KPMG Bahrain managing partner Jamal Fakhro honoured by industry peers

Long-time KPMG Bahrain managing partner Jamal Fakhro has been honoured by a panel of senior industry leaders with an ICAEW award for his contribution to the practice of accountancy in the Middle East.

The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) is one of the world’s leading professional bodies for the accountancy and finance industry with over 150,000 members worldwide – including nearly 4,000 in the Middle East and Africa. Each year, the ICAEW Middle East branch honours individuals in the region who have advanced the accounting and finance professions.

At a gala ceremony held in Dubai, KPMG in Bahrain managing partner Jamal Fakhro has this year been recognised with an ICAEW Contribution to Practice award for his outstanding professional achievements and by demonstrating ethics and integrity, professional competence, objectivity, independence and transparency, and access and diversity in accordance with ICAEW’s core values.

Recently celebrating its 50th anniversary of operations, Fakhro has led the Bahrain branch of KPMG for the past three decades and now oversees a team of 380-plus professionals in what is one of the largest professional services firms in the country. Fakhro has altogether more than 40 years of industry experience and in addition to serving as a national legislator previously held the chair for KPMG’s MESA region. “I am thankful to the ICAEW for this recognition. Receiving this prestigious award is a great reminder of my efforts and a valuable recognition of my contribution to the industry over the past four decades,” Fakhro said of the honour, which was awarded by a selection panel of 15 respected industry peers, including those from rival Big Four professional services firms Deloitte, PwC and Ernst & Young.

Among other regional industry leaders, the panel included; Anis Sadek, Managing Partner of Deloitte in Dubai and Oman; Herve Ballantyne, Audit & Assurance Partner and Middle East Chairman of the Board at Deloitte; Stephen Anderson, Middle East Clients & Markets Leader at PwC; PwC Academy Middle East leader Amanda Line; KPMG partners Zubair Patel (Lower Gulf) and Rohit Rajvanshi (Kuwait), EY partner Anthony O’Sullivan, and; Grant Thornton Bahrain Managing Partner Jassim Abdulaal.

Meanwhile, the other award recipients on the night included former Deloitte external auditor and current Chief Financial Officer for National Commercial Bank Lama Ghazzaoui in the Contribution to Business category, while current and former KPMG senior associates Anam Khan, Iva Saric and Xuan Xu swept the ICAEW student categories with the highest respective grades in Corporate Reporting, Strategic Business Management and Case Study.

“We are delighted to be recognized in the region for our contribution across several categories by the respected ICAEW," commented KPMG Lower Gulf CEO Nader Haffar. "This is a testament to the level of focus and passion professionals associated with KPMG put into their work. The student wins also display KPMG’s role in shaping the next generation of audit practitioners and our dedication to providing high-quality services for our clients. I congratulate all the winners on their exceptional performance.”