A move to establish the Dubai International Financial Centre as a free zone in the emirate is in full swing.
This will culminate in the setting up of the DIFC, the Dubai Financial Services Authority - the regulatory body - the DIFC's Registrar of Companies, the Dubai International Financial Xchange and a Commercial Court.
Experts have been recruited from the main US and European bourses and regulatory authorities to staff these bodies.
* Ian Hay Davison has extensive regulatory and general financial experience. He was managing partner UK, Arthur Andersen; deputy chairman and chief executive Lloyd's of London; chairman of the Hong Kong Securities Review Committee; chairman of Credit Lyonnais Capital Markets and National Mortgage Bank Group.
He was also chairman of the UK Accounting Standards Committee; non-executive director of Chloride, Cadbury Schweppes and Ciba-Geigy (now Novartis); chairman of MDIS Group and Storehouse.
He was educated at the London School of Economics and University of Michigan Business School and is a chartered accountant.
* Michael Blair QC specialises in financial services law and practice, having joined his chambers in 2000. For 13 years before that he held senior positions in regulation in the City of London, most recently as General Council to the Board of the Financial Services Authority.
He was also the chairman of three recognised self-regulating organisations for the UK financial services industry, IMRO, PIA and SFA.
He is a member of the Competition Appeal Tribunal, a director of the Financial Services Compensation Scheme and president of Guernsey Financial Services Tribunal. He was awarded Queen's Counsel (honoris causa) in 1996.
n Robert Clarke has extensive experience in ownership and operation of banks, banking laws and regulations and supervision, both in the US and elsewhere. He founded the Financial Services Section at Bracewell & Patterson, in 1973.
He was appointed by President Ronald Reagan as US Comptroller of the Currency and at the end of his first term was reappointed by President George Bush. He served as comptroller from 1985 to 1992 and during his tenure it supervised about 5,000 nationally chartered commercial banks.
In March 1992 he rejoined Bracewell & Patterson as senior partner and head of its financial services. He was also a consultant to the World Bank and a senior adviser to the president of the National Bank of Poland. He has an LLB from Harvard Law School and a Bachelor of Economics from Rice University.
* Dr Habib Al Mulla is the managing partner of Habib Al Mulla, a member of the UAE Federal National Council, a director at the Institute of Advanced Legal and Judicial Studies, and an arbitrator at the China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission, Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Abu Dhabi Centre for Commercial Conciliation and Arbitration.
He is a founder of the Arab Law Firms Association, Arab Licensing and Technology Transfer Society and former chairman of UAE Jurists Association. He lectures at the American University and Emirates Banking and Financial Studies Institute. He has an LLB from UAE University, LLM from Harvard Law School and PhD from Cambridge University.
* Robert Owen has wide-ranging regulatory experience, with particular exposure to Asia-Pacific. He established the Securities and Futures Commission in Hong Kong and was appointed its executive chairman in 1989.
Prior to this he was director of investment banking at Lloyds Bank and chairman and chief executive of Lloyds Merchant Bank. Earlier, he was a director of Morgan Grenfell and served in the UK Treasury and Foreign Office.
After leaving the SFC, he became the deputy chairman of Nomura Asia Holdings and senior adviser to Nomura International (Hong Kong) Ltd, member of the Council and Regulatory Board of Lloyd's of London, chairman of Crosby, and the International Securities Consultancy and a director of Sunday Communications, European Capital. He was educated at Oxford University.
* J. Andrew Spindler is the executive director of the Financial Services Volunteer Corps, a not-for-profit organisation in New York City whose mission is to help build sound banking and financial systems in developing countries.
Prior to his appointment in 1993 he served as a senior vice-president at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, where he headed the banking studies and analysis function and the payments system studies staff.
While at the New York Fed, he helped develop risk-based capital framework that has been adopted by bank supervisors in most financial centres. He also served as the New York Fed's representative on the Basle Committee on Banking Supervision.
Prior to joining the New York Fed, he held several international lending and strategic planning positions at the Continental Illinois Bank. He has a PhD and MPA from Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, and a bachelor's degree in international politics from Harvard College.
* Georg Wittich has extensive experience of financial markets and regulatory issues from a European perspective. He was the president of the Bundesaufsichtsamt fr den Wertpapierhandel (Federal Securities Supervisory Office) in Frankfurt and chairman of the Forum of European Securities Commissions.
