Najeh Awad
Founding PartnerGroup CFO
Najeh Awad, Founding Partner and CFO at Petley Partners, has an impressive 30-year career and local & global experience in finance, investments, risk,... and operations. With a track record of transforming, restructuring, and optimising businesses to maximize profit & shareholders' value, Najeh's expertise spans diverse industries, including financial services, construction & contracting, project management, higher education, public services, and project management. His experience includes serving as Group CFO for Abu Dhabi top conglomerates such as Emirates Driving Company PJSC, Arabtec Holding PJSC, Abu Dhabi Ship Building PJSC, Higher Colleges of Technology and Musanada. Prior to moving to UAE, Najeh served as Director of Operations in JPMorgan, and as an executive in Advisory & Audit and Advisory with PWC, RSM and Ernst & Young in the USA. His influential role as a board member at Gulfa General Investments PJSC and contributions to the remuneration committee highlights his commitment to shaping successful business strategies. Holding licenses as an American CPA and Certified Global Management Accountant, Najeh has also completed the Executive Leadership Program at the esteemed Said Business School, Oxford University.
Suresh Balasubramaniam
Founding PartnerCEO of Petley Partners Advisory
Suresh Balasubramaniam is CEO of Petley Partners’ Indian subsidiary of Petley Partners Advisory. Suresh has been an investment banker for over 35 y...ears and has advised on numerous transactions in equity, M&A, debt, international fund raisings and structured finance. He was previously the Managing Director and CEO of American Orient Capital Partners, India (previously AIA Capital), a pan-Asian financial advisory services firm formed as a JV between AIG and UFJ Bank of Japan, with offices in Hong Kong, Singapore, Philippines, and India. Earlier, he was in a leadership position with Credit Lyonnais Bank in India and headed merchant banking, capital markets, project and structured finance and correspondent banking. He also served on all the bank’s apex committees- viz, management, credit, personnel, audit, and risk management committees. Suresh also served on the Board of Directors of Great Offshore Limited, one of the largest O&G offshore services companies, Dhanalakshmi Bank Limited, one of the oldest banks in India, Asianet Communications Limited, south India’s leading TV Media company. He brings decades of experience and relationships across companies, banks, funds, and financial institutions.
Lars Seier Christensen
Founding PartnerCornerstone Investor
Lars Seier Christensen, a Danish businessman, entrepreneur and investor, is a founding equity partner of Petley Partners. At the age of 18, Lars moved... to Spain to open his first business, a restaurant. This early venture into the startup world led to a lifelong passion for the restaurant business, both as a discerning guest and as the owner of several gourmet restaurants, most notably Denmark’s first three Michelin star restaurant, Geranium, The World’s Best Restaurant 2022 on World’s 50 Best Restaurants ranking, and hi-tech restaurant Alchemist which opened in 2019 and is now ranked No.5, with a reservation waiting list of over 100,000. Lars embarked on a financial services career in London in 1988, working in financial derivatives and foreign exchange at Petley & Co plc before co-founding what was to become Saxo Bank, a leading online financial multi-asset trading and investment platform. In 2016, after 20 years as co-CEO of Saxo Bank, Lars stepped down to focus on other investments through his wholly owned private family office, Seier Capital. With assets of over $400m, Seier Capital is invested in a broad range of companies, including the foundational blockchain protocol, Concordium.
Darshan Desai
Founding PartnerChairman of Investment Banking
international 40-year career, is a founding partner & Chairman of Investment Banking at Petley Partners. Darshan’s vast wealth of experience, profes...sional expertise and strategic insights have combined, over the years, to successfully steer multi-billion dollar deals in multiple geographies, across private equity, M&A, structured credit and strategic alliances. Earlier, Darshan was a practicing chartered accountant for two decades, specialising in international taxation and corporate structuring. With a long, global track record of delivering measurable results in deal making, structuring and negotiations, Darshan is a key pivot of the Petley Partners team.
