The Team

Nabil Kassar has more than 18 years of operation and strategic multi-directional banking and finance experience. He is Secretary General at Fransabank sal, Chairman of Fransa Invest Bank “FIB”, Chairman of Fransa Land sal, Chairman of A.A. Kassar sal (Holding) and Chairman of Blue Horizon Realty sal. He is a member of several managerial committees at Fransabank sal, including Executive Committee, Management Committee, Investment Committee, Foreign Development Committee, Credit Committee, HR Committee and AML Committee. Nabil is also a member of the Board of Directors of a number of affiliated companies, namely United Real Estate Investment Co. sal, Bancassurance sal and BLC Bank sal.

Nabil holds a DEUG degree in Law from Pantheon-Assas University-Paris and a Bachelor of Law from Saint Joseph University-Beirut.

Ralph Massoud is the Managing Director at Mirama Management Ltd an investment and advisory firm that manages and supports high impact entrepreneurs and financiers in building high growth ventures in the food and beverage industry.

Ralph has 7 years of banking experience previously working for Barclays Wealth in London in the Ultra High Net Worth Team and at FFA Private Bank in Beirut advising family offices on their investment solutions by performing financial modeling on array of asset classes, fund raising for private placement and performing strategic portfolio rebalancing.

Ralph holds a Bachelor degree in Economics from the Concordia University in Montreal.

Samir Taleb is the Founder and Vice Chairman of Lucid Investment Bank SAL, Director of GEM Capital Management Ltd, managing GEM Select Funds SPC, Chairman of GLM Capital Holding, and Chairman of Wicom Holding SAL, a technology & telecommunication company operating in the Middle East and Africa.

Pior to that, Samir was Partner at Dar Al Handasah Nazih Taleb, and Partnerat Nexius Inc USA.

Samir holds an Engineering Degree from American University of Beirut, and from Cornell University, and administration and management from Harvard University.

Wahid Chammas is the Director of the Investment Committee of Bora Capital. He is also Founder and Chief Investment Officer of partner company TyreGate Capital Holdings LTD a wholly owned Principal Holding Company of the Chammas Family Office. Wahid Chammas is Co-Founder and Managing Director of Real Estate Distressed Investments SAL, Wahid is also a shareholder and Managing Partner of The Luxury Fund. Most recently, Wahid served as Global Chief Investment Officer and Deputy Chief Executive Officer of Sapinda Holdinga privately-owned Investment company focused on special situation investment opportunities across EMEAA. Previously, Wahid was Managing Director responsible for managingJanus European Equity and Janus Emerging Markets Equity strategies. Wahid established Janus’ investment presence in Europe in 2008 and sat on the European Management Committee. He was recognized in Financial News as a Rising Star, 40 under 40 in Asset Management.

Prior to joining Janus in January 2005, he spent 8 years at Goldman, Sachs where he was Vice President and Equity Securities Analyst, covering the media sector.

Wahid holds a bachelor degree in Biology from Amherst College, where he graduated with highest distinction honors. He also conducted research and spent time at the University of Michigan Medical School and Harvard University. He was awarded two Howard Hughes Fellowships and the James R. Elster Award for outstanding achievement in Biology.

Henri Asseily has 20 years of experience as a serial entrepreneur focused on internet-related businesses and has particular expertise in relation to algorithmic and computer science. He is the founder of Bizrate.com / Shopzilla, acting as CTO until its sale in 2005 for US$569 million. He was designing flat models before they were called NoSQL, and led the creation of the first product-centric online search engine. Henry is an active investor in (and mentor to) companies in the United States and MENA. He is a founding partner and the Managing Director of Leap Venture an $80M Venture Capital Fund. Henri holds a BA in Mathematics and Economics from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Léa Chaftari is currently a Portfolio Manager at Bora Capital and its partner company TyreGate Capital. Prior to this, Léa worked as an equity analyst at Janus Capital in London where generated and recommended investment ideas in Europe and the industrials sector. Léa also spent a summer at the endowment fund of King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Washington, DC where she helped refine the asset allocation strategy for emerging markets, developed equities and directional hedge funds. Before that, Léa worked as an equity analyst at Passport Capital in San Francisco and London where she focused on the Middle East and North Africa and conducted extensive due diligence on industries and companies in the region.

Léa holds a B.Sc. in Business Mathematics and Statistics from the London School of Economics and an MBA in finance and entrepreneurial management from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Michel Jaklis is currently an Analyst at Bora Capital and its partner company TyreGate Capital. Before joining, Michel was completing his Master of Arts Degree in Economics at the University of Chicago where he focused his research on emerging markets, and the MENA region in particular. He also holds a Master of Science in Management from Imperial College Business School, and a Master of Arts in Financial Economics from the American University of Beirut. Michel has extensive experience in qualitative and quantitative research with an interest in finance, financial markets, social and behavioral research, and data-driven strategy.