"In the advance of civilization, it is new knowledge which paves the way, and the pavement is eternal."

- W.R. Whitney

A management professional and currently a scholar possessing over 22 years of comprehensive experience including in Management Consulting. Pradeep Kumar Nayar has participated in a variety of start-up initiatives, organisational and financial restructurings, business process re-engineering, business valuations,finanacila dvisory, acquisition due diligence, investment appraisals, strategic and operations planning, financial analysis planning and control, and system design and implementation. He has played a pivotal role in turning around few companies. He occasionally contributes his views through his articles in magazines and journals. He imparts training to corporates as well as to university students in the area of finance. Pradeep earned his MBA from XLRI in India, with specialisation in finance and operations. He also possesses a certificate in strategic management from XLRI. Currently he is pursuing his fellowship from XLRI.

Bruce has been involved in the financial markets for over 20 years. A regular weekly contributor to the Gulf News, he brings a wealth of knowledge in the areas of investing, trading, technical and fundamental analysis, as well as corporate development and strategy. Bruce specialises in developing strategic alliances and business partnerships with international investment advisors, asset managers, and unique financial research firms for business development in the MENA region. He has worked as a Research Analyst at Libra Investments and Anvil Capital, USA, specializing in high yield and special situations, as an active trader utilizing short-term strategies in the US equity markets, and as a trading educator and content developer with a leading US trader training company. For the past several years Bruce has been involved in developing aspects of Arab Capital Markets in Dubai UAE, and is a regular contributor to The Wealth Matrix magazine on topics including the financial markets, economy and technical analysis. Bruce earned his MBA in Finance from the University of Arizona, USA.

Klaus Stagars is a true universal banker with over 30 years of senior level Swiss banking experience and 20 years of experience in the GCC, with firms such as Bank of America (Zurich), Sakura Bank (Zurich), Ltd., and BNP (Switzerland) Ltd., in Bahrain. Klaus specializes in international private banking – opening up new markets; being involved in senior management activities; educating management; and consulting high net worth individuals, corporations and banks. He holds an MBA equivalent (Betriebsoekonom AKAD, Zurich/Switzerland).

Satish Gopinathan is a sales and marketing management professional with 18 years of international experience, working in start-up and global operations. His area of expertise covers marketing, higher education, Educational consulting, HR consulting,training and development,education and educational field and human resource development. He was part of the core team involved in the creation and development of Dubai Knowledge Village and International Academic City, the free trade zones responsible for the higher education and human capital development in Dubai, UAE. Satish has an MBA with specialisation in marketing educational and human resources.

A management professional, core expertise of Sajith CR is in information management IT , which is spread across information system project management, application development management, portfolio management, demand management, vendor management, client management, process design and re-engineering, stakeholder management, system implementation and cross functional team management. He has experience in SDLC of projects. He also possesses experience in IT Consulting and support. During his past career, Saiith has worked in large and complex environments. A strategic thinker and innovator, he has the proven ability to identify, analyze and solve problems, to increase customer satisfaction, and to control costs. He possesses an MBA in IT and strategic management from XLRI, India, and a masters degree in geology from Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai. He also possesses a certificate in marketing management from XLRI. In project management, he has the Project Management Professional certification. Currently, he is progressing in getting the ITIL Foundation certification.

Scott Brower has 34 years of experience in programming for versatile projects, encompassing automation to advertising, e-commerce to property tax management, and accounting to inventory control. Groomed by the Founder of Pascal (a programming language), Scott is an authority in programming languages like Fortran, Basic; Advanced RPG II, RPG III; Advanced C#, ASP.Net, SQL Server, Pascal, Delphi, C; x86 Assembler, and ASP. Growing up learning computers and software before the PC was invented, 43-year old Scott has been into programming since the age of nine and was supported strongly by his parents, who are senior IT professionals. Scott spearheaded the IT Department of Arab Capital Markets Resource Centre and designed and developed an intricate and robust portal offering the most sophisticated online solutions for the capital markets in the MENA region.

Having gained experience in corporate finance and transaction advisory practices, competencies of Sagun lie in performing business valuations, investment appraisals, commercial and financial due diligence, financial analysis and planning, and equity research. Additionally, his innate interests also lie within corporate strategy and economics domain. He is currently leveraging his diverse background and expertise in finance, and marketing as well as his strategic know-how into re-engineering processes and driving his family’s business interests to new heights. Sagun earned his masters degree in management from Brunel University, London, with core specialisation in finance and marketing. Passionate about finance, he is currently pursuing a CFA qualification from CFA Institute, Virginia. He also has a bachelor degree in computer science.