilst C-Suite positions are focussing on hiring candidates who can manage AI adoption.
Mian is a ACCA registered accountant and previously worked at PwC in London.
Yuvraj Narayan, Group Deputy CEO and CFO of DP World
Narayan has been central to DP World’s global strategy, overseeing the logistics giant’s financial direction and operations across the complex supply chain. He has expanded the firm’s footprint to more than 430 business entities whilst supporting a workforce more than 115, 000 focussing on intermediation across the supply chain.
In turn, he has cut costs between production and delivery instead of focussing on isolated assets. Narayan has been recognised four times as MENA CFO of the Year and this year will be the fifth time he is recognised for his remarkable achievements at DP World.
Jan-Martin Nufer, CFO of Borouge
Nufer is the CFO of Borouge, bringing more than 16 years of experience across petrochemicals, aviation, telecommunications and banking.
He has played a central role in Borouge’s growth since 2007, most recently serving as Vice President of Treasury and Funding at Borealis. In this role, he led the financing of Borouge’s major expansion phases, Borouge 2, 3 and 4, and supported the company’s successful IPO.
As CFO, Nufer oversees Borouge’s financial strategy, capital structure, funding and investor relations, supporting the company’s continued expansion and long-term value creation. His deep expertise in large-scale project financing and capital markets underpins the firm’s position as a leading global provider of innovative and differentiated polyolefin solutions.
Jamie O’Mahony, Group CFO of Property Finder
O’Mahony has led Property Finder to one of its most transformational years on financials.
He led the firm to the largest tech private equity round in MENA, executing a significant debt raise, and achieving the strongest financial results in the firm’s history: EBITDA has grown by more than 50% year-on-year under O’Mahony, expanding the firm’s role in the MENA property tech market.
Delivering M&As is another strength of O’Mahony at Property Finder. He led the largest tech private equity transaction in Property Finder’s history, with a focus on financials and customer reputation. His success was confirmed as the firm secured investment from Permira and Blackstone; the investment totalled $525M in equity. This marked the largest tech private equity deal in the MENA (2025).
Other key transactions included a $250M debt financing from Ares Credit Funds (2025) and an investment in Keyper: the region’s leading rent-now-pay-monthly platform backed by BECO Capital. Together, he is committed to building a commercially focussed finance team oriented around business priorities and growth.
Abbas Rizvi, CFO of Investcorp
Rizvi continues to build on the success of Jan Erik Back as Investcorp builds on its diversified portfolio. Investcorp Capital, majority-owned by Bahrain-based Investcorp, acquired a portfolio of U.S. industrial properties at the end of 2025 in a bid to diversify its overseas AUM. Rizvi is building on the work, given his background in financial consulting, to diversify the firm’s portfolio beyond private equity to include more real estate, infrastructure, and private credit instruments.
Yudhistira Rusli, CFO of Abdul Latif Jameel
Rusli leads Abdul Latif Jameel, a international family-owned diversified business founded in 1945, overseeing all financial operations, including M&A. Rusli is focussed on sustaining the diverse portfolio of Abdul Latif Jameel: including transportation and mobility services; financial services; sustainable energy; health; real estate; media and consumer goods.
Prior to joining, he was Group CFO at Indonesia’s Lippo Karawaci and held senior financial roles at Unilever and GE across Asia, Europe, and the USA. Yudhis speaks Bahasa, English, and Mandarin. Abdul Latif Jameel operates in over 34 countries across multiple sectors, employing 11,000 people, and celebrated its 80th anniversary.
Ali Siddiqi, CFO of ADNOC Distribution
Ali Siddiqi has demonstrated exceptional financial leadership across all key financial metrics at ADNOC Distribution. Siddiqi has delivered its strongest performance since listing, with record EBITDA and net earnings growth with ROC more than 30%: the highest in the industry.
He has also maintained a strong balance sheet with Net Debt to EBITDA below one, ensuring the financial headroom to fund exponential (in-)organic growth while meeting dividend commits in line with dividend policy.
