IJGlobal Awards 2025 – Dubai Judging Panel
We are delighted today to be announcing the judging panel for IJGlobal Awards 2025, identifying a team of experienced industry professionals who will deliberate company awards for the Middle East and North Africa.
To access the awards submissions portal, click here...
We believe that IJGlobal Awards are the single most transparent and peer review in this sector. We pride ourselves on fielding regional teams of infra / energy experts who assess submissions and vote (in secret) on the organisations that win them over.
The MENA judges will meet for Judgment Day in early January to debate the merits of companies that closed deals – project finance greenfield and refi – in that region from over the course of 2025.
Judges are recused from casting votes where they are conflicted. In effect, this means that lawyers cannot vote in the legal segment and bankers are not allowed to sway the decision in the MLA category.
The judges (in alphabetical order) for the MENA Judgment Day are:
- Christopher Cantelmi – IFC
- Abu Chowdhury – ASMA Capital Partners
- Adel Elsolh – Rebel Group
- Ali-Tahir Jaffery – Standard Chartered Bank
- Lina Kassas – MUFG Bank
- Sami Neffati – Aberdeen Investcorp Infrastructure Partners
- Vishal Rander – Deloitte
- Laleh Shahabi – Gibson Dunn
- Ravi Suri – KPMG
- Dan Taylor – National Development Fund of Saudi Arabia
- Sarah Usmani – First Abu Dhabi Bank
- Laughlan Waterston – SMBC
- Catherine Workman – Pinsent Masons
Christopher Cantelmi
IFC
A regular feature on the IJGlobal panel for the Middle East and North Africa, Chris is a principal investment officer at the International Finance Corporation, leading the infrastructure and natural resources department and operating out of Dubai.
Chris is responsible for the origination and execution of debt and equity investments in the power, water, energy and essential infra sectors throughout the MENA region.
He brings a depth of knowledge that greatly supports the judging panel in coming to a balanced set of award winners that reflect the previous year’s market activity.
He is famed as a judge for once having had to leave a judging session early, sporting a bullet proof vest.
Chris led IFC’s efforts to support renewable energy programmes in Jordan and Egypt, while creating and structuring complementary low transaction cost, standardised limited recourse project financing programmes to support the many renewable developers participating.
Before joining the IFC in 2013, Chris served at the Mubadala / GE Capital (MGEC) JV for 3 years in Abu Dhabi as a director and head of energy and project finance.
Abu Chowdhury
ASMA Capital Partners
Another repeat judge from previous MENA award panels, Abu’s understanding of the regional market makes him a valued expert with a firm grasp on greenfield developments across infrastructure and energy.
Serving as the managing director and CFO of ASMA Capital Partners, Abu is also a member of the management committee and – alongside his role within the investment decision making process – is responsible for the finance function at ASMA Capital.
He is also a member of the board of directors on a number of investee companies of the fund.
Prior to this, Abu was a managing partner at EMP Bahrain and was responsible for managing IDBIF I, which returned more than $1.2 billion to its investors.
Before EMP Bahrain, Abu was with Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank where he was responsible for managing and structuring infrastructure and asset-backed investments.
Adel Elsolh
Rebel Group
After keeping everyone waiting for an uncomfortable length of time, Adel revealed this summer that he was joining Rebel Group as founder and chief executive of its new Middle East and Central Asia team.
This had been one of the best kept secrets in the Middle East… until IJGlobal broke the news… as Adel had finished his gardening leave at the end of 2024 from his role as MENAT head of real assets and co-head of investment banking for the Middle East at Natixis.
In his previous role at Natixis – operating out of Dubai – Adel built an enviable reputation, representing the French bank’s activities across the Middle East, Turkey and Africa.
With around 27 years’ experience in infrastructure, his banking career included 9 years with the RBS infra finance group in London covering advisory, lending and equity.
He has exposure to power, renewables, oil and gas, telecoms, water, waste, and social infrastructure as well as accommodation in META, delivering fixed rate solutions from institutional investors.
He has been based in the Middle East, covering the region since the summer of 2010, and – again – he is a regular judge on the MENA panel, bringing to bear his considerable experience.
Ali-Tahir Jaffery
Standard Chartered Bank
Ali-Tahir is based in the UAE and is a senior project finance transactor with extensive experience of structuring large-scale financings in across the Middle East and Africa region, primarily in the power and water sector.
Furthermore, Ali – or ATC as many know him – has also worked on transactions in the LNG, petrochemicals, fertilizer and telecom sectors.
Ali has been working at Standard Chartered Bank in the Middle East since 2005, having worked there for a couple of years prior to that in Pakistan.
He started his career before the turn of the millennium in Pakistan at KPMG.
Lina Kassas
MUFG Bank
Lina is head of structured finance for the Middle East and North Africa at MUFG, and she joins the IJGlobal judging panel for the first time for the 2024 awards.
She operates out of Dubai and has been based in the region for some time, having relocated there from Singapore.
Lina has had a particularly interesting involvement with infrastructure and energy having started her career at Qatar National Bank in Singapore, before moving to work at agri-business specialist Olam International where she was a risk manager managing commodity risk exposures and derivative instruments.
She switched back to banking in the summer of 2018 working with SMBC in Dubai and rising to the position of regional head of structured finance.
Two years ago (2023), Lina switched sides to go work in the same position at Japanese rival MUFG.
Sami Neffati
Aberdeen Investcorp Infrastructure Partners
Sami is managing partner of the Aberdeen Standard Investments / Investcorp joint venture focusing on infrastructure in the GCC and MENA region.
He has deep exposure to the infra / energy lending landscape and operates out of Bahrain.
