Arif Naqvi, 51, is Founder and Group Chief Executive Officer of Abraaj Capital. The Abraaj Capital group is a leading private equity manager investing in the rapidly growing economies of the Middle East, Africa, Turkey and Asia. Since inception in 2002, the Abraaj Capital group has raised US$ 7 billion and distributed around US$ 3 billion to investors. The group has been associated with some of the region’s most notable transactions and has won numerous awards including ‘Middle East Private Equity Firm of the Year’ from London-based Private Equity International (PEI) six years in a row since 2005.
Mr. Naqvi is a member of the Young Presidents' Organization, where he was the Emirates Chapter Chairman from 2002 to 2003. He is a member of numerous think-tanks and policy groups such as the WEF Arab Business Council and serves on a number of boards such as the Emerging Markets Private Equity Association, IMD Foundation Board, Endeavor Global and the Advisory Board of the Columbia University Middle East Research Center. Mr. Naqvi is the Chair of the Middle East Center’s Advisory Board at the London School of Economics and Political Science and is the Chairman of the British Asian Trust Advisory Committee – Pakistan. In 2008, Mr. Naqvi founded the AMAN Foundation and is currently the Chairman of its Board of Trustees.
Mr. Naqvi is a graduate of the London School of Economics and Political Science and previously worked with Arthur Andersen & Co., American Express Bank, Saudi Arabia’s Olayan Group and the Cupola Group, which he founded in 1994. Mr. Naqvi is married with two children.
Mustafa Abdel-Wadood is a member of the Board of Directors and Vice Chairman of the Executive Committee of Abraaj Capital. In his capacity as CEO of Abraaj Capital Ltd., he oversees the company’s investment activities. Mr. Abdel-Wadood has 20 years of experience in the field of investment management, corporate finance and business development throughout the Middle East region and beyond. Prior to Abraaj Capital, Mr. Abdel-Wadood was at the regional investment bank EFG-Hermes with his last position there as CEO in the United Arab Emirates, overseeing the bank’s expansion in the lower Gulf.
Mr. Abdel-Wadood was also Co-Founder and Managing Director of Sigma Capital, managing the company’s investment banking and corporate finance activities. Prior to that, Mr. Abdel-Wadood spent eight years at Egypt’s Orascom Group where he was last Director of Development and Investments, and a Board Member of OrascomTelecom. At Orascom he was responsible for corporate investments and acquisitions. Mr. Abdel-Wadood has served on the boards of several publicly listed and private companies. In 2002, the World Economic Forum selected him as one of the 100 ‘Global Leaders for Tomorrow’ and ‘Young Global Leader in 2007’. He is Co-Founder and member of the Dubai-based ‘Young Arab Leaders’ and a member of the ‘Young Presidents’ Organization’.
Mr. Abdel-Wadood is married with two children, and holds a Bachelors degree in Business Administration from the American University in Cairo and an MBA from Georgetown University.
In the course of his career, Mr. Siddique has specialized in strategic business development, operations and risk management within leading private sector firms in the Middle East and South Asia. At Abraaj Capital, Mr. Siddique also heads a team of senior professionals focused on managing and creating value in Abraaj’s partner companies spread across 12 countries in the MENASA region. He represents Abraaj on the boards of several companies, including as Chairman of the Board of Directors of Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC), Jordan Aircraft Maintenance Limited (JorAMCo), Stanford Marine Group (SMG) and Byco Petroleum Pakistan Limited (BPPL).
Before joining Abraaj, Mr. Siddique was the Chief Executive Officer of the Cupola Group. In 1999, he was one of a team of senior directors who concluded a landmark private equity deal through Cupola’s acquisition of Inchcape Plc’s interests in the Middle East.
Prior to joining Cupola, Mr. Siddique held a senior executive position at Mawarid Holding Company, a leading business conglomerate based in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Mr. Siddique spent a number of years with PricewaterhouseCoopers in Pakistan as a Senior Consultant. He started his career in 1982 after earning his MBA degree with a specialization in Finance.
Mr. Siddique is married with two children
Tom Speechley is a Senior Partner of Abraaj Capital and the Chief Executive Officer of Riyada Enterprise Development (RED), Abraaj’s small and medium enterprise (SME) investment platform. He joined Abraaj Capital in 2006 and is a member of the Abraaj Holdings Board of Directors, as well as the group’s Executive and Investment Committees.
He sits on the ‘Fostering Entrepreneurship’ Global Agenda Council of the World Economic Forum. Mr. Speechley has also authored two books on acquisition finance. He lives in Dubai.
