Speakers

Stephen Cooper

Mr Cooper became a member of the IASB in 2007 having previously served on a number of IASB advisory groups, including the working group related to the development of IFRS 2 Share-based Payment and the joint international group advising the IASB and FASB on financial statement presentation. He was also a member of the IASB's investor advisory group from its inception, now called the capital markets advisory committee.

Prior to joining the IASB Mr Cooper was a Managing Director in the equities division of UBS Investment Bank. He joined UBS in 1997 as an analyst specialising in equity valuation and accounting for which he was voted the #1 analyst in Europe for several years. Subsequently he was also appointed as a member of the UBS research global investment recommendations committee and the investment committee of the UBS UK pension fund.

Mr Cooper has also had other investment banking related roles including corporate finance advisory at Schroders, now part of Citigroup, and financial analysis education and training.

Mr Cooper qualified as an accountant in 1983 and has a Master's degree in Accounting and Finance from the London School of Economics.

Kevin Stevenson
Chairman, Asian-Oceanian Standard-Setters Group
Chairman, Australian Accounting Standards Board

As Chairman of the Asian Oceanian Standards Setters Group, Kevin represents 25 countries in the region including being a member of the New Zealand Accounting Standards Board. He has been the Director of the Australian Accounting Research Foundation from 1979 to 1989, a foundation member of various interpretive bodies including the AASB's Urgent Issues Group, the Standards Interpretation Committee of the IASC and the IFRIC of which he was the first Chair, and the first Director of Technical Activities at the IASB. He also has significant experience in public practice, including 15 years as a Senior Partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Tatiana Krylova
Head of Enterprise Branch, Division on Investment and Enterprise Development, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD)

Tatiana joined UNCTAD in 2000 as Chief of the Accountancy Section. Her current duties, among others, include coordination of activities of the UN Intergovernmental Working group on International Accounting and Reporting, which is comprised of regulators, private standard setters, representatives of professional organizations, academics and other experts in the area of accounting and reporting of all UN member States. The focus of the group's activities has been to assist developing and transitional economies in implementing best practices in the area of accounting and reporting in a harmonized way but considering cross-border differences.

Atsu Kato
Vice Chairman, Accounting Standards Board of Japan

Atsu Kato has had an extensive career as a partner at various large audit firms in Japan and the Big Four including PricewaterhouseCoopers for over 30 years. He has also held the title of Representative Director and President of Control Solutions International Co. He writes many articles on accounting, IFRS, internal control and auditing for accounting magazines and has held/holds the following titles: Executive Board Member of the Japanese Institute of CPA, Extraordinary Member of the Business Accounting Deliberation Council of Financial Services Agency in Japan, Japanese Representative of the Steering Committee on Financial Instruments of the International Accounting Standards Committee and Board Member of the Japanese Academic Research Society of Auditing.

Abbas Ali Mirza
Partner, Deloitte
Chairman, 21st Session of ISAR/UNCTAD
Chairman, Dubai Chamber of Commerce's Auditors Group

Abbas Ali Mirza is Audit Partner with Deloitte & Touche and a member of the firm's regional IFRS leadership team. He has served on several local auditing and accounting bodies as chairman of their technical committees. Abbas is a frequent principal and keynote speaker at international accounting conferences and has addressed major conferences internationally including the World Congress of Accountants organized by the International Federation of Accountants and has chaired and delivered keynote addresses at the World Accounting Summit from its inception in 2005. He has authored several books on IFRS and is the co-author of the Wiley book seen here.

Peter Casey
Senior Director, Policy and Strategy
Head of Islamic Finance Dubai Financial Services Authority

Peter Casey joined the DFSA in 2002 as Director of Insurance and in 2004 his responsibilities were extended to other areas with the authority. In 2007, he was appointed Director, Policy and in 2009 he also became Head of Islamic Finance and his responsibilities were further extended to include Strategy. Before joining the DFSA, Peter was Head of the Non-Life Insurance Department of the UK Financial Services Authority. Before that, he held senior regulatory posts in the Treasury, the Department of Trade and Industry and the Office of Fair Trading. He has wide experience of UK Government, having also served in the Cabinet Office and Science Research Council.