Sami previously held the position of assistant general manager for energy at SMBC in London and even worked for a stretch on the famed WestLB team.
He is an emerging markets specialist with long experience in the MENAT region.
Sami headed Sumitomo’s business development for Africa and led teams working on financing projects in renewable energy, power generation, transmission and distribution.
He also worked as an adviser on projects in the MENAT region and to Japanese conglomerates on African markets penetration strategy.
Vishal Rander
Deloitte
Vishal leads Deloitte's project and infrastructure finance team in the Middle East and has been based in the GCC since 2011.
He has more than 18 years of professional expertise, focusing on PPP and project finance advisory services for both public and private sector clients.
IJGlobal reported on Vishal being made up to partner at Deloitte back in June 2022.
Vishal has successfully managed transactions across a number of sectors, including power, water, wastewater, solid waste, transport and accommodation.
He spearheaded the award-winning financial advisory team for recent wastewater deal of the year – Madinah, Buraydah, and Tabuk ISTP. Additionally, he led on the 2022 social infrastructure deal of the year – Zayed City Schools PPP.
Laleh Shahabi
Gibson Dunn
A new entrant to the IJGlobal judging panel, Laleh is a partner in the Abu Dhabi office of Gibson Dunn & Crutcher, where she is a member of the projects and infrastructure group as well as serving on the finance practice.
Laleh’s practice focuses on advising corporate sponsors, governments, government related entities and financial institutions on a wide range of banking and financial transactions – including project financing and refinancing, leveraged and acquisition financing, direct lending and general corporate financing.
She has experience in a wide variety of project finance and development transactions in Europe, the Middle East and Asia, with a primary focus on the transitional energy, renewables, and oil and gas sectors.
Laleh is admitted to practice in England and Wales.
Ravi Suri
KPMG
Quite apart from having picked up the Outstanding Individual trophy at last year’s awards night, Ravi has in recent times appeared on 4 Infra Dig podcasts, the IJ service that focuses on infrastructure and energy asset classes.
He is a long-established infrastructure specialist who returned to KPMG in November 2023 when he resumed the role of senior adviser on global infrastructure sustainable finance, attached to the Portugal branch.
Ravi has in recent years established himself as a key player in the Middle East, working first with AP Moller Capital and then Alpen Capital in private equity roles, operating out of Dubai. His new role back at KPMG sees him retain a Gulf focus, but on a more international level.
Ravi has deep experience across the infrastructure finance community having started his career at GE Capital in Europe before moving on to work with ABN Amro in Asia Pacific, then at Standard Chartered Bank in Dubai where he stayed for 15 years, starting the PF unit in 2002 and going on to serve as global head of project and export finance.
He left Standard Chartered in 2017 to join KPMG where he stayed for a little more than 4 years in Dubai serving as partner, rising to be senior adviser and global head of infra finance.
This was followed by spells as senior managing director at AP Moller Capital and then managing director at Alpen Capital – before his return to KPMG.
Dan Taylor
National Development Fund of Saudi Arabia
In May, Dan was made chief global markets and impact officer at National Development Fund of Saudi Arabia having since the summer of 2022 worked as senior adviser, focused on a strategic infrastructure financing initiative
Prior to that (2020-22), Dan – a well-known figure within the regional infrastructure community – served as an infra finance adviser to the National Development Fund (NDF).
He started his career in leveraged and acquisition finance in Australia in 2000, continuing with UBS and Goldman Sachs in M&A advisory with a focus on the industrials, building materials and services sectors.
In 2008, he moved to the Gulf where he was head of investment for a UAE sovereign direct investment entity and then CIO for a large, diversified family group.
Dan recently served as head of structured finance at Al Rajhi Bank in KSA, leading the greenfield financing of a series of water, renewables and industrial projects.
Sarah Usmani
First Abu Dhabi Bank
Another judge who joined the panel for the first time last year, Sarah is managing director and head of loan capital markets and sustainable finance at First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB).
She has more than 20 years’ banking experience, having worked across project and sustainable finance, aviation finance, structured export finance, asset finance, structured finance, trade finance and financing solutions, and CRM for the Middle East, Africa, Europe and Asia.
Sarah joined FAB in 2016 from Standard Chartered, where she had been working for 16 years across a number of senior roles in London, Singapore and Karachi.
She advises clients on sustainable financing across sectors and concluded several landmark sustainable finance transaction for clients.
Laughlan Waterston
SMBC
Although he returned to London in late 2023, Laughlan continues to play an active role across the financing of Middle East and North African infrastructure and energy and is firmly plugged into activity across the region.
Laughlan in the summer of 2020 switched roles with Tom Waterhouse and took over the position as head of corporate and project finance at SMBC’s Middle East department based in Dubai.
He has more than 25 years’ experience in banking with the vast majority of those focused on project and structured finance.
He has experience on a wide variety of projects and corporates in the energy and infrastructure sectors including power, renewable energy, O&G, petrochemicals, waste to energy, wastewater, utilities, social infrastructure and transportation.
Laughlan’s roles and product areas include financial advisory, structured finance, corporate finance, acquisition finance, green/sustainable finance, debt capital markets, derivatives products and LP investment.
Catherine Workman
Pinsent Masons
A partner and head of the Middle East region for Pinsent Masons, Catherine is also the board sponsor for the law firm’s business in Saudi Arabia, while also serving as a board member of the British Aviation Group.
She is a projects lawyer specialising in PPP across a range of sectors with a particular focus on airports, ports and waste management.
Catherine has worked on projects across Europe, Africa and the Middle East. Catherine has been delivering PPP projects for more than 25 years – including the first hospital PPP to achieve financial close in 1997 – and relocated to Dubai in 2019.
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