Private company

• Advised Family Offices on growth capital and pre-IPO opportunities in Education, Tech, and other sectors.
• Conducted deal-making and venture evaluations to identify lucrative investment opportunities.
• Collaborated with stakeholders to strategize and execute successful investments for high returns.

CEO / Operating Partner

TomouhCL

Member

OPUS

OPUS is a global community focused on empowering the next generation of business innovators. We believe community is the key driver of opportunity. Built on inclusivity and diversity, our community brings together carefully chosen individuals known for their talent and ambition.

Our mission is to become the world’s foremost connector of people and creator of opportunities.

Kïdo

* Spearheaded establishment and growth of the 3 UAE Schools via greenfield and acquisitions, conducted a successful exit to a strategic investor through an exceptional due diligence and negotiation process achieving high multiple ROI. 
* As part of executive committees / senior management, working across geographies to review, evaluate and plan corporate-wide strategies and organizational initiatives to build infrastructure, operations, sales processes and systems to achieve growth of the Revenue by 50% year-on-year.  
* Evaluating potential expansion via Joint Venture and Franchising with Private Equity, Regional Family Offices and Strategic Investors into Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Egypt, Pakistan, Oman, Qatar and Africa. 
* Canvased for and engaged in multiple fund-raising discussions with Private Equity, Venture Capital, Individual and Strategic Investors globally. 
* Designed, implemented and championed a robust financial infrastructure (budgeting, forecasting and reporting) from scratch across geographies, subsidiaries and product verticals.

Group CFO & CEO, Middle East & Africa

Standard Chartered Bank

* Achieved performance beyond management expectations for the Sub-Saharan Africa Financial Markets Business to make it one of the best-performing segments by expanding cross-asset derivatives solutions across flow and bespoke structured deals. 
* Harnessed the transformative power of a new well-trained team and selected global stakeholders to increase revenue from 20x + in less than 4-years.

Head of Africa Structuring, SSG Group (Emerging Market Structuring)

* Closed the largest derivative trade in Pakistan for the Group. 
* Development of Islamic Shariah-Compliant Derivatives.

Derivatives Structurer - Middle East and Pakistan

* Set-up and fast-tracked the growth of the credit structuring business in London from less than USD 200k to USD 8mio during the credit crisis of 2007-2008. Cultivated a strong collaboration with European / US Sales teams to build distribution channels to pension funds, hedge funds, asset managers and private banks. 
* Successfully closed a USD 1 Billion+ Capital Relief Balance Sheet transaction for the Bank through a Structured Trade in December 2007, which was recognized by Head of Wholesale Bank and Group CEO.

Structurer

* Launched and developed the strategy for the MENA Capital Markets business across the Origination and Distribution business lines, product initiatives in the Structured Credit space, resulting in numerous firsts for the Bank. Contributed to increase in revenue by more than 200%. 
* Led the execution of 4 Structured IPO Lending transactions (Revenue USD 10mio+) for the largest local IPOs in the UAE in 2005-2006, coordinating structural requirements internally and liaising with sales teams and clients.
* Pitched and executed the first SCB IPO Lead Receiving Bank mandate for the Al Baraka Bank IPO in 2004. Put together a regional syndicate of 12 banks and the infrastructure to deliver a highly successful transaction.
* led the efforts to sell-down CDO equity tranches to institutional investors in MENA

Associate Director, Capital Markets

National Bank of Abu Dhabi

* Structured a USD 20mio Fund of Hedge-Funds - manager / strategy due diligence, risk evaluation, selection.
* Launched the FAB UAE Trading Fund which currently has an AUM of AED 141mio.

Investment Analyst

I am the man in the arena!

I’m a serial entrepreneur who started selling a hand-copied local newsletter at 8-years old, and I’ve never known what it’s like not to be responsible and be a leader. No set-back has kept me down, and I have always approached my next “adventure” with enthusiasm. I would put this down to my huge capacity to learn, my resilience, and curiosity allowing me to identify paths to reinvent myself and my organizations. 

I have enjoyed many executive positions in my career with my strong commercial acumen, and ability to deliver operational excellence with scale across multiple markets. I focus on delivering key outcomes, building amazing teams and collaborations and scaling to new heights. 

As Regional CEO / Group CFO for Kido, my experience has allowed me to gain extensive international knowledge of the learning markets and impact investments including early childhood education, edtech and school operations. We have leveraged technology and innovative pedagogy to improve delivery in Pre-School Education.

• I built, lead and grew the UAE Nursery Business over 7 years and orchestrated a successful exit.
• I have had extensive experience with creating finance strategy, managing cashflow, and optimizing pricing, costs and revenues. 
• I have contributed by advising on and executing M&A, capital raising (Private Equity and Venture Capital), build-out, tax optimization, strategic, corporate and legal restructuring transactions for portfolio companies across UK, US, India, UAE, Hong Kong, Singapore. 

At SCB, I joined in 2004 in the Capital Markets MENA team, was promoted in two years to be based in London to build and grow the credit distribution platform across Europe and North America. In 2009, I joined the Strategic Solutions Group in Middle East and within a year was asked to lead the team and expansion in Sub-Saharan Africa. I Implemented exceptional growth in revenue for the Africa FM Sales business and for all business lines multiplying sales by at least 3x to upto 20x and higher throughout. 

Professional Skills
Strategic Planning | Transformational Leadership | Team Development | Product Roadmap | Portfolio Strategy | Deal Making | Investment Analysis | M&A | Financial Systems | Global Expansion

Domain Knowledge 
Investment | Private Equity | Capital Markets | Education Management | Education Consulting | EdTech

Umair Tariq

Another excellent session arranged by TomouhCL !