Atiq Juma Faraj Nasib
Senior Director, Commercial Services Sector, Dubai Chamber of Commerce & Industry

Mr. Nasib is currently heading the Commercial Services Sector one of the most vital Sectors of the Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry. His Sector is responsible for facilitating Commercial aspects of the business transactions and providing value added services to the business community.

He is involved in several projects and initiatives of the Chamber such as Credit Rating, Dubai Trade point and the prestigious Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Business Award, winner of Dubai Government Excellence Award - 2007.

Mr. Nasib, joined the Chamber in 1988 as a team leader for the Documentation Section and worked at several key positions mostly related to Commercial and Customer Service. He has represented the Dubai Chamber in several local and overseas economic forums.

Born in 1957, Mr. Nasib got his BA in Political Science and minored in Office Administration in 1984 from Metropolitan State College in Denver, Colorado, USA. He is also a Former School Teacher and Administrator in Dubai and worked for the UAE Ministry of Education from 1975 till 1986.

Mr. Nasib is married and a proud father of four children who are all involved in customer service oriented fields.

Jaydeep Narendra Shah
President, The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India

G Ramaswamy
Board Member, The International Federation of Accountants

CA. G. Ramaswamy, B Com FCA, FCS a fellow member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), with more than two decades of standing, has been elevated as the President of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), for the year 2011-12 by the Twenty First Council on February 12, 2011. Bestowed with exceptional organizational and administrative skills, he was serving a Vice President of the ICAI for 2010-11. An illustrious and versatile practicing Chartered Accountant since 1984, he is also a fellow member of the Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI).

CA. G. Ramaswamy is a prolific speaker and writer. He has addressed various National and International Conferences on Accounting and Auditing Standards, Taxation, Company Law matters, Banking and various topics related to the CA profession. He has represented ICAI at various international fora, including Confederation of Asian Pacific Accountants (CAPA) & South Asian Federation of Accountants (SAFA), and has addressed a series of international conventions and seminars on the themes related to Governance & IFRS. CAPA represents national accountancy organisations in the Asia-Pacific region. Today, CAPA has a membership of 31 accountancy organisations in 23 jurisdictions.

CA. G. Ramaswamy has a long standing in terms of his participation in the professional/ICAI's activities and is a professional par excellence. His enduring participation in the ICAI's activities has helped him in developing perspective about the issues, which the accounting profession faces nationally as well as internationally.

Kurt P. Ramin
Director and Head of Standards, AccountAbility, Former Director and Advisor, IFRS Foundation at IASB

Kurt Ramin is a Director and Head of Standards at AccountAbility. Kurt is a pioneer in global reporting languages and standards, having previously been a director and advisor to the International Financial Reporting Standards Foundation at the IASB in London from 1997 to 2009. His work on behalf of the IASB involved introducing XBRL and IFRS to more than 70 countries.

Prior to joining the IASB, Kurt was a partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers in New York. He holds MBA, CPA, and CEBS degrees and is a board member of several international organizations. Also, he is a member of the AICPA, Financial Executives International and other professional associations.

An accomplished writer and public speaker, Kurt has authored articles on international financial reporting, XBRL and capital markets. Plus, he has chaired global business conferences and summits.

Kurt currently serves as Treasurer on the Council of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the world's largest association of conservation agencies, headquartered in Switzerland.