Prior to this, he held senior posts in the Federal Ministry of Finance in Germany in the area of international finance and securities markets and was financial counsellor at the German Embassy in Tokyo. He graduated with law degrees from the universities of Kiel and Hamburg, and undertook additional studies at the Ecole Nationale d' Administration in Paris.
* Phillip Thorpe has more than 20 years experience in regulating and operating markets. After practising as a solicitor and barrister in New Zealand, he moved to Hong Kong in 1981, undertaking roles in the Securities and Commodities Futures Commissions.
In 1987 he was named CEO of the Hong Kong Futures Exchange. In 1989, he was recruited to UK as CEO of the Association of Futures and Brokers Dealers and became an executive director of the Securities and Futures Authority.
In 1993, he became CEO of Investment Management Regulatory Organisation. In 1997, IMRO became part of UK's Financial Services Authority and he became its managing director.
In August 2001, he became president of the Futures Industry Institute (now Institute for Financial Markets) in Was-hington. In August 2002, he was recruited to set up and head the Dubai Financial Services Authority.
Senior Management Team
David King Managing Director, SupervisionDavid King is the managing director of supervision at the Dubai Financial Services Authority.
His role is to develop and implement the DFSA's risk-based approach to supervising firms. It is through this process DFSA seeks to ensure that banks, insurers, asset managers and others comply with its high standards.
After qualifying as an accountant, David King, FCCA MBA, held senior financial positions in the Middle East for years.
More recently, between 1989 and 2001, he was chief executive of the London Metal Exchange. Under his stewardship LME's turnover rose tenfold to $3 trillion a year and its global market share increased to 90 per cent. He restructured and relocated the exchange, developed products, introduced new technology and was involved in regulatory issues and developing and implementing strategy.
He was also a director of the London Clearing House and the Futures and Options Association and was a member of the Bank of England's City Euro Group. Since leaving LME, he has been working as a consultant.
Jamie Orchard Managing Director, Enforcement
As the managing director of Enforcement, Jamie Orchard oversees all DFSA enforcement activities in the DIFC. He began his career as a legal officer in the Royal Australian Air Force, before becoming a federal prosecutor at the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions.
At its inception in 1991, he took up a position with the Australian Securities Commission. In 1998 the ASC was reformed to become ASIC, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, and Jamie became director of enforcement. He developed ASIC's project management approach to enforcement and its electronic evidence management system.
He received an Advance Australia Award on Australia Day 1998 for his work with ASIC.He is a Master of Laws, Bachelor of Laws (Honours), holds a Graduate Diploma in Legal Practices and a Graduate Certificate in Business Management.
He is a barrister and solicitor of the Supreme Court of Victoria and a solicitor of the Supreme Court of Queensland and the High Court of Australia.
Joyce C. Maykut, QC General Counsel
Joyce Maykut, QC, a graduate of the Faculty of Law at the University of Alberta, was called to the bar in British Columbia in 1974. After two years of prosecuting with the federal Department of Justice, she joined the criminal defence bar and ran her own practice for three years.
She joined the Vancouver office of the Legal Services Branch of the Ministry of Attorney General in 1981 and acted as counsel to administrative tribunals, including the Securities Commission.
From 1986 to 1990, she was the senior solicitor of the Vancouver office and was responsible for supervising the delivery of legal services to a variety of government clients. She was appointed Queen's Counsel for British Columbia in 1988.
She was vice-chair of the British Columbia Securities Commission and was active in the Canadian Securities Administrators, The Council of Securities Regulators of the Americas, North American Securities Administrators Association and the International Organisation of Securities Commissions.
Richard PrattActing MD, Authorisation
Richard Pratt is an independent regulatory consultant. He writes and lectures on anti-money laundering defences and regulatory issues. He conducts assessments of regulatory standards in countries and provides advice to jurisdictions on regulatory issues.
He was director-general of the Jersey Financial Services Commission from January 1999 to October 2003. He was responsible for introducing regulatory changes in Jersey which was commended by the International Monetary Fund.
He was a member of the Implementation Committee of the International Organisation of Securities Commissions, participated in the Financial Action Task Force review of its forty recommendations and was a regular speaker at the annual Cambridge Symposium on Economic Crime.
Before joining the Commission, he was director of external affairs at the London International Financial Futures and Options Exchange and was responsible for its government relations and for relations with international regulators.
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