Category Archives: Speakers
A President’s View of the Art of Negotiation
It isn’t often that you get a chance to listen to a former sitting president discuss the art of negotiation; and it is rarer still that you learn negotiating secrets from a leader whose peace treaty helped to end an intractable conflict and garnered him a Nobel Peace Prize nomination. Read More
Modern Finance Is Seeing Historic Levels of Speculation
Not surprisingly, the 2008–2009 global financial crisis sent many financial professionals looking to history for a sense of appropriate context and perspective to understand the magnitude of such a catastrophic financial shock. This, in turn, sparked a general interest in financial history, but with few professional sources to turn to. At the 2014 Middle East Investment Conference, professor Adrian Bell, head of the ICMA Centre at the University of Reading’s Henley Business School considered the question of whether or not modern finance existed in the Middle Ages. Read More
Khaled Sifri’s Insights into Regional Private Wealth and Investment Banking
According to Khaled Sifri of Emirates Investment Bank, MENA’s new private wealth client is an entrepreneur versed in company growth and attuned to investment banking deals. Read More
Middle Eastern Intelligence from within the Middle East
News and geopolitical analyses of the Middle East coming from outside of the region tend to be monolithic: It’s all about the oil. Raghida Dergham has a more nuanced understanding of the region. Read More
What Will Drive Economic Growth in the Middle East?
A panel at the Middle East Investment Conference will discuss the new MENA enterprises that could meet global consumer appetites while creating sustainable economic growth in their home countries. Read More
How the Middle Ages Handled “Too Big to Fail”
Adrian Bell’s research has found systemic risks and financial crises dating back to medieval Europe. Read More
Volker Nienhaus on Turning Islamic Banking into a Competitive Advantage
Volker Nienhaus sees Islamic law’s restrictions on interest-bearing instruments and speculative practices as an opportunity to establish a competitive advantage. Read More
Islamic Finance is Growing Fast but Faces the Form-Versus-Substance Debate
Ibrahim Warde, adjunct professor at Tufts University, argued that since the 1990s, Islamic finance has gained much more international acceptability but that it continues to grapple with the fundamental form-versus-substance debate. Read More
Peter Zeihan: The World Should Watch Out for a Shift in U.S. Foreign and Economic Policy
Geopolitical analyst, Peter Zeihan, believes that North America has the capacity to become energy self-sufficient by 2020 and predicts a US that adopts a more economically isolationist stance. Read More
Avinash Persaud: Who Will Win the Currency Wars?
“The Americans or the Chinese?” asks risk expert and chairman at Intelligence Capital Limited, Avinash Persaud, at the CFA Institute Middle East investment Conference. Read More
