Keynote Speaker

Jalil Tarif
Secretary General, Union of Arab Securities Authorities

Jalil Tarif is a Jordanian economist and currently serves as the secretary general of the Union of Arab Securities Authorities. Tarif started his career in the Central Bank of Jordan and held the positions of executive director and deputy director general in Amman Financial Market between 1992 and 1999, where he oversaw Jordan’s entire capital market. Through his role as deputy director deneral, Tarif assisted in writing the new securities law that implemented the three separate entities that make up Jordan’s Capital Market today. In 1999, Jalil Tarif was appointed as the first CEO of Amman Stock Exchange. He left in December 2012 to become secretary general of the Union of Arab Securities Authorities located in Dubai. Some of the roles Tarif has held during his career include: president, NSC-Unix user group, Atos-Euro Next Market Solutions and chairman of IOSCO Self-Regulatory Organization Consultative Committee. In addition, he has participated in meetings with the IMF, IBRD, IOSCO, WFE, FEAS, COMCEC and UNCTAD.

Speakers

Ahmed Tabaqchali
CIO, AFC Iraq Fund

Ahmed Tabaqchali is an experienced capital markets professional with over 22 years of experience in US and MENA markets. He is currently CIO of AFC Iraq Fund, as well as a board member of the Credit Bank of Iraq. He is a former executive director of NBK Capital, the investment banking arm of National Bank of Kuwait. Prior to that, Tabaqchali was managing director and head of international institutional sales at WR Hambrecht. He has also held key positions at KeyBanc in London as well as Jefferies International. He holds an M. Sc. in mathematics from Oxford University in the UK, a B.Sc. (Hons, 1st class) in mathematics from Victoria University in New Zealand and a B.Sc. in mathematics from Canterbury University in New Zealand.

Thomas McMahon
MD & CEO, UD Trading Group Ltd Pte

Thomas McMahon is currently the Director/CEO of UD Trading Group Ltd Pte. He previously served as the CEO of the Singapore Mercantile Exchange (SMX) from 2009 to 2011. Before that Thomas was President, Deputy Chairman at the Hong Kong Mercantile Exchange HKEx from 2007 to 2009. In addition, he served as Director-Asia Vice President Tokyo, Singapore at New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) during 2003-2007. Thomas has also served as Advisor at the Dubai Mercantile Exchange and was Member, Board of Directors, and Chairman of the Natural Gas & Petroleum Advisory Committees a t NYMEX. Thomas has a combined 30 years of experience across U.S. and Asian exchange and regulatory frameworks with a focus on the development of exchange traded and cleared futures and OTC products as well as exchange architecture development.

Luciano Jannelli
Chief Investment Strategist, Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank

Luciano Jannelli is currently chief investment strategist at Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank responsible for research and asset allocation. He started his career as an economist at World Bank and over the last 16 years he has held various including as senior research and asset manager at UBS, Bank Julius Bäer and Swissquote Bank. He is also a frequent speaker at international economic and investment conferences, as well as a regular guest at CNBC and other prime financial channels. Jannelli holds a Ph.D. in economics from Columbia University and is a CFA Charter holder.

Mobasher Zein Kazmi
Editor, The Asian Banker

Mobasher Zein Kazmi is the editor of the financial markets publication responsible for coverage of global markets, exchanges, trading platforms, alternative trading systems and post-trade infrastructure on behalf of The Asian Banker. He is also the senior researcher overseeing the risk and regulation working group. Prior to joining The Asian Banker in 2013, Kazmi wrote on Islamic banking and finance topics for a range of media publications in the GCC and South-East Asia. He has an MBA (Investment Management) from Concordia University in Montreal, Canada and holds an Islamic Finance Qualification from the Chartered Institute of Securities & Investment (UK).