Middle East
The IPFA Middle East was launched in 2008 in Dubai and now runs a programme of 3-4 events annually. Briefings take place in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar. The IPFA Middle East Branch is pivotal in planning the sessions which feature topics ranging from funding projects through Islamic finance, ECAs and local currency to future infrastructure investment needs in sectors such as transport, social infrastructure and energy.
Branch Council
Nathan Weatherstone
National Bank of Abu Dhabi
Head of Sustainable Businsess
Nathan has been a lender and advisor in the project finance arena since the 1990s, with Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, PricewaterhouseCoopers and more latterly with National Bank of Abu Dhabi (NBAD). He has over 22 years of corporate and investment banking experience in global blue chip organisations.
In 2015, Nathan was asked to form NBAD’s Sustainable Business practice to develop the bank’s institutional response to the impacts of climate change. His team is developing the environmental framework through which NBAD will conduct its wholesale banking business, through the adoption of standards such as the Equator Principles. In so doing, the team will bridge between the bank’s coverage and product teams to create execution capability in the field of renewables and other sustainable project sectors.
Nathan joined NBAD in 2010 to build its project finance advisory practice into the highly successful regional unit it is today. Prior to this, he led PricewaterhouseCoopers’ MENA region PPP advisory services from Abu Dhabi after relocating to the UAE in 2007. Nathan has also worked in the UK as a senior member of Europe’s leading transportation financial advisory practice at PricewaterhouseCoopers, was a project financier with Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi (now BTMU) and was a corporate credit analyst with NatWest Bank.
Nathan holds an MBA from Warwick Business School (UK), a BSc in Finance from University of Manchester Science and Technology (UK), a BA in Humanities from University of Leicester (UK) and is an Associate of the Chartered Institute of Bankers.
Maarten Wolfs
PwC
Partner- Infrastructure & Project Finance
Maarten Wolfs leads the PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Middle East Project & Infrastructure Finance team. He has extensive international experience advising public and private sector clients on procurements, investment and restructuring ‘mega” projects in multiple infrastructure sectors including financing the London Olympic Athlete’s village PPP.
From the UK Maarten led PwC’s work in water and waste water privatisations and concessions in the UK, Portugal, Netherlands and Eastern Europe. Maarten was seconded by PwC to Australia in 2009 as an expert adviser to the Treasury and Department of Premier and Cabinet in Victoria providing strategic advice and direction to the State’s infrastructure financing programme including the USD 5 billion Melbourne Desalination PPP.
Following on from this, Maarten has led PwC’s Project Finance and PPP activities in the Gulf since 2011. His team is advising both private and public sector clients on a range of Power, Water, Energy, Transport and Real Estate transactions. Clients include Mubadala, PTB (Kuwait), Oman Power and Water, Roads and Transport Authority (Dubai), Qatar General Electricity & Water Co. and Etihad Rail.
Prior to PwC Maarten was with Mizuho bank’s project finance team in Amsterdam and London where he worked on IPP and Oil & Gas projects.
Neil Brimson
Independent Consultant
Neil Brimson is the managing partner of Herbert Smith Freehills’ Doha office. Prior to this, he headed up the firm’s Middle East practice from Dubai. Neil has spent his whole career at Herbert Smith, also working in London, New York and Paris, where he was managing partner for a number of years and headed the firm’s Paris-based energy/infrastructure practice. Neil is admitted as a Solicitor of the Supreme Court of England and Wales and as an Avocat at the Paris Bar. A highly experienced projects lawyer, Neil has handled a wide range of project development, project finance and M&A transactions in Europe, Africa and the Middle East involving many different common law and civil law jurisdictions. His practice focuses primarily on the energy and infrastructure sectors.
Jason Peers
Dutco Energy
Founding Chief Investment Officer
Since 2012 Jason has acted as the founding Chief Investment Officer of Dutco Energy, a privately owned Dubai based firm with extensive upstream, services and downstream investments into the oil, gas, mining and metals sectors.
In 2001, Jason founded Jasper Capital Limited, an Investment & Merchant Banking boutique specialised in the Middle East and Africa. He has advised prestigious clients such as the United Kingdom Government, the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment, several Gulf based financial institutions and many leading United Kingdom and Gulf based companies. Jason is a director at Jasper Capital.
In 1996, Jason joined Barclays Bank Group where he spent six years as Managing Director, latterly in Barclays Capital, responsible for a large group of markets. He helped establish the bank as an acknowledged leader in the Middle East in structured trade and export finance, aircraft financing and project finance, and as a leading player in the oil, gas, petrochemical, power and telecoms sectors. He played a key role in developing the Barclays Capital, Barclays Private Bank and Barclays Global Investors businesses in the Gulf region.
In 1992, he became Head of Corporate Banking for Saudi International Bank, a Saudi government controlled consortium bank managed by JP Morgan.
In 1983, Jason joined Lloyds Bank International from University and spent ten years in various managerial roles in South America, Australasia and the Middle East.
Jason is on the International Project Finance Association (IPFA) Middle East Council and sits on the Board of the Arab British Joint Chamber of Commerce.
Jason is a fellow of the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment in the United Kingdom and a graduate in History from London University.
