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Abdeslam El-Idrissi
Deputy CEO & Secretary General of Arab British Chamber of CommerceMr Abdeslam El-Idrissi is proud to have served the best part of over 36 years with the Arab British Chamber of Commerce, serving both as Director of Trade Services, Acting General Manager and now his present position as Deputy CEO and Secretary General. During this time, he has cultivated strong relationships with British Chambers, Government bodies, educational institutions, NGOs across both the Arab world and the UK regions, as well as the UK-Arab business communities as a whole.
To this end, Mr El-Idrissi is in much demand across the regions as a keynote speaker and as one of the UK’s leading experts on UK-Arab trade relations.
He is also a key member of the Institute of Export where in the past he has held the position of Vice Chair of the Institute of Export, London Branch for a period of 7 years.
Winston Bell-Gam
Partner at HCR Law LLP.Winston is a Banking and Finance Lawyer with HCR Law. Winston’s specialisms include project and leverage finance, LMA loan documentation, renewable energy finance, infrastructure finance and trade finance. Winston's works with lenders and developers who are active within the energy access sector and has worked on a range of funding projects in Africa and South-East Asia.
Rupert Gather
Chairman at InvestUKRupert is the founder and Executive Chairman of InvestUK, a specialist advisory firm facilitating inward investment into the United Kingdom enterprise economy. InvestUK helps global investors find suitable investment partners in the UK, and also facilitates ‘greenfield’ investment establishing new companies or joint ventures. International clients come from 34 countries and have completed over 500 investments, creating 10,000 jobs across the process.
His charitable interest relate to culture and education. He is Chair of the Marco Polo 700 foundation, whose mission is to harness Marco Polo’s legacy of connectivity along the Silk Road through cultural exchange to promote unity and understanding between the Western World, the Islamic World and China.
He lives in London and is a regular speaker and panelist at international conferences on investment and global entrepreneurship. His TEDx speech on Patriotism and Globalization has received over one million views.
Zayd Idrissi-Regragui
Founder & CEO of MustasharWith 18 years of experience in D2C, e-commerce, marketplace management, distribution, digital marketing, and consulting, Zayd Idrissi excels at identifying unique business opportunities and turning them into profitable ventures. This expertise led to the creation of Mustashar in 2020, a UK-based company dedicated to supporting MENA consumer brands in reaching global consumers and becoming market leaders.
Driven by a passion for niche opportunities and innovative ideas, Zayd Idrissi founded Mustashar on the belief that modern entrepreneurs should “collaborate at the bottom and make profits at the top.” This principle sets Mustashar apart, as the company operates on a WIN-WIN model, generating profits only when sales are boosted.
As a British-Arab business leader, Zayd uniquely bridges the cultural and operational gaps
between MENA consumer brands and Western markets. With a team of experts, Mustashar
leverages its infrastructure and network to elevate MENA consumer brands globally. Since its inception, Mustashar has boosted sales for MENA consumer brands by over 500%, continuously forging new partnerships and disrupting the status quo of brand scaling. Mustashar opens unprecedented growth opportunities for MENA brands, driving them towards global success under Zayd's visionary leadership.
Jamila Saidi
Head of Digital Commerce, Retail & Luxury at UK Department for Business & TradeJamila Saidi leads the Digital Commerce & Ecommerce division at the UK’s Department for Business & Trade (DBT) where she’s responsible for trade promotion across a range of sectors including online retail. Her focus is on galvanising British brands to achieve their global growth ambitions. She also leads the Department’s efforts for attracting inward investment from international brands, promoting the UK as an ideal destination to set up or expand and grow their business. The core of her role revolves around promoting the UK and championing UK PLC around the world.
She is passionate about getting brands ‘go global’ in the digital age and is an advocate for digital trade as key route to reaching a worldwide market, particularly for SMEs and women led or owned businesses.
Jamila initially began her career in global marketing communications where over the years she’s held B2C and B2B marketing positions focused on developing strategic value adding initiatives and solutions whether that be for entrepreneurs, high net worth individuals, investors, or large corporates. She has over 20 years’ marketing and business development experience across a range of industries including retail, luxury, creative industries, financial services (private banking & wealth management), professional services and tech. Prior to joining the UK’s trade department, Jamila held various marketing roles in some of the world’s largest financial and professional service institutions including Lloyds Bank Private Banking, Merrill Lynch Global Wealth Management and Grant Thornton.
Jamila holds a Degree in Marketing and Business IT, a Post Graduate Diploma in Integrated Marketing Communications and is a member of the World Media Group’s Brand Advisory Board.
Valur Thor
CEO of TaktikalValur Thor is the CEO & Co-founder of Taktikal. Taktikal has developed SmartFlows – A new and innovative no-code solution for designing onboarding processes for fintechs and other regulated sectors. Before founding Taktikal Valur was head of digital channels in banking, where he was responsible for managing online banking, mobile banking apps and integration of Electronic-iD.