Seminars

Ali joined the DFSA in November 2005 as Associate Director, Authorisation and was promoted in January 2007 to Director, Authorisation. Ali leads the Authorisation team responsible for assessing applications for DFSA regulated status. Ali's regulatory and industry experience includes 6 years at the UK FSA in a variety of management roles including oversight of supervision teams covering markets and alternative trading systems, investment firms and asset managers. Prior to that, Ali spent 7 years at Bloomberg L.P. in London, initially in account management and subsequently as compliance officer and in-house lawyer. Ali has a law degree from Birbeck college, University of London, and was called to the Bar in 1999.

Mr Serret has had extensive experience in various regulatory roles, most recently in financial services regulation. He has held senior positions at regulatory institutions within Australia including 5 years at the Insurance and Superannuation Commission and subsequently in 1999 with the newly formed prudential regulator, the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority. Mr Serret held the position of Senior Manager predominately in the supervision branch and then within the Enforcement branch. During this time, Mr Serret was responsible for the prudential supervision of a variety of entities including credit unions, retail superannuation funds and general insurers. He was also involved in a number of projects primarily aimed at improving the level of prudential management within the superannuation industry. Most recently, Mr Serret spent 18 months in the enforcement branch of APRA coordinating a multi jurisdictional investigation into the abuse of financial reinsurance by general insurers operating in Australia. Prior to his role at APRA, Mr Serret has also held the position of Manager at the Insurance and Superannuation Commission. A Fellow of the Certified Practicing Accountants Australia, Mr Serret holds a Graduate Diploma in Finance from the Financial Services Institute of Australia (FinSIA) as well as a Bachelors degree in Business Accounting from the University of Western Sydney.

Husam Hourani heads the firm´s banking and finance department and has nine years experience advising on banking and finance related matters in the U.A.E. He graduated from Kent University, England with an honours degree in law in 1992 and was subsequently awarded his Masters degree in 1993 from IISL in Spain.

Husam has considerable experience in establishing new and existing banks and financial institutions on the U.A.E and in the DIFC. He also regularly advises on enforcement and banking litigation matters. Along with being presented Best Lawyer award from Tamweel in 2005, he is also a member on the DIFX Listing Committee. Legal500 states that Husam Hourani has been described by clients as "the most knowledgeable banking lawyer in Dubai, insofar as the local market is concerned" and is noted for his expertise in relation to the newly established DIFC. Furthermore, Chambers Global affirms that Husam is "extremely responsive and knowledgeable," yet "doesn´t put on any airs and graces".