Elaine Foo has spent the last 25 years of her career in finance. Her previous experience includes 10 years at Merrill Lynch in senior trading, investment banking and wealth management positions both in London & Paris. Prior to that, Elaine advised the Bronfman family on private equity transactions, as well as holding senior positions with Lehman Brothers, McKinsey and Wasserstein Perella in Chicago, London and New York.
Before moving to Europe, Elaine was COO for one of Hong Kong’s largest family offices. She began her career at Edmond Safra’s family office working in real estate private equity in the former Soviet Union and spent several years developing the real estate business in Russia and Azerbaijan.
Elaine graduated with a degree in Economics from Harvard University and speaks 6 languages.
Remi is an investment leader with a decade and a half of international experience in the full spectrum of the real estate life cycle across acquisition, operational enhancement and profitable disposition. His detailed grasp of complex deal structuring and execution is combined with an unerring ability to build and maintain lasting relationships with a range of institutional investors and partners. He has consistently delivered outstanding returns on the funds he manages, and leverages extensive knowledge of global real estate markets and trends to identify and develop value add opportunities.
Fluent in English and Arabic, Remi was raised in the Middle East before majoring in Finance and Accounting in Canada. He joined Westmont’s Toronto-based Asset Management team in 2005 and quickly assumed a central role in major transactions, including the largest ever REIT privatization on the TSX, valued at CAD3bn. Thereafter he became a key member in a new, high yield, distressed debt fund team, successfully sourcing funds from US investors and acquiring mezzanine loans secured by yielding real estate assets.
Promoted to SVP, Remi later relocated to Singapore, where he led the setup of a new Asia-based private equity platform. Working in both Singapore and Tokyo, he has directed asset management across the region, led acquisitions and dispositions, refinanced and recapitalized as appropriate.
Relocating to the UAE in 2017 as Group CFO of Emirates REIT and Equitativa Group, he led the issuance of Emirates REIT’s five-year, $400mn sukuk. This landmark transaction marked the first REIT from the MENA region to access the international sukuk market and obtain a credit rating.
Sajid Siddique combines over 20 years of corporate & investment banking expertise, 15 of which has been dedicated to the commercial real estate industry both internationally and within the GCC. Sajid spent 13 years at Mashreq Bank where was head of CRE Structuring, Advisory & Capital Markets and successfully structured, advised upon, and executed some of the regions landmark, highly complex and technically demanding CRE debt, advisory and capital market transactions.
Sajid is a respected figure among the GCC finance and real estate Industry and is very well regarded for his disciplined due diligence and capital allocation strategies. He has completed more than 1,200 CRE transactions totalling over $8bn.
Sarah is an experienced private equity investor and non-executive director, specialising in value creation for mid-market private equity funds and their portfolio companies.
Most recently, Sarah led investment and portfolio management in the UK & Ireland for Bluegem Capital Partners LLP, a specialist private equity fund investing equity cheques of €20-75 million to accelerate the growth of leading consumer brands in Europe.
She has previously held roles at Bridgepoint Group plc, the world’s leading quoted private assets growth investor with over €28 billion AUM, and Centrica plc, a multinational energy services and solutions company listed in the FTSE 250. Sarah started her career in Corporate Finance at Deloitte LLP, where she qualified as a Chartered Accountant.
Sarah holds an MA in Economics from Cambridge University, an MSc in Management Research from Oxford University and an Executive MBA with Distinction from London Business School.
A Chartered Surveyor with more than 28 years real estate investment and
advisory experience, more than 23 of this Internationally with particular focus on
Middle East.
Simon has established and led multi-disciplined teams within International real
estate practises (established and ran Advisory for CBRE in Middle East for total of
10 years, established and ran CBRE Saudi Arabia), headed investment teams
within banks both Islamic and Investment banks and established and led a
regulated private equity real estate firm and fund.