Sikander Zaman
National Commercial Bank
Head, Specialised Finance
Sikander Zaman is Head, Specialized Finance Group at National Commercial Bank, with 30 years of banking experience. Sikander joined NCB in July 2009 as head of Specialized Finance group which covers project and structured finance, securitizations and loan syndications. He started his banking career at SAMBA in Jeddah in 1981 and moved to Citibank London in 1989 to work in Specialized Industries Group. He held various positions in the energy, infrastructure and project finance groups at Citibank and during 1999-2004 was Managing Director of Infrastructure and Energy Finance group, London. At Citibank London, he led the advisory and arranging teams for numerous projects in Europe, Middle East and Africa. Between 2004-2008, Sikander was an independent consultant advising a number of state owned companies in GCC (Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, UAE) for structured finance and M&A transactions aggregating to over $25 billion.
Tom Waterhouse
SMBC
Head of Energy & Natural Resources
Tom Waterhouse joined SMBCE in 1993 and is currently Head of Energy & Natural Resources within the Structured Finance Department in London. His team is responsible for covering project finance transactions in the oil, gas, petrochemicals, power, renewable energy, and mining and metals sectors across Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Tom has over 20 years experience in structured finance and has worked on most of the larger Middle East project finance transactions since 2001.
Charlie Seymour
Abu Dhabi Water & Electricity Authority (ADWEA)
Financial Advisor
Charlie Seymour joined ADWEA’s highly successful Privatization Directorate in the summer of 2009 as an internal Financial Advisor. He is currently working on a number of private project assignments including the Shuweihat S2 IWPP refinancing, the Mirfa IWPP project which will be launched to the developer market later this year and as part of the PPA negotiation team on the Baraka 1 nuclear IPP. Prior to joining ADWEA in the summer of 2009 Charlie has spent over 20 years in the power/utilities sector as an advisor, banker and developer. Prior to joining ADWEA Charlie spent over 6 years at HSBC where he was Managing Director and Global Head of HSBC’s market leading power and utilities project finance business, working on advisory and financing mandates for its global client base. The HSBC team advised the promoting GCC governments on many of the regions Power and Utilities projects including the WEC IWPP programme in Saudi Arabia, the ADWEA IWPP programme in Abu Dhabi and several other power and utility projects in Bahrain, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. HSBC was also an active arranger and underwriter of debt and supported winning consortia in several projects in the GCC. Prior to joining HSBC Charlie was a Vice President Finance at Intergen, a US incorporated independent power developer, then jointly owned by Shell and Bechtel Enterprises. Charlie has also worked as a project financier for Investec, UBS and Barclays.
David Charlier
Ashurst LLP
Partner
David is the head of Ashurst’s finance team in the Middle East. He specialises in the development, financing and acquisition of infrastructure and energy assets and has over 15 years’ experience advising sponsors, lenders (including Islamic banks and export credit/multi-lateral agencies) and government institutions in the Middle East.
David is listed as a leading individual for banking & finance in the UAE by both Legal 500 2015 and Chambers Global 2015. He was featured as one of six leading lawyers advising on alternative energy projects in the Middle East.
Shaun Johnson
ACWA Holding
Director of Legal - Project Finance
With over 18 years experience in project finance across projects in Australasia, UK and the Middle East, Shaun is now responsible for the project finance legal function within ACWA Holding.
Shaun developed his legal skills in project finance by working at some of the world’s top ranked global law firms for clients who were sponsors, concessionaires, construction companies, developers, secondary market infrastructure funds and lenders. After private practice, Shaun spent seven years working for the UK Treasury and was instrumental in developing PPP policy in the UK as the private finance model evolved in line with economic factors and market trends. He implemented best practice across government departments through various secondments and sat on numerous infrastructure panels to review, scrutinise and approve some of the UK’s most high profile infrastructure projects.
Before joining ACWA, Shaun worked for a global developer and covered the finance, construction and operational aspects of PPP and outsourcing projects. He also held positions at board level for various subsidiaries within the group, reviewing and monitoring asset performance at an operational level.
Shaun professionally qualified as a solicitor in Australia and England and is an active public speaker at various professional events. He has been in the Middle East since 2015.
George Grant
George Grant Associates
George Grant FRICS ACIArb is a Chartered Quantity Surveyor and practising Arbitrator with over 40 years experience in the fields of Development & Project Management, Cost Management, Contract Administration, Claims Consultancy, Dispute Resolution and Arbitration. Twenty-two of those years have now been spent in the Middle East (7yrs in Oman, 15 in the UAE). George has held top management positions in leading consultancy and corporate organisations and has completed many assignments throughout the region as well as in India, Africa and the Far East. He now runs his own international construction and development management consultancy practice based in Dubai, George Grant Associates.
In addition, George is Managing Director of International Power and Water Investments (IPWI) also based in Dubai. IPWI is an investment and development company focussed on supporting project development and corporate financing within the power, water and environmental sectors in emerging markets.
Phil Hanson
Herbert Smith Freehills LLP
Senior Associate
Phil Hanson is a Senior Associate in Herbert Smith Freehills’ Global Energy and Infrastructure Group. He joined the Dubai office in 2014, prior to which he worked in London for Slaughter and May, and Norton Rose Fulbright.
His practice focuses on project finance, development and construction in the energy and infrastructure sectors. He has over 7 years’ experience acting for sponsors, borrowers, lenders (including commercial banks, export credit agencies, multilaterals and Islamic banks) and procurers across a broad range of international projects, and has advised on (among other matters) conventional and renewable power projects in Saudi Arabia, Oman, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Qatar, Egypt and Kuwait.
Phil is qualified as a Solicitor in England and Wales.
Phil will act as the Future Leaders Network representative for the Middle East Branch Council.
Events in the region
There are currently no events confirmed for this branch. If you are keen to speak to one of IPFA Events Team on future events here, please contact events@ipfa.org.