Reyaz Mihuler
MESA Head of IFRS, KPMG

Reyaz Mihular is the Head of International Financial Reporting Services (IFRS) for KPMG's Middle East & South Asia (MESA) region. He is a Fellow Member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka and a Fellow Member of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants of UK. He has completed International Executive Education programmes with INSEAD, France and London Business School, UK. He serves on KPMG's Global IFRS panel which is the body authorized to decide on KPMG's official position on application of IFRS among KPMG practices across the world. He previously served as Chief Operating Officer for KPMG International's MESA region based in the UAE for a period of just over 2 years ending December 31, 2006. He is a Past President of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka and previously served on the Board of the International Accounting Standards Committee, based in London, for a period of 5 ½ years. He chaired the Steering Committee which developed the International Accounting Standard (IAS 41) on Agriculture. He also serves as a Member of the IFRS Advisory Council of the International Accounting Standards Board since 2009.

He is currently the Chairman of the Accounting and Auditing Standards Committee of the South Asia Federation of Accountants (SAFA), a regional body encompassing the accountancy institutes of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal.

He has presented papers on a wide range of subjects at both National, Regional and International Conferences including the World Congress of Accountants held in Paris in 1996, the World Standard Setters Conference in Hong Kong in 2002 and the Confederation of Asia Pacific Accountants (CAPA) in Osaka, Japan in 2007, among many others.

Sanjeev Agarwala
Group Chief Financial Officer, Al Habtoor Group

Sanjeev Agarwala is the Group Chief Financial Officer of Al Habtoor Group LLC. He is member of the Executive Committee for all Group companies & Group Internal Audit Committee.

Sanjeev was most recently Chief Investment Officer of Al Habtoor Group from 2007 to 2009. During this time, he was involved in transactions relating to Real Estate, Equity, Derivatives & Fixed Income. Prior to this Sanjeev was in charge of the Hospitality division of Al Habtoor Hotels in various capacities, last of which was Chief Financial Officer, Habtoor Hotels.

Sanjeev joined the Al Habtoor Group in 1997 after spending 2 years in Nairobi, Kenya and 7 years with ITC Limited in India.

He is a Chartered Accountant from India and a CPA from USA. Also, regularly lectures at the Becker USA AICPA classes. He is a graduate from St. Xavier's College, Kolkata.

S. Venkatesh
Chairman, The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, Dubai Chapter

S.Venkatesh B.Com, FCA having professional experience for more than 20 years and out of which 15 years in Dubai. Currently he is the Chairman of Dubai Chapter of ICAI.

Actively associated with Dubai Chapter of ICAI (the largest chapter of ICAI outside India having membership of more than 1,600) and been in the committee for many terms since 2001 and worked in various positions as member, treasurer, Secretary and Vice Chairman before assuming the position of Chairman . He has been part of various sub committees before joining the managing committee.

He has been guest faculty for CA students for the classes conducted by ICAI office at Knowledge village, chaired sessions in International seminars conducted by Dubai Chapter of ICAI and addressed in ICAI International conference held in Jan 2012. He is the Managing Partner of MCA Auditing (an assurance and business advisory entity).

Frans Van Schaik
Partner, Deloitte

Frans is a Professor of Management Accouting at University of Amsterdam and former member of IPSASB (2006-2011)

Professor Frans van Schaik is an advisor in IPSAS implementation to national governments, including Abu Dhabi, Kuwait, Romania, Kazakhstan, Fiji Islands, Tanzania and Zambia, and international public sector organisations, including United Nations System organizations and NATO.

He has been a member of IPSASB (International Public Sector Accounting Standards Board), the worldwide standard setting body for the financial reporting by governments and intergovernmental organizations, from 2006 through 2011.

Frans van Schaik has been an accounting and auditing partner of Deloitte in the Netherlands since 1996. He holds the Registeraccountant-degree (Certified Public Accountant). He is accredited for IFRS consulting and auditing by Deloitte.

He is a full Professor of Management Accounting at the University of Amsterdam (part-time) and lectured at the University of Tilburg and the Royal Military Academy in the Netherlands. He obtained a PhD-degree from Delft University of Technology and published over 50 articles in the field of accounting, decision support, and auditing.