Over the long-term, Siddiqi has played a key role in shaping and executing ADNOC Distribution’s long-term growth strategy. He has led the financial structuring and governance frameworks, including the oversight of The Hub, EV program, and related retail transformation programs across the UAE.
Siddiqi has overseen several strategic partnerships that support long-term value creation. This includes the management of ESG-linked financing arrangements with banking partners, reinforcing the firm’s sustainability credentials while optimising funding costs.
ADNOC Distribution has not pursued any recent large-scale M&As yet a series of strategic partnerships are positioning the firm for future (in-)organic opportunities via disciplined evaluation frameworks and strong stakeholder alignment.
He has also overseen several fintech and payments partnerships that strengthen ADNOC Distribution’s digital ecosystem, enabling new customer solutions and revenue streams.
Mentoring and developing high-potential talent is a strength of Siddiqi. He emphasises talent development, engagement, and capability-building across the finance division. Under his leadership, the finance team have recorded high staff engagement scores, reflecting a culture of trust, accountability, and continuous improvement.
Developing succession planning has also featured alongside ADNOC Distribution’s mentoring programmes, promoting internal mobility through structured rotation programs that expose team members to different roles and business units.
Fadi Sleiman, CFO of Alpha Dhabi Holding
Sleiman provides strategic financial leadership with responsibility for group-wide financial oversight, cash flow and liquidity management, and stewardship of investor relations and funding activities. His mandate focuses on strengthening financial performance, supporting sustainable growth, and enhancing investor confidence across Alpha Dhabi’s diversified portfolio.
With more than 22 years of senior executive experience in investment and finance, Fadi is recognised for his ability to cross-pollinate ideas across industries, ask the right strategic questions, and translate vision into disciplined capital allocation, risk mitigation, and value creation. He is particularly adept at connecting people, capital, and strategy to advance long-term objectives.
Prior to joining Alpha Dhabi Holding, Fadi served as CFO and subsequently CEO of Al Rajhi United Investment Holding, a multi-billion-dollar family office with investments spanning real estate, banking, asset management, retail, and financial services across the GCC, the UK, and the US. Earlier, he held senior finance roles at ARTAR in Saudi Arabia and has served on multiple boards and investment committees.
Patrick Sullivan, CFO of Emirates NBD
Sullivan has achieved remarkable growth at the Emirati bank. He has used his 30 years of experience in banking, across Eurasia and APAC to deliver record financials: a record profit of $3.76B (2024), an increase of 12% YoY. Last year, Emirates NBD sustained these gains with a 12% YoY increase in income over the first three quarters of 2025 compared to a 9% YoY increase in the same period (2024).
Emirates NBD’s focus on digital transformation and a wider AUM offering is helping the bank grow its income streams. In 2025, the bank has raised a record $272M with the MENA’s first AED-denominated bond; a testament to Sullivan’s leadership to position Emirates NBD at the front on blockchain and blue-green bonds.
Norman Tambach, CFO of Mashreq Bank
Tambach has focussed on preserving the balance sheet while supporting sustainable growth across diverse businesses and geographies. Reporting on finances has been elevated by enhanced digitalisation, the implementation of AI and further standardisation, clarification of ownership, and the tightening of governance across all entities.
Finance has also been positioned as integral in shaping Mashreq’s long-term strategy. The Group’s strategy functions to the GCFO, providing a unique opportunity to maximise its contribution to the strategy of the Bank. This has led to a robust strategy for 2026-2030; a standout achievement in this domain is the establishment of Pakistan’s first digital retail bank. Finance also provided crucial leadership in designing the capital structure, setting governance frameworks, and embedding scalability and regulatory discipline from the outset.
Mashreq has grown to its current scale primarily through organic growth; the emphasis is consistently based on value creation prioritising long-term value creation over transactional volume and short-term thinking. Developing high-performing teams is a consistent trend throughout Tambach’s career.
