Ms. Leila Atwi

Ms. Atwi is the Managing Partner of Business Engineering Experts. She holds an MBA degree from the American University of Beirut and a Certified Valuation Analyst (CVA) certificate. She has been engaged in sophisticated consulting assignments relating to valuation including due diligence, valuation and investment analysis of projects in the region as well as the work on the development of a multifaceted valuation and funding model for a leading real estate company in the Gulf.

She has gained an experience in corporate governance structures and principles through the work on a number of projects in the region including major companies which embarked on corporate governance restructuring programs.

Ms. Atwi’s research on corporate governance is recognized worldwide. Her research on the close interaction between governance and democracy was published in the Middle East Policy Journal and featured in the Arabic journal published by the Center for International Private Entrepreneurship (CIPE) sponsored by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Dr. Sheridan Titman

Dr. Titman is the incoming Vice President of the American Finance Association for 2011. He holds the McAllister Centennial Chair in Financial Services Center for Energy Finance at the University of Texas and is a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research. Professor Titman has over twenty-four years of academic experience. He has a Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon University, has taught at UCLA and Boston College and has served as the department chair for the finance group at both universities and as the Vice Chairman of the UCLA management school faculty.

Professor Titman is a leading expert in investments, corporate finance, valuation and real estate. He has published numerous articles on investments and corporate finance and energy. In addition to his leading advanced corporate finance textbook entitled Financial Markets and Corporate Strategy, he coauthored two books on valuation capitalizing on his profound professional and consultancy experience and covering complex sophisticated considerations and techniques (strategic analysis and real options, value of flexibility, irrational behavior and risk management, etc.). He has taught valuation in the special setting of large-scale investments in power plants, refineries, oil and gas development projects and electric power companies. He served as special assistant to the Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy, where he analyzed proposed legislation related to the stock and futures markets, corporate takeovers and leveraged buyouts.

Professor Titman was granted a number of prestigious awards including the Fischer Black Prize, Morgan Stanley-American Finance Association Award, Smith Breeden Prize, Jensen Prize, Fama-DFA Prize, Michael Brennan Award, among many others.

Dr. Salim Chahine

Dr. Chahine has a Ph.D. in Finance from the University of Aix-Marseille III. His research is mainly in Initial Public Offerings, Corporate Governance and Firm Valuation.

He has several publications in international academic journals such as Strategic Management Journal, Entrepreneurship: Theory and Practice, the Journal of Business Finance and Accounting, the Journal of Small Business Management, the European Accounting Review, Journal of Management and Governance, the International Review of Financial Analysis, Managerial Finance, and the Journal of Multinational Financial Management. He participated in several well-known academic conferences including the American Finance Association, the American Accounting Association, the Financial Management Association, and the European Finance Association meetings. His work has been profiled in Bankers and the National Bureau of Economic Research.

In addition to multiple consulting experiences in both the public and the private sectors in Europe, North Africa, and the GCC, he has taught and held visiting positions in several universities in the US, Europe, and the Arab World including the Johnson School-Cornell, the University of London, Bradford School of Management, Audencia-Nantes School of Management -France, St-Gallen-Switzerland, EADA-Spain, and the University of Sharjah.

Dr. Chahine is an editorial board member of several international reputable academic journals such as the Journal of Management Studies. He received several awards such as the Excellence Medal for distinguished Scholarship fellow from late PM R. Hariri, and the Shuman Award for the Best Young Arab Researcher in Economics, Banking, Financial and Management Sciences.

Dr. Scott Gibson

Dr. Gibson is an Associate Professor of Finance at the College of William and Mary Mason School of Business. He previously held academic appointments at Cornell University and the University of Minnesota. He holds a B.S. and Ph.D. in Finance from Boston College. Prior to his academic career, he worked as an analyst with Fidelity Investments and as a credit team leader serving a Fortune 500 clientele with HSBC Bank.

