Philippe Becker, PhD
Partner, Orthus Capital
Philippe is a partner at Orthus Capital, an alternative asset manager based in Dubai. He is also senior financial advisor to the board of Inteltec, a Mideast based family wealth office, where he manages their private equity and venture capital investments. Philippe’s career has spanned the high tech industry as well as venture capital and private equity. He has been an advisor to Mizuho Bank’s domestic Japanese private equity fund since 2013. He recently served as Program Director for the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority Year 1 Academy, whose mandate is the professional development of ADIA’s UAE Nationals, in particular in the PE and VC sectors. Philippe was previously the Managing Director of Wasserstein Gulf, the Mideast office of Wasserstein & Co, the New York based private equity firm. Philippe has a Ph.D. in physics from UC Berkeley and an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania where he was a Palmer Scholar. He has taught at UC Berkeley and at the University of Tokyo. Philippe has been living in the UAE since 2010.
Ram Gopalakrishnan, CFA, CAIA
Director, Private Equity, Standard Chartered
Ram Gopalakrishnan is a Director with Standard Chartered Private Equity and is based in Dubai. His responsibilities include origination, execution, portfolio management and exits of private equity investments in MENA. Ram is also the Co-CEO of the Standard Chartered IL&FS Asia Infrastructure growth fund. Prior to joining the team in Dubai, Ram spent 9 years working with the Standard Chartered Private Equity teams in South-East Asia and Africa and has worked on a wide range of investments across sectors including Energy, Oil & Gas, Healthcare, Retail and Transportation. Ram joined Standard Chartered in 2007 in the International Graduate Programme. Ram holds a Bachelor of Computer Engineering (First Class Honours) from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Ram completed the Fintech Programme from the University of Oxford and is a CFA and CAIA charter holder.
Sajal Heda, CFA, CAIA
CIO, DICO Investments Co. LLC
Sajal has more than two decades of experience managing investments across asset classes and has been working with prominent Single Family Offices in Middle East and Indian sub-continent. In 2016, CIO magazine had selected Sajal on their list of global '40 under 40' Chief Investment Officers. He has been an active member of notable international committees like AIMA Investor Steering Committee, CFA Disciplinary Review Committee, CAIA Middle East Advisory Committee and others. He is active on international conference speaker’s circuit and is involved with AIMA in writing papers. He has an MBA from London Business School, is CFA and CAIA charter holder and holds CMA certificate. He is an avid traveler and started collecting contemporary Indian art in his mid-twenties and since then he is passionately involved in expanding his art collection.
Ellecia Saffron
Founder and Managing Director, Maysaffron
Ellecia Saffron, is the Founder and Managing Director of Maysaffron. Maysaffron is a strategic research and fund advisory boutique specializing in natural resources and disruptive sector opportunities with a focus on Australia, Asia, Middle East and North Africa. It is established in the United Arab Emirates. Before setting up Maysaffron, Ellecia was a portfolio manager at the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority for eight years, managing equity investments in Australia, Global materials, and Asian companies. Prior to this, she was an equity research analyst at Macquarie Bank in Australia covering the consumer sector. Ellecia has a BA in Business from the University of Technology of Sydney and an MBA from The University of Wales, UK.
Bill Kelly, CAIA
CEO, CAIA Association
William (Bill) J. Kelly is the CEO of the CAIA Association since January, 2014. Previously, Bill was the CEO of Boston Partners and one of seven founding partners of the predecessor firm, Boston Partners Asset Management. Bill’s career in the institutional asset management space spans over 30 years where he gained extensive managerial experience through successive CFO, COO and CEO roles. In addition to his current role, Bill is currently the Chairman and lead independent director for the Boston Partners Trust Company. He has previously served as an independent director and audit committee chair for ’40 Act Mutual Funds and other financial services firms. He is also currently an Advisory Board Member of the Certified Investment Fund Director Institute. Bill began his career as an accountant with PwC and is a designated Audit Committee Financial Expert in accordance with SEC rules.
