Speakers

Abradat Kamalpour
Partner
Ashurst

Abradat Kamalpour is a finance partner at Ashurst in London. He has extensive experience in securitization, debt capital markets and structured finance transactions. Abradat is the head of the Emerging Markets and Islamic Finance Desk of the Securities and Derivatives Group. Abradat has one of the leading emerging market practices in the market and is CEO and the founder of the New Silk Road Forum.

Abradat has been at the forefront of structuring Islamic-compliant capital markets and securitization transactions, transforming non-compliant structures into instruments acceptable to Islamic investors and has recently been ranked in Band 1 for banking and finance (Islamic finance) by Chambers UK 2010 and named as a leading individual in Islamic finance by Legal 500 2009. He is also ranked as one of the world's top 25 pre-eminent Islamic finance practitioners in Expert Guides, Best of the Best 2009 and was named a leading lawyer by Islamic Finance news (2009). Abradat was also included in The Lawyer's Hot 100, 2008 of the 100 legal professionals to watch as well as being a key member of the team that won the Euromoney award for Best Global Islamic Finance Legal Advisor 2006-2007.

Abradat graduated with a Bachelor of Laws (Hons) degree from Monash University and from RMIT University with a Bachelor of Construction Management (Hons) degree. He has been a partner at Ashurst since 2008.

Anouar Adham
Group CEO
Elite International Assets

Anouar co-founded Elite, an international company with offices in London, Paris and Doha that helps GCC investors acquire European assets as well as helping European companies expand in the GCC. Anouar has extensive experience with international banks in Europe, Southeast Asia and the Middle East. His last position was with the strategic department team of the Qatar Financial Center in Doha. Prior to that Anouar was the head of asset management for QIB (UK), based in London, managing the asset management activity for QIB globally, creating and promoting innovative products including the biggest Sukuk fund in the market at the time.

Anouar was also involved with the establishment of an Islamic asset management company in Malaysia for BNP Paribas, when he was working in Singapore. Anouar has an Executive MBA from Imperial College London, is a chartered financial analyst and holds the IFQ qualification.

David Jones
Partner
Ashurst

David Jones is a partner and the head of the real estate investment team at Ashurst in London. David graduated from Exeter University and has been a partner at Ashurst since 2003.

David has market-leading experience in real estate investments in both the UK and continental European markets with a particular focus on international real estate mergers and acquisitions. He acts for some of the biggest names in the global real estate investment market on inward investment of foreign capital into European real estate, including advising on corporate real estate transactions, sales and purchases of high value commercial real estate, joint ventures and international tax structuring. David is also highly experienced in all aspects of international sale and leaseback, leasehold liability transfers, development and urban regeneration transactions.

Jamie Chapman
Partner
Ashurst

Jamie Chapman is a partner in the real estate development team at Ashurst in London and graduated with a Bachelor of Laws degree from Dundee University. He has been a partner at Ashurst since 2007.

Jamie has considerable experience in relation to all forms of commercial real estate acting for a variety of clients including developers, real estate funds, local authorities and transport undertakings. He has particular expertise in real estate development work and major infrastructure and regeneration projects. He also has expertise in setting up Shari'ah compliant real estate funds and the management and investment of the same, and dealing with real estate elements of major railway projects.

Jean Philippe Besse
Founder
Parisian Real Estate Advisor, France

Jean-Philippe has 20 years of professional experience, including at Axa Group in Paris and New York and the co-founding of La Française des Placements – which subsequently became a leading French boutique in asset management.

In 2007, he became the head of international business development of La Française des Placements, which then merged to become La Française. From 2011, Jean-Philippe’s focus has been on Middle Eastern business development, leading La Française to create the first Shariah compliant French OPCI dedicated to a Kuwaiti bank.

Jean-Philippe founded Parisian Real Estate Advisor in 2013, with the ambition to be the leading French real estate advisor for GCC investors.

