Senior professionals, complementary experience.

Mohamed is an English-qualified solicitor and international commercial adviser with extensive experience across the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain and the UAE. He has served in senior in-house and advisory roles for sovereign-backed institutions, financial institutions, family offices and a UK-based technology start-up.

His experience spans commercial contracts, private equity, venture capital, corporate governance, cross-border transactions, project and Islamic finance, capital markets, investment structures, external-counsel management, board support, private client and estate planning. He has held General Counsel, Vice-President, Company Secretary and senior legal positions, including roles with the Saudi National Bank, Qatar Free Zones Authority and Doha Venture Capital, Bapco Refining (Bahrain), SALIC UK, and the Islamic Development Bank. His private practice experience includes working with international law firms such as Norton Rose (now Norton Rose Fulbright), Clifford Chance and Hogan Lovells. Through GEMS, Mohamed combines strategic judgement, international relationships and practical coordination to support clients and professional partners on complex commercial initiatives.

It is this network of banks, family offices, law firms, international institutions and specialist advisers, built over more than 25 years, together with the judgement gained from having advised on major transactions from multiple perspectives, that Mohamed brings to GEMS’ strategic coordination and relationship development work.

Bob is an international lawyer, business leader and strategic adviser with extensive experience across Europe, the Middle East and Asia Pacific. Qualified as a solicitor in England and Wales, Hong Kong and Brunei, he has spent more than four decades advising businesses, governments, financial institutions and investors on complex international transactions, organisational strategy and market expansion.

Bob held partnership and senior leadership positions with several leading international law firms. His career included partnership positions at Freshfields and Clifford Chance, Head of Asia at Berwin Leighton Paisner (now Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner) and Addleshaw Goddard, and Managing Director, Asia Pacific and member of the Executive Leadership Team at DLA Piper. He also held a senior role with Emirates NBD.

Bob’s experience spans law-firm leadership, business strategy, organisational development, market expansion, professional-services management, governance, performance improvement and large-scale transformation programmes. Having lived and worked across eight countries spanning the Middle East, Asia Pacific and beyond, Bob has led major professional organisations through mergers, market entries and periods of significant change, building an exceptional network across the international legal community. That network, and his experience guiding complex organisations through change, supports GEMS’ work coordinating relationships and engagements for clients across multiple jurisdictions. Through GEMS, Bob brings a unique combination of legal expertise, international leadership experience and strategic judgement to support clients and professional partners on complex commercial and cross-border initiatives.

Ella advises on complex regulatory, governance and public-policy matters, drawing on 20 years of international experience across public and private sector organisations in Europe, the United States, the GCC and Central Asia. She specialises in regulatory strategy, policy formulation, institutional governance and legislative drafting.

Her previous roles include Policy, Risk and Regulatory Adviser at Hourani & Partners, Director for the Gulf Region at Jersey Finance and Associate Director of the DIFC Courts, where she led the Courts’ international consultancy division and advised the Astana International Financial Centre of Kazakhstan on establishing an independent commercial court and arbitration centre. Her work has included institutional reform, international cooperation, family-business governance, common-law court and arbitration initiatives, and legislative development. Her international policy work has also included drafting Afghanistan’s Competition Law and assignments involving the European Parliament and the United Nations. Ella is fluent in five languages. Her institutional network across regulators, financial centres and governments in the Gulf, Europe and Central Asia supports GEMS’ work developing and coordinating relationships for clients across these regions.

Through GEMS, Ella brings deep regulatory, governance and policy expertise, together with extensive experience of working with governments, regulators, international institutions, family offices, and private sector organisations, helping clients navigate complex stakeholder environments, institutional frameworks and cross-border strategic initiatives.

Wade is a British C-suite marketing executive with more than 30 years' experience building brand, marketing and communications functions from the ground up for some of the Gulf's most ambitious sovereign-backed developments. He has spent over 25 years in senior leadership roles across Saudi Arabia and the UAE, establishing the market position of new entities and steering their communications through launch, growth and scrutiny.

His roles have included senior brand and marketing leadership at the Dubai International Financial Centre, where he co-founded Art Dubai, Masdar, Abu Dhabi Ports, Dubai South, TECOM Investments, Qiddiya Investment Company, the Royal Commission for Riyadh City and ARDARA under the Public Investment Fund. Across these, he has led brand architecture, market positioning, strategic and stakeholder communications, international partnerships and high-profile launches for projects operating at national scale. He is currently Co-CEO of Integral Visions, an experiential events and production agency.

Through GEMS, Wade advises clients on how an initiative is positioned, communicated and received: with investors, government stakeholders, partners and the public. His network across sovereign investors, government entities, cultural institutions and the entertainment sector in the UAE and Saudi Arabia supports GEMS' relationship-development and coordination work across the region.

Hany brings more than 20 years as a senior legal executive and General Counsel to tier-one regional banks, including Emirates NBD’s Saudi business, The Saudi National Bank and Barclays Bank Egypt. His experience spans banking and corporate law, governance, regulatory engagement with bodies including the Saudi Central Bank, the Saudi Capital Markets Authority and the Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority, data protection, and major cross-border transactions.

Hany’s network across Gulf banking regulators, financial institutions and legal teams supports GEMS’ work coordinating relationships and engagements for clients in the region.

Ragheed brings more than 25 years across investment banking, private banking and asset management in the GCC and internationally, including roles at ABN AMRO Private Bank, Rasmala Investment Bank, Q Invest and the National Bank of Abu Dhabi’s Islamic finance division, alongside advisory work for the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia on Islamic finance and investments. He also teaches corporate finance and investment courses at leading regional universities, including the American University of Beirut and the Lebanese American University.

Ragheed’s network across the GCC and international banks, family offices, institutional investors and regulators, spanning both conventional and Islamic finance, supports GEMS’ work developing and coordinating strategic relationships for clients in the banking and investment space.

Gamal is a senior executive and strategic operations professional with more than 37 years of experience supporting C-suite executives, senior leadership and boards across international institutions and the private sector. He spent 26 years with the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) Group, supporting senior executives including a Vice President, CEOs and the General Counsel, as well as board and governance bodies.

His experience focuses on executive operations, strategic implementation, stakeholder coordination and high-level communication, including managing executive offices, coordinating board processes, preparing correspondence, minutes and resolutions, and supporting complex institutional initiatives. He has worked closely with international law firms, consultants, financial institutions and development organisations, and contributed to the establishment of IsDB Group affiliates and major multi-stakeholder initiatives.

Gamal brings strong Arabic-English bilingual communication and translation capabilities, cultural awareness, discretion and meticulous attention to detail. His professional record is recognised for reliability, composure under pressure, organisation and effective relationship management.