Mumtalakat makes senior appointments

Joining Mumtalakat as Chief Operating Officer is John Knight, whose role is to bring organizational best practices to Mumtalakat.

With over twenty five years experience in corporate law, business management, and risk management responsibilities , John will be responsible for overseeing Mumtalakat's corporate functions: Finance, Risk Management, Technology, Operations, Legal Affairs and Human Resources. John has spent his working career in New York and the Far East.

After practicing corporate law at the firm of Shearman & Sterling, he served for 14 years at JP Morgan Chase & Co., where, among other things he was a Managing Director and served as Chief Operating Officer for South and South East Asia. He also spent two years at The Rohatyn Group, an emerging markets asset management firm.

Serge Lepine has been appointed as Mumtalakat's Chief Investment Officer and will be responsible for the strategic asset allocation of Mumtalakat's funds as well as the management and long term development of Mumtalakat's investment portfolio.

Serge has more than 20 years' experience in the financial industry, having worked extensively in Canada, Asia and for the last five years, the GCC at both the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and more recently the Abu Dhabi Investment Council.

Responsible for Mumtalakat's strategic and business development agenda, Damien Balmet joins the investment company as its Vice President Corporate Development.

With 11 years of experience in consulting, Damien will advise Mumtalakat's CEO on its strategic plan and recommend business development proposals. He will also bring significant international consulting experience to Mumtalakat having advised global companies on their corporate strategies in Europe and the Middle East whilst working for Arthur D. Little and A.T. Kearney.

Commenting on the appointments, Talal Al Zain, CEO of Mumtalakat, said:

"The three appointments we are announcing today demonstrate how we are rapidly building up a world class team, based on global talent. John, Serge and Damien all bring years of international experience and knowledge of the markets and the strategies we need to understand and adopt to successfully execute upon our investment strategy. We're delighted to have them on board and they are already adding a new dimension to our increasingly international team of financial, strategy and corporate governance specialists."