Efforts have included intentional succession planning for critical roles, providing high-potential talent with exposure to strategic initiatives, and focussing on developing organisational depth rather than creating dependency on individual contributors.
Teams are encouraged to work in agile ways and collaborate closely with technology and data functions is nowadays a must more than ever.
Ganesh Thangavel, CFO of Bank Muscat
Thangavel is leading Bank Muscat’s growth in Oman and the wider GCC. His leadership comes as the Bank reported a 13% YoY gain in net profits to OR255.5M (2025) because of higher customer deposits and loans. The Bank offers corporate, investment, and private banking, in addition to asset management, to more than two million customers in Oman, KSA, Kuwait, UAE, Iran, and Singapore. Thangavel’s expertise aligns with the Bank’s focussed portfolio spanning treasury management, capital planning, and regulatory compliance.
Thangavel has been CFO since March 2012, building on sustained net profit growth since 2012. Net profit stood at OR139.2M (2012) rising to OR225.58M (2025). Bank Muscat is mainly funded by customer deposits, accounting for 84% of non-equity funding. The Bank holds 15.1B in value of assets under management.
Strong returns and growth under Thangavel is building the profile of Bank Muscat beyond the Sultanate. Thangavel is a CMA holder with over 20 years of experience in the banking industry. He is a qualified Chartered Accountant with a General Executive Program from Harvard Business School, the United States.
Ricky Thirion, CFO of G42
Thirion is the Group Chief Financial Officer of G42, where he is responsible for Group Finance and Investments, providing financial stewardship and supporting the group’s long-term growth and capital strategy. Prior to joining G42, he spent 12 years at Etihad Airways, serving as Group Treasurer and later as Interim Chief Financial Officer, where he played a central role in funding, financial restructuring, and strategic transactions.
Thirion brings deep cross-sector experience spanning aviation, banking, mining, and technology, having held senior roles with leading and publicly listed organizations including South African Airways, Standard Bank, Gold Fields, and Dimension Data. He holds a master’s degree in mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering from the University of Pretoria, is an Honorary Fellow of the Association of Corporate Treasurers (UK) and is the recipient of multiple international awards for excellence in treasury leadership and deal execution.
Previously, Thirion served as CFO of Group 42 after working at Etihad Airways as CFO. His work alongside established Emirati firms in addition to private family offices is unique.
Rodrigo Torres, President and Group CFO of EDGE
Rodrigo Torres has made a measurable impact on the financial performance of the Group, taking the Group from investment-led growth to a profiteering firm. Torres has led this since his accession to the Group back in July 2021.
Under his tenure, order intake backlog has increased to double digits ($21.1B, 2025) with over 25% of sale volumes in export contracts. International orders made-up 40% of all new orders; commercial reach has expanded to 100 plus countries including entry into the European market (Switzerland ANAVIA, Italy MAESTRAL JV with Fincantieri), the Brazil anti-ship missile programme by the Brazilian navy, and the Angola financing of the 1.1B euro naval deal.
Part of this success is down to the growth playbook process, established in 2022, with a three-year business plan. Prior to Rodrigo’s tenure, the Group only conducted a one-year horizon. Torres has built on this planning by assessing over 120 transactions, across the past 2 years, 15 of which include acquisitions, minority investments, and strategic partnerships
Torres has also broadened the Group’s financial playbook, transforming the Group from a fragmented individual entity to a consolidated ecosystem, capable of a global position in the advanced tech sector. The number of entities has increased from 25 (2022) to 35 (2025), including major holdings such as ETIMAD and IGG. EDGE now holds a presence in the Americas, Europe, and Africa.
As EDGE looks ahead, the firm under Torres has overseen M&A deals totalling $25B across the commercial pipeline.
Torres is working on 20 active transactions at various stages (NBO, DD, negotiation) whilst $2B is held in the transaction value. He is hoping to build on this through the Finance 2.0 Transformation; a programme dedicated to implementing training programmes based on financial disciplines, with PwC, in addition to the IGNITE programme dedicated to Emiratisation.
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