He has undertaken more than US$1.5bn of local, regional and International real
estate investment transactions across Europe, Asia and United States for
institutional and private investors, sovereign wealth funds and prominent ruling
and local families. In addition, he has advised on projects whether due diligence,
appraisal, investment and portfolio structuring or expert witness in main courts
(including UK High Court) with underlying values totalling in excess of US$3bn
He has sat on advisory and investment boards with Europe and Asia for
International organisations and is currently on oversight boards for prominent
regulated public fund.
Imran is the founder and CEO of BlackOak Global, an international investment and real estate platform. He brings close to two decades of investment experience specialising in acquisitions and asset management across Europe and the Middle East. Imran has directly acquired more than $1bn worth of real estate and further facilitated venture capital and growth-stage investments in excess of $800m in a variety of sectors including real estate, technology, beauty, education, and consulting.
Imran has held key senior-level positions both in the private and public sectors, including previously as the Chief Investment Officer for an investment fund which is building the largest publicly traded real-estate portfolio in the Middle East; as Chief Investment Officer at Dubai Healthcare City, overseeing the investment strategy for the Free Zone and as Managing Director of Investments for a prominent Saudi family office where he was responsible for diversified investments across the UK, the US and the Middle East.
Imran received an MBA in Finance from London Business School. He sits on a number of boards and is a regular speaker at investment conferences and events around the world.
Timothy (“Tim”) Lipton is a founding partner and shareholder of BlackOak Global. Tim brings over two decades of real estate experience spanning retail, commercial and residential development. Tim has spent most of his professional career prudently selecting value-add and opportunistic real estate deals whereby he has increased private and investor capital consecutively over this period.
He was previously the founder of MITMAS Property Group and served as the CEO. In his role at MITMAS, Tim has successfully acquired and excited numerous real estate deals across the UK. Tim further oversees and advices on a substantial family real estate portfolio across London.
Tim has an built an incredible professional network in the real estate sector and manages to be a leader in the industry.
Former in-house lawyer to one of the world's largest investment banks in London, subsequently moved to Dubai to head the Capital Markets and Investment Banking team at a top tier power law firm renowned for advising Dubai Government and members of the Dubai royal family.
Sagheer successfully established his practice and team as internationally recognized with very strong connections within the Middle East and Asia Pacific and for his ability in continuing to net Dubai Government deals. He was lead counsel for the Government of Dubai (Department of Civil Aviation) on what was at the time the largest ever Sukuk bond deal. The total project was in excess of US$ 4 billion used to finance the expansion of Dubai International Airport. He was ranked as one of the leading lawyers by Legal 500 and Chambers & Partners and earned his entry into Who’s Who Legal publication.
In 2007 Sagheer established Praesidium LLP, an investment banking consultancy firm at the Dubai International Financial Centre. Through his consistent unrivalled service, he managed to build an elite portfolio of some of the most recognized and influential global names. In 2010 he successfully joint ventured his business with Tricor Global, a member of Bank of East Asia Group to create Tricor Praesidium. The JV coupled with Tricor's global reach, had a combined resource capacity of over 1,500 staff across 23 offices and were regarded as the dominant DIFC firm.
In 2010 Sagheer partnered with Tower Group, a US Development firm to develop ultra-luxury hotels around the world and created 12 Blues Hotels & Resorts. For his first project in the Maldives he was featured in several leading hospitality publications and was quoted as being the next ’Adrian Zecha,” the legendary hotelier behind the ultra-luxury Aman Resorts.
In January 2017 Sagheer exited his interest in Praesidium to build equity-based businesses and in 2018 together with three prominent Hong Kong family offices, he established One Road Capital, an investment firm focused on strategic investments along China’s Belt and Road. The collaboration resulted in the launch of the world’s first Belt and Road REIT.
In 2019 Sagheer re-entered the consultancy space. Driven by a desire to create a formidable organization that attracted the most spirited intellectual firepower he launched Unitas Client Advisory. Located in the Nasdaq Building in the Dubai International Financial Centre, the premise was to offer unrivalled bespoke consultancy services to the most prominent and discerning of clients looking for that difference in approach.
Sagheer is a partner and advisor of BlackOak Real Estate and BlackOak Global.
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