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Magellan Makhlouf

Co-Founder & Managing Director

Magellan is a seasoned Business and Private Equity leader. His international experience has developed through multiple postings, board positions and leadership roles, across numerous industries.

Prior to CedarBridge Partners, Magellan was Managing Director for Gulf Capital Private Equity, based in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Magellan has extensive Board experience, which includes: Board Director & Chairman Audit Committee for Ma’arif (The leading education “K-12” provider in Saudi Arabia); Board Director & Chairman Audit Committee for Metito Holdings (The largest privately held water engineering and concessions company based in the GCC); Board Director and Chairman Remuneration Committee for Gulf Marine Services (The leading assembler and operator of jack-up barges and off-shore support vessels in the UAE) and Board Director & Chairman Remuneration Committee for Techno Group (The largest chain of diagnostic imaging services in Egypt).

Prior to working in the UAE, Magellan was at the European head office of Johnson Controls in Brussels, Belgium. He was at Johnson Controls for 5 years, most recently as Director of Marketing, Service & Solutions – Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA).

Prior to Johnson Controls, Magellan was at General Electric (GE) and GE Capital for 8 years based in North America and Europe. He worked in a wide range of business units and leadership roles. These included: Business Development, eBusiness, Finance, Logistics and Manufacturing.

During his time at GE, and in addition to his business roles, Magellan won numerous management leadership awards and taught GE’s Executive Training Programme.

Magellan graduated with a BSBA from the University of Windsor in Ontario, Canada from GE’s Executive Financial Management Program and is a certified six-sigma black belt.

Imad Ghandour

Co-Founder & Managing Director

Before joining Gulf Capital, Imad was an Independent Consultant for 12 years. He worked with several regional and international organizations on investment and market research assignments.

Imad’s has many diverse leadership roles throughout the MENA region. He is a director in the board of Advanced Laboratory Services, the leader in advanced laboratory services in Saudi Arabia; a director in the board of Kids Foundation, an operator of nurseries; and a director in Triumpharma, a leading CRO services provider in the Middle East. He also held directorship positions in Maarif Education and Training Holding, the largest educational group in Saudi Arabia, Metito Holding Ltd, the leading water engineering company in Middle East, and TechnoScan Investment Holding, a leading healthcare provider in Middle East.

Imad is also a Founding Member of the MENA Private Equity Association, An expert in PE and VC in the Middle East and MENA region, Imad is a frequent presenter at conferences. He also co-authors the annual MENA PEA report on the state of PE and VC in the Middle East.

Mohamed Sharara

Managing Director

Prior to joining CedarBridge Partners, Mohamed was Managing Director – Investments at the Bahamdan Group where he was responsible for strategy formulation, investment assessment and execution, M&A and international business development.

Mohamed served on the senior management committee and as board director & executive committee member for a number of company holdings, including Tas’helat for Marketing, Sahl Retail, Sahl Transport and Sara Business Solutions, and closely advised on Aluminum Products Company , Health Water Bottling, Farabi Petrochemicals and the Economic Cities of Saudi Arabia.

Prior to Bahamdan Group, Mohamed served as Executive Director – Private Equity at Gulf Capital, a regional alternative investment group in the UAE, where he focused on proprietary sourcing, origination and execution of private equity transactions, with particular emphasis on F&B industrial and retail, as well as on fund raising and investor relations.

Before moving to the UAE, Mohamed was Vice President at JPMorgan where he worked for many years in investment banking M&A as well as in wealth management out of JPMorgan’s London and Geneva offices. Mohamed was a member of the JPMorgan team advising Saudi Aramco on the Natural Gas Initiative.

He was previously based with the BV Group (Safanad) in Boston and Washington DC where he worked on venture capital transactions in the United States, led international business development initiatives and contributed to acquisitions / post-acquisition work on European and MENA transactions.

Mohamed holds a Bachelor of Science degree (Summa Cum Laude, Dean’s List) and a Master of Science degree in Manufacturing Engineering with a concentration in Operations Management from Boston University and a Master of Business Administration from INSEAD in France.

Raymond Soueid

Managing Director

Prior to joining CedarBridge, Raymond was the deputy CEO and Director of Corporate Development for the KSA Royal family office FAMA Holdings: active investment holding company ($0.5+B AUM) with direct investments in Agriculture/FMCG, RE, Hospitality, IT, Defense & Healthcare. Heading the Corporate Development department, responsible for portfolio management/strategy and new business development (acquisition, JVs, greenfiled) covering primarily MENA.

Prior to FAMA, Raymond was for 9 years in consulting (Booz and Company and McKinsey & Company), responsible for the PE and family business platform in KSA: Industry focus in PE, Financial Services, Family Businesses, Investment Holdings, Energy & Utilities in the Middle East & North Africa with a special focus on KSA. Engagements included strategy, business development, organization restructuring, portfolio rationalization, privatization and operations.

Raymond founded and exited many startups including www.progonline.com and he was member of NYBA: New York Business Angels.

Raymond holds an MDA from Columbia Business School in New York, USA and a multidisciplinary engineering masters from Ecole Centrale de Paris, France.

Issa Aghabi

Managing Director of Access Bridge Ventures

He started his career in investment banking and transitioned into the MENA Venture Capital space in 2006 as a founding member of Accelerator Technologies, one of the first venture funds in the Arab world. He has since occupied numerous roles that include M&A consultant at Yahoo!, Head of Investment at N2V – a regional Venture Builder, and Head of Investments and Venture Capital at twofour54.

Prior to establishing Access Bridge Ventures, Issa headed IFC’s Middle East, North Africa, Pakistan and Europe’s venture investments both from a Direct and Indirect (accelerators and fund of fund) perspective.

Ahead of launching Access Bridge Ventures, his track record includes, having invested in 55+ direct and indirect investment deals (from $100K to $25M per transaction), managed over $150m in MENA Venture funds, launched the UAE’s first Accelerator, exited 6+ MENA based deals, supported with 2 IPOs and much more.