Houssam was appointed as the Chief Executive Officer in November 2007. Prior to joining, he was a senior financial advisor to the State-owned Qatar Petroleum which is responsible for the monetization and utilization of the hydrocarbon reserves and investment in oil and gas joint ventures. His key responsibilities were mainly in the corporate and project financing, joint ventures and M&As, and has led the successful financing of GTL, LNG, Petrochemical and Refinery projects.

His academic foundation in Industrial Economics and Finance earnes from Cambridge Universities, U.K. coupled and furthering his studies of the European Business Laws enabled him to join leading financial institutions and attain senior and executive positions. His career spans over 25 years started at BCI-Intesa (Italy), the First National Bank of Chicago (Illinois, USA), UBS Warburg (London) and Deutsche Bank (London). He also managed Doha Bank before joining Qatar Petroluem.�

Houssam is an accomplished investment banker with strong attributes in financial risk management, debt and financial structuring, asset management, corporate finance and corporate law disciplines. He taught and lectured on financial derivatives and risk management principles.