Arif Naqvi

Arif Naqvi is the CEO of Dubai-based investment bank Abraaj Capital, the leading private equity firm in the Middle East and Northern Africa. He has spent 27 years in the banking, finance and investments industry.

Arif Masood Naqvi earned his BSc Economics in 1982 from the London School of Economics and is originally from Karachi, Pakistan.

In 1982, Naqvi began his career with Arthur Andersen in London. Later, he went back to Pakistan to join the American Express Bank and helped create Pakistan's first investment banks. He launched a private equity firm called Cupola.

Over the years, Naqvi has also overseen the acquisition and exit of Aramex International, Inchcape Middle East the first and largest leveraged buyout transaction in the region, and the privatisation by the Government of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan of Jordan Aircraft Maintenance Company (JorAMCo). This is in addition to the acquisition of a significant stake in the leading supermarket chain in the Middle East – Spinneys, and the total acquisition of Septech, a controversial waste water treatment company.

Naqvi was vice-president of business development for the Olayan Group, Saudi Arabia's largest private trading company.

Naqvi currently serves on the Board of Directors of Endeavor, an international non-profit development organization that finds and supports high-impact entrepreneurs in emerging markets.