Nima has been a member of the MEBR team since the programme's launch.

She’s a bilingual English-Arabic broadcaster and has an in depth understanding of Arab issues. Before the launch of MEBR, Nima was a regular regional commentator and guest on the BBC Radio 4 programme Four Corners, and Dateline London on BBC World News.

Nima moved to Dubai from London, where she worked for Al Jazeera's London office, reporting business and finance news.

Brian Caplen has been editor of The Banker since 2003. He joined the Financial Times Group from Euromoney in 2000 where he had been executive editor of Euromoney magazine for five years. He also worked as a business editor and journalist in Hong Kong and the Middle East for 10 years. He has travelled extensively and done numerous high level interviews with prime ministers, finance ministers, central bank governors and senior executives. He has a first class honours degree In Development Studies from the University of East Anglia.

Gautam is an MBA with specialization in marketing, and holds an undergraduate degree in engineering.  He has over 30 years experience in marketing and consulting, initially with the Taj Group of Hotels, India & Middle East and thereafter as Partner, Market Vision Research and Consulting Services in Dubai, UAE.

He provides research & marketing consultancy services across industry sectors such as hospitality & tourism, financial services, education, healthcare, manufacturing and business services.

Gautam is an invited member on the World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO)’s Worldwide Panel of Tourism Experts since 2003. He is Past President (2007-2008) and Founder Charter Member of TiE (The Indus Entrepreneurs) Dubai chapter, and a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing, UK. 

He has been a guest lecturer at management institutes in the UAE and a panel member and moderator at various industry events. Gautam is regularly interviewed by the regional media for views on wide ranging business topics of regional and global interest.

David is the CEO and founder of Brand Finance plc, the leading independent brand valuation consultancy. David qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Price Waterhouse in London. He has worked in the area of branded business, brand and intangible asset valuation since 1991 and since January 1995 has specialised entirely in this area. David has represented the British Standards institute on the International Standards Committee working party on the standardisation of brand valuation methods and practices, whose standard (ISO 10668) is due to be published in early 2010.

David is a passionate writer and has written many articles for the marketing and financial press on branded businesses and brand valuation and is the author of numerous publications. He also lectures on the subject of branded business, brand and intangible asset valuation at many of the leading business schools around the world.

Visit website

Mohammed Ismaeel leads the Regional Marketing Team for HSBC Middle East and North Africa. In this role hecovers diverse marketing functions which include Insights, Planning, Sponsorship and Events, Product Marketingand Campaign Management. He is responsible for the HSBC Brand in the MENA region and for delivering on allmarketing KPIs as well.He is also the Head of Global Marketing at HSBC Amanah the international Islamic offering with HSBC, spanningmarkets such as the UK, the GCC, Malaysia and Indonesia amongst others.

Yusuf Jehangir is currently Head of Marketing & Corporate Communications for Al Rajhi Bank, a leading Sharia compliant Bank headquartered in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Yusuf has over 18 years of International business experience, having started his career in brand management with Unilever in the UK. After completing an MBA, Yusuf worked with American Express in various marketing and product development roles based out of New York, USA. Following his return to the UK, Yusuf led marketing and branding efforts for General Electric, before joining Al Rajhi Bank four and a half years ago. Yusuf is married with 3 girls.

As Head - Group Marketing, Emirates NBD, Vikram Krishna has the mandate to consolidate and grow the bank’s dominant market position. In his current role, he has been responsible for the successful re-launch of the Emirates NBD Brand through a 360° integrated marketing approach, to win several accolades for the bank. 

These include Asia’s Best Brand at the 2011 CMO Asia Awards for Excellence in Branding and Marketing and The Stevies® 2011 for Marketing Department of the Year. Emirates NBD’s ‘Truth and Reality’ brand campaign also received recognition as Distinguished Honoree at The Stevies® 2011. In addition, Communicate Magazine included Krishna in its Top 50 Power List for 2011, to position him as one of the 50 most powerful people in the regional media, marketing and advertising industry.

Prior to heading Group Marketing, Krishna was instrumental in the profitable turnaround of the Emirates NBD’s Personal and Auto Loan business. Before joining Emirates NBD, he has held the posts of Senior VP- Marketing-Retail Assets in HSBC, India, and VP & Head of Mortgages for North India in CitiFinancial. 

Hany Mwafy is the co-founder & managing partner of GeniusMe, the growth accelerator consultancy firm with PeterFisk – global marketing guru.

Prior to that Hany was the transforming managing Director of Nielsen Egypt & North Africa, an ExCo member of Asia Pacific, India, Middle East & Africa and a member in the global communication team. Hany worked for BP, CaliforniaGarden, Unilever and Nivea in global and regional marketing; mostly transformational roles.

Hany holds an MBA with concentration in International Marketing, a business and law degree. He lectured forthe Chartered Institute of Marketing and Cambridge, spoke twice in TEDx and with Philip Kotler on what’s next in marketing.

Ovais Naqvi serves as a Senior Vice President at Abraaj Capital, responsible for knowledge platforms, strategic marketing and value creation programming within the ASSET group at Abraaj. Whilst at Abraaj, he has also served from 2008 to 2010 as Chief Marketing & Communications Officer at KESC, one of the region’s largest vertically-integrated monopoly electricity utilities andan Abraaj partner company. Ovais was responsible for incepting various facets of the ‘new KESC’ brand: from public messaging, market segmentation and marketing strategy, to advertising, media and public affairs, internal communications and the company’s social programming.

He has twenty years experience in all facets of the media, publishing, interactive/online marketing and marketing services industries and has worked with many of the world’s leading marketing companies, content publishers and global blue-chip and luxury brands.

Charles is a member of the leadership team of Wolff Olins. He heads the Dubai office with responsibility for growing our business the Middle East and India. He has led many of our biggest engagements both internationally and in this region. Before joining Wolff Olins in 1987, Charles worked for Pepsi and as a management consultant. He is a chartered accountant and a graduate of Oxford University.