Prior to joining Gulf Bank, from 2006 to 2009, Michel was the Assistant CEO of Arab Bank PLC, with direct responsibility over all banking businesses globally, and served on the Group’s various Boards.

Before moving to Arab Bank, Michel had spent 27 years with Citigroup, which he joined in 1979. His last position with Citigroup, from 2002 to 2006, was as MD and Division Executive for the Middle East and North Africa region.

Michel has an MBA Honors from the University of Texas in Austin, obtained in 1978.

Prior to joining Gulf Bank in October 2009, Carlos served as CEO and Regional Vice President of Europe for GMAC Financial Services from 2005 to 2009 and was accountable for business with assets totaling USD22 billion and headed a team spread across 18 European countries.

He brings with him more than 25 years business and financial experience, having spent a major part of his career at GMAC and General Motors and prior to that, at Philip Morris, where he led the treasury and tax teams in Brazil in his last position with the company.

Carlos is a CPA and Accounting graduate from the University of Ipiranga in Sao Paulo, Brazil. He has also completed an Advanced Management Program in Finance from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and an Advanced Management Program in Business from The Darden School at the University of Virginia.

Surour has been with the Bank for over 10 years, and prior to joining Gulf Bank, he was head of the HR functions at M.H. Alshaya and Alghanim Industries.

He has many years of diversified HR experience and has been responsible for numerous developments within Human Resources at Gulf Bank.

A number of HR awards have been won by him and Gulf Bank including, an International Stevie Award for Best HR team in 2006, the Middle East Outstanding Contribution to HR award in 2007, the GCC Localization Award, which the Bank has claimed for 6 consecutive years from 2005 to 2010 and the prestigious GCC Employer of the Year in 2010 at the 2nd GCC HR Excellence Awards.

Surour studied at the University of Houston and later obtained his HR professional qualification at Thames Valley University in the UK.

Prior to joining Gulf Bank as Chief Risk Officer in 2009, Saleem was with Arab Bank, where he held the position of Group Chief Credit Officer from 2007 to 2009. He was responsible for the Bank’s credit risk portfolio, credit policy supervision, portfolio management and country risk. He also spent five years with Barclays Bank as Chief Operating Officer for Corporate & Merchant Banking for the Africa & Middle East Region and later on as the Regional Managing Director for Middle East & North Africa.

He began his banking career with Citibank in 1981, and went on to hold a variety of senior business and risk roles in Pakistan, UAE, Nigeria and South Africa, where his last role was Chief Risk Officer for Sub-Sahara Africa.

Saleem holds a MBA degree from Punjab University in Lahore.

Prior to joining Gulf Bank in late 2009, Hatem was a Partner – Chief General Counsel, Head of Regulatory Affairs and Corporate Secretary at Rasmala Investment Holding Ltd, DIFC, Dubai, where he supported the group of companies across UAE, KSA, Egypt, Oman and the UK.

He has over 25 years experience in legal, compliance and board affairs matters. During the span of his career, Hatem has worked with different international law firms such as White & Case in New York, Freshfields in London and Baker & McKenzie in Cairo. He also worked as General Counsel for Citigroup for 7 years to initially cover the North & West African region out of Cairo and then to cover the Gulf Region out of Bahrain. He, thereafter, assumed the role of Managing Director and General Counsel for the private equity firm of Gulf Capital in Abu Dhabi.

Hatem has a Masters degree in Banking, Corporate and Finance Law from Fordham University in New York.

Mark joined Gulf Bank in 2004 as VP and Head of Marketing and is now responsible for all aspects of marketing as well as the management of all Electronic Banking Channels including the Customer Contact Center, External Communications and Research.

Mark has extensive international experience in consumer marketing, international brand management and new business acquisition. He has worked successfully in a number of senior marketing roles globally and in Europe, North America, the Middle East and Asia having spent a major part of his career with British American Tobacco (BAT).

Mark has an MBA from Ashridge Management College (England) and holds a Bachelor of Commerce Degree with Honors from Queen’s University (Canada).

Leonard joined Gulf Bank in 2006, and has been with the Bank for over 5 years. Prior to joining Gulf Bank, he was with KPMG where he was associated with the Internal Audits of Banks and Financial Institutions in Kuwait. He has also worked for Deloitte Touche in India and has several years experience in auditing.

Leonard is a Chartered Accountant and holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from Loyola College, India. He is also a Certified Internal Auditor, Certified Information Systems Auditor , a Certified Fraud Examiner, and a member of these respective professional institutions in USA.