Rajesh Pareek
Chief Financial Officer, Member of Management Executive Committee

Rajesh Pareek, Chief Financial Officer, joined DIFC Authority in January 2011. Rajesh is responsible for overseeing the entire spectrum of strategic financial planning and execution, while adhering to DIFC Authority’s values of transparency, efficiency and integrity in all financial matters.

Rajesh is a Chartered Accountant with over 15 years of extensive experience advising key clients with the Big 4 accounting firms across a broad range of services. Prior to joining DIFCA, Rajesh was a Director at KPMG working for more than 8 years. He brings with him significant advisory experience across a range of financial services including financial due diligence, review of business plans & underlying assumptions, cash flow analysis, restructuring and M&A advisory. He has significant experience working with government related entities and worked on some of the key restructuring projects in 2009 and 2010. Rajesh has also worked with leading regional private equity houses, corporates and family businesses, advising them on numerous M&A transactions both locally and internationally.

Prior to joining KPMG, Rajesh worked with Arthur Andersen, Ernst and Young and Lodha & Co in India where he had conducted various financial audits, accounting and reporting assignments including audit for statutory purposes, reporting under IFRS, Indian & US GAAP, business process reviews, assistance in managing business risks and on call assignments.

Rajesh is an Associate with the Institute of Chartered Accountants, India. He also holds a Bachelors of Commerce (Honours in Finance and Accounting). Rajesh has participated in a wide range of training programmes both locally and internationally across US, UK, China, Europe, India and Sri Lanka.

Arif Choksy
GM and CFO, Ducab (Dubai cable Company Limited-United Arab Emirates)

He holds a fellowship of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales. He worked with Price Waterhouse International for several years soon after his qualification.

Prior to joining Ducab in 2001, he worked with Unilever for twenty years and was associated with its operations in UK, Pakistan and South America. His roles in Unilever included Senior Finance and Commercial management including supply chain and IT .

He was key member of Unilever project team ‘Global Unity’ for the integration of operations in Andina region in South America. The team successfully turnaround sick businesses in the region.

He served as a technical member to the Institute of Chartered Accountants Pakistan for four years responsible for the input and implementation of some of important International Accounting Standards in the country.

Besides core treasury role, Metal Hedging policies, practice and accounting is his expertise, which he began in 2003 and have seen its success over the volatile period in commodity prices.

He has language skills in English, Hindi/Urdu and Spanish.

Nauman Asif Mian
Chief Financial Officer, Bayt.com

Nauman Asif is a Finance Graduate from Oxford, he is an Associate Member of Chartered Accountants England and Wales and also a Fellow member of ACCA.

Nauman has worked in two major financial blocs, Middle East and U.K. He started off his career with PricewaterhouseCoopers and went on to work for a FTSE listed - No.1 Health & Fitness provider in U.K.

After moving to Dubai, Nauman worked for PricewaterhouseCoopers and later joined Bayt.com Inc the #1 Middle East job web-site. As CFO, he is heading the Finance Department and is involved in defining the strategic direction of the company.

Yousif Mahmoud Yousif Al dwaikat
Senior Financial Auditor, Arabsat

BA Accounting and Computer Science 1986, Yarmoke University – Jordan

Canadian Diploma in Internal Audit -2008

Senior Internal Auditor ARABSAT Riyadh KSA

24 years of experience with number of top reputable companies in Saudi Arabia , through which gained a wide range of accounting, auditing , Insurance and corporate finance skills encompassing the following :

• Reporting under IFRS
• Certified Internal Auditor
• Financial Management
• Procurement and contracting Officer
• Insurance and risk management
• Oracle Financials Implementation
• Financial policies and procedures
• Financial Analysis

Mousa Hamad
Finance & Administration Manager, Globitel

As Financial & Administration Manager, Mousa brings over 10 years of financial management experience with over 7 of those years in a Software development organization. In this role, Mousa directs all financial aspects of the business including accounting practices, budgeting, financial planning, interface with the financial community, financial analysis, acquisitions and venture and monitoring of financial performance.

