Tom Speechley is a member of the Abraaj Holdings Board of Directors, the firm’s Executive Committee and its Investment Committee. Since joining Abraaj in 2006 Mr. Speechley has focused on many kinds of alternative investments, including private equity and real estate. A structuring and execution specialist, he played a lead role in structuring, raising and deploying Abraaj’s third private equity buyout fund, the US$ 2 billion, 2006/7-vintage ‘Infrastructure and Growth Capital Fund’ (IGCF). This included taking a lead on a number of investments, such as the US$ 2 billion acquisition and subsequent merger/sale of Egyptian Fertilizer Company, and the US$ 1 billion acquistion in Turkey’s Acibadem Healthcare Group. Mr. Speechley has also overseen the launch of the firm’s yield-focused real-estate platform – ASAS, and the firm’s small- and medium-sized (SME) investment platform – Riyada Enterprise Development – of which he is Chairman of the Executive Committee and Chief Investment Officer. He has been a member of the firm’s investment committee since 2007.

Mr. Speechley trained in law and worked for several years as a leading corporate lawyer, including with Jones Day in New York, and as a partner with both Norton Rose and Macfarlanes in London. During his 18-year career in the private equity industry Mr. Speechley has been heavily involved in more than 50 completed buy-outs, acquisitions and other financings.  He is the author of several articles and publications on private equity and related topics, including two books on acquisition finance. The most recent was published in 2008. Mr. Speechley holds a 1st  Class Honours degree in law from the University of Sheffield, U.K.