naseba announces the winners for the MENA CFO of the Year Awards 2008

There were six awards presented and the winners for each award are as follows:

Ahmad Fayed Al Gibali , CFO, Boubyan Bank took home the award for the Revolutionary CFO of the Year for his contributions to revolutionize the Islamic finance industry and also for being Prolific and embracing wide-ranging new roles for finance.

Yuvraj Narayan, CFO, DP World picked up the CFO of the Year Award 2008 for playing an instrumental role in evolvement of a region's local operator into a global player as well as a global brand name through major acquisitions. He also successfully completed the single largest equity issue in the Middle East and pioneered in the establishment of Sukuk market as well as delivery of largest Sukuk in the Middle East.

Sanjay Uppal, Group CFO, Emirates NBD bagged the Excellence in Finance - public sector award for his instrumental role dedicated to the successful structuring of the biggest merger deal ever, in the GCC throughout the last year. In addition to this, he has also managed to lead the bank's finances forward in double digit growth.

Pinak Maitra, Group CFO of Kuwait Projects Company (KIPCO) won the award for Excellence in finance - private sector. For more than 20 years, Pinak has played a central role in the transformation of KIPCO from a small holding company into a group that operates in 21 countries with assets in excess of US$24 billion. In close cooperation with the company's Vice Chairman, he has been a driving force in the development of KIPCO's business strategy, major acquisitions and divestments. This strategy has resulted in adding considerable shareholder value.

Abdulrahman A. Al-Sufiany, CFO, Saudi Arabia General Investment Authority (SAGIA) won the Excellence in finance - government bodies' award. Abdulrahman has revolutionized the way a government body typically functions by introducing Private-Public partnership structures and contributions that allowed SAGIA to provide a much higher level service to their investors through increasing their financial capacity. He is also the first CFO to integrate SAP as the financial ERP successfully for a government office.

Abdullatif Al Othman, Senior - VP, Finance, Saudi Aramco got the Hall of Fame Award or the Most admired CFO in the Middle East for his role in building a strong local talent pool in finance. Mr Othman has a passion for development of human capital in finance and beyond and has led Finance function at Saudi Aramco through an extensive transformation effort

The winners have been chosen by an independent panel of judges selected from among Middle East financial and business industry. Judging was based on information provided by nominees to questions listed on the nomination form. They marked the scores on the basis of the pre-set criteria and entry form submitted by the nominees and assessed the following criteria:



· Business impact - sales, cost, profitability, competitive edge

· Innovativeness - new ideas / solutions / approaches to either solve existing or new problems or to make the organization more competitive

· Contextual complexity - the extent to which the initiative's complexity or difficulty had to overcome the context of the organization or the CFO in particular.

· Business partnership - the degree of collaboration between finance and other parts of the business

· Organizational capability enhancement - increasing the capability for the finance organisation or the whole organization

· Personal characteristics: Outstanding mentor, team builder, extraordinary performer in difficult times.

Further, the jury considered the context in which each initiative was executed and the challenges faced in its execution. Achievements were measurable in terms of financial performance, improved competitive position and improved company image.

naseba would like to thank all the winners and congratulate them on their achievements.