BrazilICAEW adds Grant Thornton and KPMG execs to Corporate Finance panel
The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales has added four new faces to its panel of local corporate finance experts, including executives from Grant Thornton and KPMG.
The ICAEW – one of 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) – has welcomed four new faces to its Corporate Finance Faculty (CFF) Middle East panel of experts, including respective Grant Thornton and KPMG partners Salmaan Khawaja and Ossama Kayed. They are joined by former Big Four leaders Mike Littlewood and Nick Beer.
The CFF hosts four regional panel discussion events annually – three in UAE and one in Saudi Arabia – where panellists and attendees discuss the evolving global and regional business landscape. Recent previous events have explored topics such as the evolution of Saudi business to support a thriving economy, how advances in technology have positively impacted the speed of deal execution in the GCC, and managing liquidity challenges and raising capital in the Gulf.
“By bringing conversations that matter to the fore, we aim to contribute to policy development, practical initiatives and help drive innovation across the region’s business landscape,” said regional ICAEW director Michael Armstrong. “In a rapidly changing world, proactive discussion of key business topics and collaboration between international organisations, governments, regulators and other professional bodies is crucial for the continued development of economies.”
Kicking off as a Corporate Tax Senior with Ernst & Young in 2000, Salmaan Khawaja has been with Grant Thornton for the past 16 years, currently serving as a Partner in the Transaction Advisory Services practice of Grant Thornton UAE. Prior to moving to the Emirates, Khawaja was a director in Grant Thornton UK’s corporate finance division – for a time seconded to the UK’s independent merger & acquisitions regulator. .
A Partner with KPMG Lower Gulf, Ossama Kayed currently serves as the UAE firm’s Head of Capital Markets. Kayed has been with KPMG members in its Middle East and South Asia geography since 2000, switching from audit to Transaction Services six years after joining the firm. In addition to financial services, Kayed’s industry experience spans notably retail, real estate, and manufacturing among other areas.
The pair join further CCF panel additions Mike Littlewood, Regional Sector Head, Professional Services at HSBC MENAT, and Nick Beer, Chief Financial Officer at Transguard. Littlewood previously held senior roles at Ernst & Young for almost a decade including as a Director of Corporate Banking, while Beer has spent time at all of EY, PwC and Deloitte – the latter two as a director in the Middle East between 2011 and 2018.
“We are pleased to welcome these extremely talented and experienced new members to our CFF panel as they join to add depth to our expertise and further strengthen the panel’s credentials,” said ICAEW regional director Armstrong. “The panel is the voice of corporate finance for companies, advisers and investors across the region.” Sam Surrey (Deloitte), Richard Dingle (EY) and Romil Radia (PwC) are among the existing panel members representing the Big Four.
