Published: July 8, 2009
Dubai-based Abraaj Capital, the largest private equity company in the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia (MENASA), has appointed Ashok Aram as a managing director after a 15-year career at Deutsche Bank.
Aram joins Abraaj from London where he was head of equity capital markets, debt capital markets, and corporate coverage & sales in Central and Eastern Europe, Russia and the CIS, the Middle East and Africa.
“I am very excited to be joining Abraaj,” Aram says. “Its growth over the last few years has been extraordinary and it is now clearly a leader in its field. I am here to do what I can to help take it to the next level."
Aram helped found Deutsche’s telecommunications advisory and financing practice in Asia, and was later a member of the team which worked on the bank’s acquisition of Bankers Trust in the United States.
From 2001 to 2004, he was head of global banking, responsible for corporate banking and structured finance, with operations in more than 60 countries. During the next two years, he contributed to the very successful build-up of the bank’s structured credit trading and global principal finance businesses in the global markets division.
“Ashok has had an extraordinary career,” says Abraaj CEO Arif Naqvi. “We are very proud that he has joined us. Working closely with managing director Mustafa Abdel-Wadood and the rest of the Abraaj team, Ashok will make a valuable contribution to how we benefit from the credible opportunities in our region for our investors.”
Aram has worked closely with Abraaj for several years. In 2004, he joined the board of Abraaj, representing Deutsche’s shareholding in the company, and, as such, was intimately involved with several Abraaj acquisitions. He serves on the board of a number of companies in the US and India, and is a trustee of Shanti Ashram, a development foundation in Coimbatore, India.
The firm recently announced the establishment of Abraaj Saudi Arabia to tap investment opportunities in the world’s largest oil exporter. The office is its fifth in the MENASA region.