Basil M. Al Ghalayini
Chairman and CEO

Basil M. Al-Ghalayini is the Founder and CEO of BMG Financial Group in KSA. Previously; he was the Managing Director at The International Investor, London, UK, for seven years. Prior to that, he was with the Investment Management Division of The National Commercial Bank of Saudi Arabia in Jeddah and London for eight years. He was also the Secretary General of the Arab Bankers Association of the United Kingdom. He was a board member of the SME Council of Eastern Province, Saudi Arabia. Currently, he is the President of the Saudi-Syrian Joint Businessmen Council and a board member of the Saudi-British Joint Businessmen Council. Additionally, he is the Director of BMG Foundation and a member of the Institute of Directors, London, UK. He received his B.Sc. degree from King Saud University and CSS from Harvard University.

Aladdin Saba
Board Member and Managing Partner

Aladdin Saba is a Partner and Director at BMG Financial Group, and is mainly responsible for IPO activities and equity research coverage of the Saudi market. Previously, he co-founded Hermes Financial, a leading investment bank. He is a board member of Banque du Caire, EFG-Hermes, and three international investment funds. For three consecutive years, he has been a member of the Board of Directors of The Cairo and Alexandria Stock Exchange. He is President, and founding member of the Egyptian Investment Management Association, and founding member of The Egyptian Capital Markets Association. He is a board member of Egypt's International Economic Forum, American Chamber of Commerce, British Egyptian Business Association, the Egyptian Businessmen's Association, and is head of its Stock Exchange committee. Saba holds a B.Sc. degree in Biomedical Engineering from Cairo University (1981), an MBA from Wharton (1986), and an MSE from UPenn (1983).

Aly El-Tahry
Director

Aly El-Tahry is a Director at BMG Financial Group. He cut his teeth in the world of finance at Kidder, Peabody & Co., one of the oldest and most respected investment banking firms on Wall Street. He co-founded EFG-Hermes, the largest investment bank in the ME; and until his departure in 1999 he managed the Sales & Trading, as well as the Corporate Finance departments. He now serves as Director of three international investment funds; historically he served on board of EFG-Hermes and Cairo Stock Exchange. The October 1997 and September 1998 issues of Global Finance magazine named El-Tahry one of the 600 'World's Most Powerful People in Finance'. He holds B.Sc. degrees in Physics-Engineering and Mechanical Engineering from Washington & Lee and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (1977) respectively. He received his MBA from Krannert Graduate School of Management at Purdue (1987). Mr. El-Tahry is an IFR rated pilot.

Yara Anabtawi
Managing Partner

Yara Anabtawi is managing partner at BMG. Yara's responsibilities include directing, planning, and implementing policies and objectives of BMG and overseeing overall operations. She also liaises with regulators on key issues affecting the firm and led the effort to attain BMG's investment banking license. Additionally, she networks within communities to find and attract new business. Before joining BMG, Yara worked as a systems engineer at Electronic Data Systems, Michigan, USA where she led various IT and business projects at General Motors Powertrain and General Motors Pension Administration. Yara holds a B.Sc in Management and Information Systems from Brigham Young University where she graduated with honors. She also attained a Masters degree in Management and Information Systems with emphasis on finance from the Florida Institute of Technology . Yara also has various experiences on leadership, project management, statistics, decision systems and other business/technical skills.

Wael Al Mahgary
Managing Partner

Wael Mahgary is a managing partner at BMG Financial Advisors. He is also a co-founder of Beltone Financial. Prior to this, Mahgary worked as a portfolio manager at EFG-Hermes asset management since 2000. Mahgary held various positions while at EFG-Hermes being a fixed income specialist & responsible for cash management of all on-shore & off-shore funds, and being responsible for analysing the MENA economies, setting weights for each country for the regional funds. Mahgary was an executive at MM Group, one of the largest diversified business groups in Egypt, developing new trading partners for the group in USA, Europe, & Africa.  He was also responsible for the MM Group's loans & credit lines as well as managing relationships with banks. In May 2000, he completed the Finance & Investment Appraisal course offered by EFG-Hermes based on Chase Manhattan standards, which focused on financial risk & credit analysis. Mahgary graduated in 1998, with highest honours, from AUC with a BA in Business Administration & a BA in Economics.

Hisham Akram
Managing Partner

Hisham Akram is a partner at BMG Financial Advisors.  He is also a co-founder of Beltone Financial, a financial services holding company. Until August 2002, Hisham was the Managing Director of the Egyptian Portfolio Management Group, a subsidiary of EFG-Hermes and headed the financial services mandate. He first joined the firm in 1995 and became a partner in 1996. Prior to joining EFG-Hermes, Hisham worked as financial analyst in the Investments and Securities Group in Cairo and as a Foreign Exchange Trader at the Arab Bank, and then headed the Capital Markets operation. He is a member of the Association of Investment Management and Research; the Egyptian Capital Markets Association, the Egyptian Investment Management Association, and he is an affiliate of the American Chamber of Commerce and the Egyptian Junior Businessman Association. Hisham holds a CFA, an MSc. in Finance from Reading University, UK (1995) and an MBA from the American University in Cairo, Egypt (1996).