Excellent and though provoking discussions and great to meet leaders from across the region!

li_at

JSESSIONID

Talks about #strategy, #education, #investment, #impactinvesting, and #entrepreneurship

Family Office Advisor | CEO | CFO | Private Markets Deal-Maker | Buy-and-Build & Portfolio Operations | Education Strategy | Ex-Standard Chartered | CFA Charterholder | GCC • UK • US • Africa

A year of consistent engagement with UCEA - Family Office Group events has reinforced a fundamental truth: the most valuable deals rarely come from cold pitches but they emerge from trusted relationships built over time.

Last week's gathering was another testament to Michael Reeves and his team's ability to curate not just investment opportunities, but meaningful dialogues. What makes these events exceptional isn't simply the quality of dealflow presented, though it consistently impresses, it's the intentionality behind who's in the room.

Throughout this year, I've watched this community evolve from individual connections into a genuine ecosystem where family offices and institutional investors can think collectively about complex allocations. The conversations have shifted from transactional to strategic, from reactive to proactive.

A particular highlight from last week: the cross-border opportunities that wouldn't typically reach traditional channels, presented with the kind of operational transparency that serious allocators demand.

To the UCEA team—thank you for understanding that effective capital deployment starts with effective relationship building. The consistency and quality you've maintained throughout the year hasn't gone unnoticed.

Already looking forward to the next one.

#FamilyOffice #InstitutionalInvesting #PrivateMarkets #CapitalAllocation #DealFlow

UCEA - Family Office Group

Regional Investment Manager @ UCEA Family Office | Relationship Development

"It is better to lose time than temper in a negotiation"

#FamilyOffice #Dealmaking #Investing #Growth #Leadership

An Excellent Biography. 

I've been very interested in John Malone's deal-making and structuring creativity since reading "The Cable Cowboys". 

While not that much in-depth on the structuring part, its a must-read for entrepreneurs on fast-changing industries, mergers, acquisitions, deal-making and growth and challenges. 

I now need to research on tracking stocks, spin-offs and the various structures used by John Malone throughout his career and look forward to that study. 

#Mergers #FamilyOffice #PrivateEquity #ReadingClub #Leadership

“Reality will pay you back in equal proportion to your delusion.”

— Will Smith

#Entrepreneurship #Leadership #Growth

Every year end, many review the Investment Outlooks from various banks and investment houses, navigating through differing opinions in extensive reports. 

This year, I utilized NotebookLM to help summarize the information, and it is impressive to see how it synthesizes data and documents into a coherent summary. 

While I still recommend reading the original documents in full, you may find this #2026 #MarketOutlook Compendium useful. 

#Investing #AI #Markets #FamilyOffice #PrivateEquity #VentureCapital

Compendium of 2026 Outlooks

“I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.”
- Michaelangelo


#Entrepreneurship #Leadership #Growth #Creativity

“An object in possession seldom retains the same charm that it had in pursuit.”

- Pliny the Younger: Roman senator, lawyer, and author 


#Leadership #Growth #Goals #Entrepreneurship

Banyan International FZ LLE

Banyan International is the long-term company used to steward my work in global education. It serves as the strategic base through which I lead ventures, structure partnerships, and build enduring institutions—anchored by a philosophy of disciplined investment, operational excellence, and generational value creation.

Banyan houses the intellectual property, operating playbooks, and cumulative experience developed through my journey across the Middle East, Africa, and Asia. From founding and scaling investor-backed school networks to crafting governance systems, curricula, and growth strategies, Banyan reflects a lifetime commitment to building educational enterprises that are both principled and performance-driven.

Chief Executive Officer

Meraki Group

Managing Director

North London Collegiate School (Singapore) 

Governor

North London Collegiate School Dubai

PAE Holdings LLC

Founder and Chief Executive Officer

Tadrees Holding

Founding CEO for private equity and family office backed K-12 school platform in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Led the firm from founding to serving more than 12,000 students through acquisition and expansion. Oversaw the management, operations and development of the company, focusing on strategic planning, acquisitions and curriculum development.

GEMS Education.

Largest owner of K12 Schools in Middle East

Commercial Director, EVP Business Strategy

K12 Inc.

(NYSE: LRN) The largest provider of online K-12 schooling serving more than 200,000 students worldwide today,  $1.0B market cap.

Senior Director

Edison Learning

Predecessor company to Edison Learning. Formerly, the largest manager of public schools and charter schools that provides consulting, school turnaround and outsourcing services in UK and US; a  pioneer in the US education reform movement.

Vice President

With over 25 years of experience leading, scaling, and advising investor-backed education companies across the Americas, MENA, Asia, and Sub-Saharan Africa. I’ve built a reputation as a trusted operator, strategist, and dealmaker in the global K–12 sector. I specialize in creating and expanding multi-site school platforms that deliver both high academic outcomes and strong financial performance.

As a former founding CEO and board-level advisor, I’ve led greenfield launches, turnarounds, M&A transactions, and strategic partnerships in some of the world’s most dynamic education markets. My work spans international, national curriculum, and bilingual schools—with deep expertise in aligning pedagogy, operations, finance, real estate, and governance to accelerate platform growth.

What sets me apart is my ability to move seamlessly between classroom innovation and boardroom execution. I bring a rare blend of operational depth, global insight, and commercial rigor—making me a valuable partner to investors and education operators seeking to scale with both purpose and performance.

Whether advising family offices, private equity funds, or school groups, my focus remains constant: Build with purpose. Scale with discipline. Deliver with trust.

taplio

The Battle

Umair Tariq

Bernard West

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The Battle

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Bernard West

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