NEWPORT GLOBAL SUMMIT ADVISORY BOARD

Ghassan Abdul Karim

Founder & CEO, GAK Capital

Ghassan Abdul Karim, Founder and CEO of GAK Capital, is a leader in the investment banking and financial services industries. During his 30-year career, he spent two decades with J.P. Morgan and Goldman Sachs in various senior Managing Director and regional CEO roles. His work has focused on strategic advisory, public and private capital raising, and investment management.

During his career, Ghassan has developed proven leadership skills and built an intimate knowledge of global markets, with particular expertise in the MENA region and other new and emerging markets. He has also amassed an extensive client base of key decision-makers in the government and corporate sectors, financial institutions, and family offices. His product expertise spans mergers and acquisitions (M&A), advisory, debt and equity capital markets (including project, corporate, and sovereign financings), asset management, restructuring, governance, commodities, and risk management.

Ghassan joined J.P. Morgan for his second stint in 2006 as CEO of the MENA region and was promoted to Chairman of MENA, Turkey, and Central Asia in March 2009. He was responsible for J.P. Morgan’s wide range of businesses in those regions. Ghassan’s mandate included Investment Banking, Corporate Banking, Asset and wealth Management, and Treasury and securities Services. In 2012, he left J.P. Morgan to take on an assignment as Group CEO of National Holding in Abu Dhabi.

Before returning to J.P. Morgan in 2006, Ghassan spent nearly a decade at Goldman Sachs as Managing Director and Head of MENA. His responsibilities included Investment Banking (M&A, Capital Markets, Global Markets), FICC (Fixed Income, Currencies, Commodities), and Asset Management.

Before his Goldman Sachs tenure, Ghassan served as Vice President in the Investment Banking Division of J.P. Morgan. Previously, Ghassan was Associate Director of Corporate Finance at GE Capital. Before joining GE Capital, Ghassan was a member of the management team of Ford Motor Company in Europe and was responsible for Treasury Financial Analysis.

Ghassan holds an MBA in Finance from Columbia Business School, a Master of Engineering (Electrical) from Cornell University, and a Bachelor of Engineering (Electrical) from the American University of Beirut.

Ghassan possesses a deep knowledge of history, politics, and international relations. He enjoys traveling the world, reading, and current affairs.