His current research interests include institutional investor trading strategies and their relation to stock and bond returns and conflicts of interest in the delegated portfolio management industry. His research publications include papers in the Journal of Financial Economics, Review of Financial Studies, Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Journal of Financial Intermediation, and Journal of Portfolio Management. Recent research awards include the Best Paper in Quantitative Investments at the 2008 Western Finance Association Meetings. His research has been featured in the financial press, including the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, New York Times, Barons, Business Week, and Bloomberg.

His consulting activities include serving as an expert witness on issues related to the mutual fund industry, providing valuation expertise for mergers and acquisitions, and developing quantitative targeting models that detail compatibility between securities issuers and institutional investors.

Mr. Jeff Andrien

Jeff Andrien is the President of Finance Scholars Group and a Director of its offices in New York and Texas. He held as well the position of Vice President at CRA international consulting company. He has accumulated more than fifteen years of experience in economics and finance specializing in litigation consultancy, economic and financial analysis and damage calculation of antitrust, litigation support, securities, and commercial damages matters, forensic accounting, bankruptcy, and fraud. He has participated in intellectual property analysis including the determination of patent infringement damages, the amount of reasonable loyalties, misappropriation of trade secrets, etc. and has performed valuations for derivative financial instruments as well as companies operating in multiple industries. Mr. Andrien’s engagements covered a wide range of industries, including biotechnology, banking, energy, pharmaceutical, manufacturing, retail, and high technology, among others.

Mr. Andrien is also a guest lecturer at University of Washington’s Olin School of Business, and in the Masters in Marketing Program at Thammasat University in Bangkok, Thailand, where he teaches graduate level finance courses on valuation and investments. Moreover, Mr. Andrien has delivered several seminars on accounting, finance, and litigation services to academic and professional audiences.

Mr. Andrien holds an MBA and BA in economics from the University of Texas at Austin. He is a member of a number of professional associations.

Dr. Abbas Safieddine

Dr. Safieddine is an expert in materials technology and plant design. He holds a masters degree in Chemical Engineering and a PHD in polymer science and technology. During his seven years employment with General Electric Co. (USA), he initially worked as advanced scientist in technology department specializing in new product introduction (NPI) and later as regional product leader (mid-west region) in commercial technology.

Over the past ten years, Dr. Safieddine has co-founded and has been acting as managing director of two sister companies specializing in manufacturing and global distribution. Plastimed now boasts in being the only manufacturer of generation 3 and generation 4 intravenous serum bags and accessories in the whole Middle Eastern and North African region.

Dr. Safieddine authored several publications and co-patented numerous materials formulations and processes. He is an active member with the Association of Lebanese Industrialists and acts as primary consultant with various industrialist groups in projects throughout the region.

Dr. Zeigham Khokher

Dr. Khokher holds a Ph.D. in finance from the University of Texas at Austin, and has held a faculty appointment at the Ivey Business School at the University of Western Ontario for more than five years. He has also served as visiting scholar at the Securities and Exchange Commission in Washington D.C. While at the SEC Dr. Khokher worked as the lead economist on the collapse of the energy hedge fund Amaranth, he has also worked as an advisor to energy firms in Texas.

He has served as a member of several workshops and roundtables related to Energy issues in Toronto, New York and Washington DC. He has been invited to present his Energy Finance related research at Morgan Stanley. His research has been published in the Journal of Finance.

Mr. Philippe Matar

Mr. Matar is a product manager at Murex SAS, a market leader in developing software for trading, risk management and processing. Throughout his eight years of professional experience at the company, Mr. Matar has developed proven skills in the design and development of different core components of software platform of long term strategic value delivered to major international banks.

He has also contributed to the strategic and direct marketing of these software tools within a competitive and niche sector. He has implemented and headed an expert customer services team in charge of managing the industrial lifecycle of these assets. The team is now localized in the US and Asia in addition to Europe.

Mr. Matar has thus accumulated valuable expertise in both finance and technological applications in addition to his interests in management and marketing.

Mr. Matar has a First Honors MSc in Computer and Communications from the University of Birmingham (UK) as well as a BE in the same field from the American University of Beirut.