Mr Assem O. Kabesh

Chief Executive Officer, 

YAL

Assem O. Kabesh is the CEO of YAL, the Middle East’s foremost development platform for business, public sector and civil society leaders.

In this role, he leads strategic initiatives to foster the development of young leaders in the Arab world. He drives programs and partnerships that offer new opportunities for Arab youth to contribute towards shaping the future of the region.

Mr. Kabesh is also currently a Member of the Board of the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) Authority.

Before becoming CEO of YAL, Mr. Kabesh was the Managing Director of the DIFC Authority. In this role, he oversaw the management of the body that is charged with developing overall strategy and providing direction to the DIFC, the first truly international financial centre in the region. His responsibilities included developing strategies to attract financial companies to the DIFC as well as developing laws and regulations that govern non-financial services activities.

The DIFC is a free zone designed to create a unique financial services cluster in the Middle East. It is home to more than 600 firms, including some of the biggest names in global financial services such as Merrill Lynch, Credit Suisse, Aon, Morgan Stanley, HSBC, Standard Chartered, Goldman Sachs and UBS.

Mr. Kabesh has extensive experience in senior roles in a variety of business sectors. Previously, as Director of Sales at Dubai Internet City, he drove sales strategies that contributed towards the organization’s development into one of the largest information and communications technology (ICT) industry clusters in the world. Dubai Internet City is today home to the regional headquarters of the world’s largest technology firms including Microsoft, IBM, HP, Sony Ericsson, Cisco, Dell, Siemens, Sun Microsystems and Computer Associates.

Prior to this, he worked with Mashreq Bank as the Assistant Vice President for Retail Banking. He started his career with American Express in Egypt.

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