Sameer Al Ansari is the Chairman of the GSEF Advisory Board.

Mr. Al Ansari is Executive Chairman & CEO of Dubai International Capital LLC and was previously Group Chief Financial Officer for The Executive Office of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum. There he was responsible for the management of various projects. He was involved in the establishment of Dubai Holding in 2004, which went on to found DIC in October of the same year.

Mr. Al Ansari qualified as a chartered accountant in 1987 and is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales. He holds an Honours degree in Accounting & Financial Management and a Diploma in Industrial Studies from Loughborough University, England. He started his career at the accountancy firm BDO in London. In 1987, he moved to Dubai with Ernst & Young. Prior to joining the Executive Office, he was Chief Financial Officer at Dubai Aluminium Company (DUBAL), where he played a key role in the turnaround of the Company.

Under Mr. Al Ansari, Dubai International Capital has emerged as a leading global investment company with an outstanding reputation and a superb track record.

By the end of 2007, DIC had approximately $13bn of assets under its management primarily in Private Equities (such as Doncasters, Travelodge, Mauser, Almatis, Alliance Medical and Merlin), Large Cap Public Companies (such as HSBC, EADS and Sony) and Emerging Markets opportunities (such as ICICI Bank, Dubai Aerospace Enterprise and Jordan Dubai Capital).
Mr. Al Ansari is a board member of various companies including DIC’s parent company Dubai Holding, Sama Dubai and the Dubai International Financial Centre. He also sits on the boards of some of the DIC owned companies such as Doncasters, Travelodge, and Mauser AG. He is Chairman of Ishraq, a US$150 million investment company that has been formed to bring the Holiday Inn Express brand of hotels to the region, and also is Chairman of Jordan Dubai Capital.

Mr. Al Ansari’s achievements in the financial sector were recognised when he was awarded the Young Arab Leaders’ Award from His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum in Dec 2005, in addition to the ‘Special Merit Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Industry’ by Private Equity World Awards MENA for two consecutive years (2007, 2008). Furthermore, he has also received several accolades from regional and international magazines and publications and in March 2008 was ranked 11th on the Arabian Business 2008 Power 100 list.