Prior to joining Globitel KSA, Mousa held various challenging positions as Financial Manager for services industry as Hotels and Hospitals in Amman, Jordan, and Senior Auditor for Global Audit firm in Amman, Jordan.

Mousa holds an MBA and BS  degree in  Accounting filed.

Deepak Kumar Srivastava
Financial Controller, Oman LNG LLC

Deepak Srivastava is presently Finance Controller of Oman LNG,.

OLNG is owned by jointly by the Govt. of Oman, Royal Dutch Shell Group and other MNCs. OLNG owns 2 LNG trains.

Deepak has varied experience in the field of finance & accountancy across top multinationals and Govt. enterprises in India / Middle East.

His qualifications include an MBA from IIM Ahmedabad .

Subsequently he has passed examinations and became members of CIMA( UK), ACCA (UK), CIA (USA) and CISA( USA ).

He has been speaker in many International conferences . He is here once again to share his views on practical side of application of IAS/IFRS in LNG industry.

Austin Rudman
Partner, Ernst & Young Middle East Head Office, Bahrain

Austin Rudman is a Partner in Ernst & Young’s Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Head Office, based in Bahrain. Originally from London and he has spent the last 17 years working in the Middle East. He began his Middle East career in Dubai and transferred to Bahrain in 2001.

He currently serves as Ernst & Young’s MENA Professional Practice Director. This role encompasses oversight of Audit Quality, cross-border capital market transactions raising debt and equity, auditing and IFRS consultations. His oversight covers 14 Arab countries and over 2,000 Assurance professionals. Austin is also the MENA Regulatory & Public Policy Partner.

He has over 20 years of external audit experience and has audited a number of financial institutions and non-financial entities.

Austin is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales (ICAEW). He serves on the Middle East Advisory Board of the ICAEW, Deputy Chairman of the Bahrain British Business Forum, the Bahrain Advisory Council of the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment (UK), and is a Board Member of inJAz Bahrain, a local Education Charity.

Yusuf Hassan
Partner, Head of MESA Technical, KPMG

Yusuf Hassan is a Partner in the Technical department of the KPMG Middle East South Asia region. The region spans 20 countries in the Middle East and includes Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Yusuf is responsible for assisting the KPMG audit teams and KPMG clients with technical International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) related issues, in particular:

• providing technical advice and written on the interpretation and application of IFRS to specific transactions and scenarios;
• implementation of the latest developments of IFRS;
• providing IFRS workshops and training for staff;
• providing client training on IFRS; and
• supporting the region in participation in the standard setting processes and resolving regional IFRS issues.

Yusuf joined KPMG in South Africa in June 2005 after working at the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA) in 2004 -2005. His role at SAICA was as a Project Director in the Standards division, where he was responsible for projects in standard setting and implementation. Prior to this, Yusuf was an accounting lecturer and course coordinator at the University of Witwatersrand (Wits) in 2003.

Yusuf qualified as a South African Chartered Accountant at the end of 2002, having served articles with a Big Four firm. Yusuf completed his Masters degree in International Accounting (University of Johannesburg) in 2005.

Yusuf has been in KPMG’s Department of Professional Practice since October 2005. He is based in Sharjah in the UAE.

Yusuf has provided IFRS assistance to a wide range of blue chip clients in various industries in the Middle East.

Yusuf has also conducted IFRS training both in South Africa and in the Middle East and has presented in many IFRS seminars in the region.

Yusuf is a member of the KPMG’s Global Employee Benefit Topic Team and participates in the review process of KPMG’s internal publication Insights into IFRS.

Wail I. Salman
Group Senior Vice President – Financial Accounting, Etisalat UAE

Rajeev R. Shah
Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer, WorldVal RSBA