Marden Fernandes
Founding PartnerChairman of Corporate Advisory
Martin (Marden) Xavier Fernandes, a founding partner and Chairman of Corporate Advisory (India) at Petley Partners, has over 22 years of experience in... private equity investment and placements, corporate finance, and mergers and acquisitions. Marden is a seasoned private investor with a primary focus on the Indian market, with a portfolio spanning key sectors including renewable energy, quantum & nanotech solutions, consumer durables and financial services. As the Founder Chairman of Theseus Group, he has advised multi-billion-dollar investments into India from his global institutional network. A qualified MBA from NMIMS, Mumbai, Marden specialises in raising capital through private equity instruments for a diverse range of leading Indian companies. With an exceptional personal network, built up over many years, Marden holds directorships and strategic advisory roles at numerous prestigious Indian companies, helping the owners and controllers to shape their growth trajectories with profound insights and strategic macro thinking. Marden brings to Petley Partners brings long established relationships and both privileged and exclusive access to prestigious Indian block trades and private placements.
Dr. Mohamed Baka
Founding PartnerStrategic Advisor
With a research tenure at Imperial College and a fellowship at Wharton, Dr. Mohamed Baka offers over thirty years of distinguished experience in indus...try, entrepreneurship, and academia. A leading expert in energy restructuring, privatization, and technology management, he is at the forefront of 4IR technologies such as Quantum Computing and Artificial Intelligence. His strategic acumen as a CEO and CTO demonstrates his visionary leadership and operational expertise. Advising the Chairman of a major energy group, Mohamed has impacted global energy policies. In academia, he mentors future leaders, integrating his technological expertise with pioneering research. His involvement on executive and non-executive boards across public and private sectors reflects his dedication to sustainable growth and innovation. Elected as a Fellow of the Institute of Directors, Dr. Baka continues to drive global industry advancements with his leadership and visionary insights.
Guy Hurley
Founding PartnerHead of Investments
Guy Hurley is a founding partner of Petley Partners and Head of Investments. Guy has extensive experience in both government and private sectors. As a... Senior Adviser at the Ministry of the Economy, UAE, he has played a pivotal role in the M2 Project, steering the UAE transformation into a ‘Capital of Wealth.’ As CEO at Abu Dhabi Catalyst Partners, a sovereign wealth fund now under Mubadala, Guy orchestrated 16 successful investments, securing an impressive $860 million over three years across start-ups, funds, direct investments, and listed equities. Regulated in the ADGM, he structured funds, optimised tax efficiency, and managed CFIUS risk, showcasing his strategic acumen and regulatory expertise. Prior to this, he was managing director at Merrill Lynch where he led the European hedge fund business, built out their UCITS platform, listed mangers (including Marshall Wace and Brevan Howard) on the London Stock Exchange and advised the Chinese government on the creation of its Sovereign Wealth Fund CIC. Previously Guy was Global Head of Manager Research at FRM, the hedge fund investment specialist, acquired by Man Group plc in 2012. At FRM, Guy managed the award-winning Absolute Alpha Opportunistic portfolio, seeding and allocating capital across all styles, during which time FRM raised $15bn of assets under management. A published author, he has contributed a book on Inflation and a strategy paper for ADGM. Guy holds an MBA Wharton School specialising in finance and decision sciences.
Michael J Petley
Founding PartnerGroup CEO
Michael Petley, a leading global macro strategy investor, financier and entrepreneur, is a founding partner and Group CEO of Petley Partners. Over th...e past four decades, Michael founded Petley & Co plc (in 1987), a leading London based derivatives and fund management business, RFCL (in 1989) a UK private and corporate finance business and The ECU Group plc (in 1988), a leading global macro research, advisory, and investment firm, where he held the roles of CEO, CIO, and Chairman of its Global Macro Investment Committee for 35 years. Under his leadership, ECU became established as the Europe’s leading currency debt management firm and one of the fastest growing and most profitable private businesses in the UK (with 48 consecutive quarters of quarter-on-quarter growth), featuring in both the Sunday Times Fast Track 100 (ranking 19th overall, and 1st in the financial sector) and Profit Track 100 (ranking 40th ). For 30 years, Michael has been a leading commentator on monetary matters (including Economic & Monetary Union (EMU), the Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM) and the Single Currency). In addition to building and running his specialist $1.75bn currency debt management strategy, Michael has advised government ministers, policy makers and sovereign wealth funds on currency policy and risk, as well as major macroeconomic and geopolitical strategy. Michael has been based in Abu Dhabi for over 5 years, engaged in macro-economic strategy, a passion that led to the formation of Petley Partners to assist in implementing his role as an economic enabler and accelerator, connecting sovereign capital with global opportunities.