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

Salman Azhar

Azimuth Opportunity Fund

I’m a season VC on a mission to make pre-IPO VC accessible with Azimuth to help people append a zero to their net worth. We derisk with downside protection for capital preservation and have low minimums (50K). My portfolio already includes several unicorns, such as Stripe and Amplitude (now public), and I’m loading more.

General Partner

Duke University - The Fuqua School of Business

o	Designed, produced, and taught an asynchronous course in Fraud Analytics.
	Developed and delivered script
	Supervised editing and post-production
o	Fostered Entrepreneurship in the Duke community (students, alumni, faculty, etc.) through participation in the Duke Angel Network and Duke Innovation & Entrepreneurship events.
o	Served as a judge in innovation competitions sponsored by DukeGEN, Fuqua, TechStars, Citadel Securities, youngStartup, and others.
o	Appeared as an expert on NPR-affiliate WUNC’s show on robo-advisors in the financial industry. 
o	Managed Duke Angel Network’s portfolio companies and curated new investments:
	Managed total investment portfolio of over $11 million in 21 portfolio companies in technology, healthcare, consumer goods, and services 
	Identified & reviewed 300+ opportunities & presented 17 investable opportunities to members
	Recruited, trained, supervised, and developed 14 associates in diverse specialties (medicine, engineering, law, business, and other areas) for technical evaluations

Executive in Residence & Faculty

BAYAREACHESS INC

•	Founded 2005, volunteered part-time 2005-09 & full-time 2009-10, and grew to #1 West of Texas (standings).
•	Designed, developed, & supported a BayAreaChess.com/my with 2300+ users in a solo programming effort driven by need and desire to sharpen my programming skills (mostly php & MySQL).
•	Initiated 50+ After-school programs with highest quality standards and top chess coaches.

Founder, President (2013-present) & Executive Director (2005-2013)

Pakistan Katalytic Fund

We provide management, fundraising, scaling, and go-to-market support to the success of startups across Pakistan.

Strategic Advisor

University of Minnesota

Volunteer to help innovators commercialize technology and create a quality deal flow for investors (and myself).
See https://research.umn.edu/units/techcomm/startups/external-entrepreneurs for more information on the program.

Regiment Investment Bank

• Early-stage investment fund run by superstars with over 80+ years’ partner experience
• Capitalizes on an economy that will be ripe for tenacious entrepreneurs and seasoned investors to team up to create incredible companies in a post-COVID world.
• Digital investment bank that utilizes reg-compliant marketplace technology to connect emerging entrepreneurs & funds with investors

Member Of The Board Of Advisors

Henry Health

Building on culturally intentional mental health services for Black Americans!

The Egg

Advisor

ExpatBuddy

OPEN Silicon Valley

OPEN is a network of entrepreneurs and professional who help each other to achieve our professional goals. My specific goal is to connect OPEN Silicon Valley to the talent and technology at Duke and in North Carolina

Life Charter Member

Dr. Salman Azhar has unique access in the venture world after investing in 250+ startups over 20+ years, and generating a positive return with his first 12 exits. He specializes in buying pre-IPO unicorns’ shares from early investors.
Dr. Azhar is a General Partner of Azimuth Opportunity Fund and Executive in Residence at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business. He is a Charter Life Member of OPEN Global and an advisor to several funds, including Quartus, Moment, and Regiment. His former business partners and clients include Toyota, Sony, SAP, and others. 
Dr. Azhar earned his MS and PhD in Computer Science from Duke as a James B. Duke Fellow and a BS in Math and Physics from Wake Forest University as a Carswell Scholar.

o	Designed, produced, and taught an asynchronous course in Fraud Analytics.
	Developed and delivered script
	Supervised editing and post-production
o	Fostered Entrepreneurship in the Duke community (students, alumni, faculty, etc.) through participation in the Duke Angel Network and Duke Innovation & Entrepreneurship events.
o	Served as a judge in innovation competitions sponsored by DukeGEN, Fuqua, TechStars, Citadel Securities, youngStartup, and others.
o	Appeared as an expert on NPR-affiliate WUNC’s show on robo-advisors in the financial industry. 
o	Managed Duke Angel Network’s portfolio companies and curated new investments:
	Managed total investment portfolio of over $11 million in 21 portfolio companies in technology, healthcare, consumer goods, and services 
	Identified & reviewed 300+ opportunities & presented 17 investable opportunities to members
	Recruited, trained, supervised, and developed 14 associates in diverse specialties (medicine, engineering, law, business, and other areas) for technical evaluations


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Salman Azhar

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