Young Arab Leaders successfully hosted a Fireside Chat with Stergios Voskopoulos moderated by YAL Board Member Huda Al Lawati. Until recently Stergios had been the CEO of Kanoo Capital. He has worked in the Gulf Region for over 12 years and has over 22 years of global experience. Stergios has also been a serial entrepreneur himself and a speaker in several global summits & forums on topics around investment management, family offices, entrepreneurship, global affairs and business. Full conversation

  About the Speaker

Stergios had been until recently the CEO of Kanoo Capital, the Investment Division within YBA Kanoo, one of the largest and oldest family conglomerates in the Middle East. As CEO, he was responsible for the active management of direct and indirect investments regionally and globally.

Stergios has worked in the Gulf Region for over 12 years and has over 22 years of global experience in the areas of Asset Management, Private Equity and M&A, including AIG Global Investment Group, Barclays, Investcorp and Seera Investment Bank. Stergios has also been a serial entrepreneur himself and a speaker in several global summits in topics around investment management, family offices, entrepreneurship, global affairs and business.

He has an MBA in Finance & Investments from Zicklin School of Business in New York and a Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering from the University of Athens. Stergios speaks six languages having lived and worked in seven countries. He has been a member of YPO.

  About the Moderator

Huda’s career has spanned 18 years in private equity and investments across emerging markets. As Partner at Gateway Partners Group, she is a member of the Investment Committee and leads deal origination, execution and portfolio management in the Middle East and Africa regions.

  Prior to Gateway, Miss Al Lawati was Chief Investment Officer for Savola Group, one of the largest publicly-listed strategic investment holding groups for food & retail businesses in the Middle East and North Africa region. At Savola, where she was responsible for business and investment strategy, portfolio management, M&A and investor relations. She built a professional investment team; led restructuring efforts for ailing subsidiaries; initiated digitization programs; instituted capital allocation, portfolio management, investor relations and M&A processes; and completed M&A and disposal transactions of US$ 500m.

  Prior to Savola, Huda was a Partner and Chief Investment Officer for MENA at the Abraaj Group, where she deployed over $1 billion in equity capital into MBOs, LBOs, venture capital, growth capital and structured equity transactions and arranged over US$1.5 billion in acquisition and related financing across a broad range of sectors. She is currently a board member at Tim Hortons Middle East and Gateway Delta Development Holdings (Africa) and has served on the boards of Panda Retail Company, Herfy, AlKabeer, Savola Foods Company, SMG, The Entertainer and Kudu. She has also served on audit and renumeration committees. She is also a member of the board of directors the Young Arab Leaders and the Middle East Investor Relations Association and a member of the advisory board of Global Ventures.

  Miss Al Lawati holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Neuroscience and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Business Economics (Honors) from Brown University.