Gatehouse Bank appoints Mourad Mekhail as Managing Director of Institutional Wealth Management

18th June 2008

Gatehouse Bank, the fully Shariah-compliant wholesale investment bank recently approved by the Financial Services Authority, has strengthened its sales team by appointing Mourad Mekhail as Managing Director of Institutional Wealth Management. Mourad reports directly into Ewa Gracey, Head of Distribution.

Mourad will head the placement team for Institutional Wealth Management products, which includes structured instruments and fund products, catering primarily to a client base of Islamic institutional investors and sophisticated quasi-institutional (private office) investors.

The Institutional Wealth Management team will focus initially on two key business areas: long-only, asset-based funds (including real estate and private equity) and structured products, including indices-linked products.

Mourad comes to Gatehouse from Merrill Lynch Bank Suisse, having worked with Very High Net Worth Individuals and small to medium size institutions, while working closely with the bank’s Global Investment Banking Division as Financial Advisor, Wealth Management. He worked with a variety of clients in the GCC region, including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

With an investment banking career spanning more than ten years in the Middle East, North Africa and GCC regions, Mourad was previously Director of Wealth Management at UBS AG, Cairo office.

David Testa, CEO, Gatehouse Bank, commented:

“To attract someone of Mourad’s calibre and experience to spearhead the placement strategy for Institutional Wealth Management is a major coup and testament to the progress Gatehouse has already made. There is demand from Islamic institutional and private office investors for the products we plan to launch. I simply cannot imagine a better person to ensure their successful placement.”

Mourad Mekhail, Managing Director of Institutional Wealth Management, Gatehouse Bank added:

“Gatehouse is ideally positioned to help Gulf based institutional and private office investors with its FSA regulated position in the Heart of the City of London. As a new investment bank, it is completely uninvolved in the current turmoil affecting banks, which gives many investors confidence. As importantly, it has an extremely well respected and established network in the Gulf through its shareholder The Securities House. I am truly excited about working with the team at Gatehouse to establish it as a major force in institutional wealth management for Islamic investors.”

Mourad has an MA in Business Administration, has presented numerous reports and papers on the European Monetary System and is fluent in English, German and Arabic.

For all media enquiries, please contact:

Sarah Boyce
Gatehouse Bank plc
Tel : +44 (0)20 3170 5558
Email : sarah.boyce@gatehousebank.com