Yasser Gado is a senior executive treasury professional with more than 22 years of experience across multiple functional areas in banks in the UK/Europe and Middle East.

Evans has a keen interest in how sustainable capital markets can address social and developmental challenges in Africa. Evans has over 20 years of global experience in investments, financial markets and development finance. This spans sub-Saharan Africa, Middle East & North Africa (MENA), North America, Europe and South Asia covering over 30 countries.

Nitish Bhojnagarwala is a Vice President – Senior Credit Officer with Moody’s Financial Institutions Group. Based in Dubai, Nitish covers a portfolio of large conventional as well as Islamic financial institutions in the Middle East, Africa and Turkey. Nitish joined Moody’s in 2011, and has led sukuk roundtables and conducted workshops on Banking and Islamic finance at various conferences in the Middle East, Europe and Asia. Nitish has also authored several research pieces, with a focus on regional banking, credit issues and issuer-in-depths for conventional as well as Islamic banks. Prior to joining Moody’s, Nitish spent five years at Tamweel in the Treasury function. He has also worked for KPMG in the UAE, where he covered financial institutions. Nitish holds an MBA from S P Jain Institute of Management & Research, with a major in Finance (Investment Banking).

Mik Kabeya is an Assistant Vice President covering financial institutions. He is based in Dubai and primarily focuses on financial institutions in the Middle East and Africa region.Before joining Moody’s, Mik focused on retail credit risk at Dunia Finance, after working for BNP Paribas Fortis on various fixed income desks and in corporate credit. He has worked in Brussels, Dublin and Dubai.Mik graduated from ICHEC Brussels Management School. He is fluent in English, French and Dutch.

Over the last 8 years, Aurélien Mali has been at the forefront of Moody’s growing footprint in Africa. He has been sovereign lead or backup analyst for almost all sovereign issuers and multilateral development banks we rate in Africa. He also assumes a greater role in participating in regular Moody’s and third-party conferences on the continent, Africa-related investor briefings, and undertaking analytical outreach to inform and explain Moody’s credit judgments. Aurelien also supports other Moody’s franchises using his unique experience and visibility across multiple sectors and asset classes in the region. Finally, he remains the lead/backup sovereign analyst for few countries including Nigeria, Côte d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Angola and South Africa. Aurélien holds a BSc in Economics and a postgraduate degree (DEA) in Money, Finance and Banking from the Panthéon-Sorbonne University in Paris.

Sean is responsible for Moody’s analytic teams that rate banks and nonbank financial companies in the Nordics, Baltics, South-Eastern Europe and emerging markets in Middle East and Africa. Prior to relocating to London in 2011, Mr. Marion held various positions of progressive responsibility in Moody’s, including working in the firm’s offices in Mexico City and Toronto. Mr. Marion holds graduate degrees in economics from the Université Paris I (Sorbonne) and the London School of Economics. He also holds an undergraduate degree from Bishop’s University, Canada.

Mario Santangelo is an Associate Managing Director in the Corporate Finance Group at Moody’s Investors Service. He is responsible for corporate ratings assigned to issuers in the Middle East and Africa and related credit research. His coverage spans across industries including Mining, Oil & Gas, Telecom and Real Estate. Mario manages a team of senior analysts based in Dubai.Mario has been with Moody’s since 2014, prior to moving to Dubai he was based in London where he was the head of Moody’s European Real Estate team. Mario has extensive experience in a number of other sectors including transportation (shipping and airlines) and leisure as well as leveraged buy outs. Prior to joining Moody’s, Mario worked for 13 years at Goldman Sachs where he was an Executive Director and a senior credit officer.