Paul Devonshire
Executive Director
Prudential Real Estate Investors (PREI)

Paul Devonshire is an executive director at Prudential Real Estate Investors (PREI) and a member of the European Business Development and Client Relations group. Based in Munich, Paul founded and is responsible for business development and client relations with Middle East clients. Paul has 24 years of real estate experience and he has been with Prudential for 14 years. Prior to joining PREI in 1999, for three years Paul served as the director of marketing for Europe and the Middle East for a US asset management advisor based in Zurich. Between 1990 and 1996, based in Vienna, Frankfurt, and Dusseldorf, he was responsible for all international business for a leading German real estate advisor. Paul has a Bachelor’s degree in estate management, is a chartered surveyor, and has an MBA from the University of Warwick Business School in the UK. Fluent in English and German, he is a visiting associate fellow at Warwick Business School, University of Warwick. He has previously served as a member of the European Management Committee, as well as a board member on conventional and Shariah compliant funds active globally.

Paul Miller
Partner
Ashurst

Paul Miller is a tax partner in London, specializing in UK and international tax planning. His practice focuses on structured financial products, real estate funds, investment funds and real estate transactions.

Paul has considerable experience in advising on the tax and accounting interactions of financial products and fund structures. He is a member of the Stamp Taxes Practitioners Group, the Chartered Institute of Tax's stamp duty working group and HMRC's IAS 39 working group.

Paul is also the co-author of ’The Taxation of Corporate Debt and Derivatives’.

Philip Churchill
Founder & Managing Partner
90 North Real Estate Partners

Starting his career with Citigroup, Philip moved into real estate over 15 years ago and has specializsed in real estate investment management since. With transactions conducted exceeding GBP2 billion (US$2.81 billion), Churchill has extensive practical knowledge in the due diligence and structuring of acquisitions across the UK, the US and continental Europe as well as a wide range of sectors and investment strategies. Before establishing 90 North, Churchill was the executive vice-president and the head of real estate at Shari’ah compliant Gatehouse Bank in London. He established the team and built assets under management. Churchill spent four years as the managing director and the head of investment management, Europe at HDG Mansur, fund manager for the Shari’ah compliant HSBC Amanah Global Properties Income Fund. Churchill started his career with Citigroup in banks’ risk management and moving into Citigroup Property Investors, launching and investing two European Shari’ah compliant real estate funds.

Rachid Ouaich
Managing Director
eethiq Advisors, Luxembourg

Rachid Ouaïch is a co-founder and the managing director of EETHIQ ADVISORS. Since 2007, he has been heading the European activities of Wafra Capital Partners managing the operations of several real estate Shariah compliant products, with assets under management of about EUR1.5 billion (US$1.65 billion). Across Europe, in Turkey and the Middle East, there are around 30 real estate investments that have been Islamically structured and managed under Rachid’shis supervision, making his team of professionals, one of the few in Europe that can claim hands-on practice in this innovative and complex industry. Rachid is also the chairman of the Islamic Finance Professionals’ Association, a Luxembourg not-for-profit association that aims at connecting professionals active in the field of Islamic finance. Prior to founding EETHIQ ADVISORS and working for Wafra Capital Partners, Rachid had worked for seven years at PwC (Luxembourg) where he started the asset management – Islamic finance practice.

Simon Swann
Partner
Ashurst

Simon Swann is a partner in the tax department at Ashurst in London. He graduated with a Master of Arts degree from St Anne's College, Oxford and has been a partner at Ashurst since 2010.

He advises on all forms of corporate tax with a particular emphasis on real estate taxes. From 2003 to 2004, he was seconded to the then Inland Revenue Stamp Taxes Policy & Statute team to develop and implement stamp duty land tax and in 2008 Simon was seconded to the property structured finance division of RBS. A regular speaker at SDLT conferences, Simon is also a member of the Stamp Taxes Practitioners Group.