Michael is founder and chairman of Portland holdings, a privately held investment company that manages public equity and private equity, and has an ownership interest in a collection of diversified businesses operating globally in sectors including financial services, insurance, tourism, agriculture, consumer goods and services, real estate development, energy and targeted radionuclide therapy.

Portland is committed to “building strong indigenous businesses” and, equally important, these businesses must also seek to improve the social wellbeing of the communities in which they operate.

Among his many personal accomplishments, Michael has received doctor of laws degrees from a number of distinguished universities in Canada and Jamaica. He has been profiled in Forbes, Fortune, Canadian business, Black enterprise and Time magazines. From 2011 – 2016, Michael held the esteemed position of chancellor of Wilfrid Laurier University in Ontario, Canada.

In 2008 he was awarded the order of Jamaica, one of the country’s highest national honours for outstanding service in business and philanthropy and, in 2018, Michael was appointed to the order of Ontario, the province’s highest honour, reserved for those whose contributions have shaped the province, the country and beyond.

She is consistently ranked as one of the most influential Muslimas and Arabs due to over 2 decades of experience working on sustainable and viable solutions for complex socio-economic challenges through starting up several foundations and social impact businesses or advising governments and foundations on ESG and sustainable development.

She is a respected speaker on the world’s most pressing issues – having notably addressed the leaders of more than 130 countries at the UN General Assembly, and publicly discussed achievement of the UN’s gender equality goals with former Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in Davos. Shanu has written on subjects ranging from technology to education, and from Brexit to globalisation, for publications across the world from the Sunday Times to Forbes and International Banker.

In addition to supporting the Duke of Edinburgh Award and the UN Global Accelerator – a programme designed to foster entrepreneurial ideas to tackle today’s economic challenges – Shanu, through the Hinduja Foundation, and alongside her father, has provided scholarships at Columbia University, Massachusetts General Hospital and Cambridge University.

Shanu is a Professor of Leadership at the University of Bolton's Institute of Management, and was a founding member of HSH Prince Albert II of Monaco’s environment-focused Foundation. She works closely with, and is supported by, her sister Ms. Vinoo Hinduja, and her children Mr. Karam Hinduja and Ms. Lavanya Hinduja.

The managing director of the Berlin Institute for Sustainability Management has made a name for herself as a futurologist, keynote speaker, author and social impact founder. Her inspiring keynotes deal primarily with the topics of self-leadership and leadership, future mindset and green management.

She is a multiple founder of sustainable startups, including GetYourWings, the learning space for future designers, CoCarrier, a crowd-shipping provider, and HealthMedo, an international platform provider with a focus on mental health offerings.  She has many years of international management experience in business development for consumer goods companies, including Samsonite and Fielmann. Anabel contributes her know-how to several committees and boards, including as Chairwoman of the Circular Economy Future Council, as a member of the Board of Directors of the British Chamber of Commerce, as President of the Club of Budapest Germany  and as a member of the Board of the Plant for the Planet Foundation. 

Anabel has received several awards for her entrepreneurial and voluntary commitment, including the CEO eLearning of the Year award, as an ambassador for women companies, the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology's women entrepreneurs initiative, the Google Impact Challenge for her online learning game Code and Safe the Planet and as an influencer as LinkedIn Top Voice Sustainability. 

Anabel comes from an international family of entrepreneurs. In addition to business studies, she studied among others product design, education/psychology, trend management and art history.

Dr. Basmah Omair is an empowerment-oriented executive and a key member of multiple boards of directors with 20+ years of diverse experience across a wide range of industries, including public, private, and 3rd sectors.

She has a track record of driving concept-to-execution national strategic initiatives, along with building strategic partnerships and leading impactful programs. Dr. Omair is the founder and CEO of Behavioral Management Consulting established to bring the human behavior element into strategies, policies, and cultural shifts including gender diversity. Dr. Omair applies her well-versed expertise to create human-centric solutions that are realistic, efficient, and cost-effective. Between 2004 and 2015, Dr. Omair headed Alsayedah Khadijah Bint Khawilid businesswomen Center (AKBKC) at the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce, where she was at the forefront with government decision-makers working on drafting legislation and regulatory reforms to increase gender inclusion in the private sector including retail and manufacturing sectors among others. Dr. Omair also supported various private sector industries in assessing and preparing their organizational culture and policies to attract and retain female talent.

Boards of Directors: Dr. Omair has been exposed to a broad array of industries in both public and private sectors including retail, manufacturing, education, and training. This gave her a unique outlook on issues enabling her to act as a key player in more than 20 boards of directors, together with important local and international committees, including the two arms of G20: chairing the W20 Female Labor Market Inclusion Committee in Germany in 2017 and being a member of the B20 Digitization Task Force in Saudi Arabia in 2020. And the future of work & education task force in 2022.

Other board experience includes Sunbulah Group Board of Directors, The Gender Inclusion Advisory Board at the Ministry of Labor, the Industrial Advisory Board at Prince Sultan University, Oqal and The Social and Economic board at Amarat Makkah Region, and many more. Recognition & Influence: In view of her commitment to catalyzing positive change and promoting national progress, Dr. Omair was named one of the Top 100 Most Powerful Arab Women by Arabian Business Magazine consecutively from 2010 to 2014. Moreover, in 2014, she was chosen by Arabian Business as one of the 30 Most Powerful and Influential Saudi Women, while in 2019, she was named one of the Top 10 Most Economically Influential Female Leaders in Saudi by Sayidaty Magazine. In 2022 was chosen as top 20 in the 92 most inspiring Saudi women by Abouther.

In addition, Dr. Omair welcomed over 400 international delegations with high-profile officials and participated as a speaker in more than 320 global and local conferences and events. Education: Dr. Omair has lived and worked in the United States for over 23 years, enabling her to understand and bridge the gap between East and West by catering global standards to local needs.

In 2020, she completed the Behavior Economic Program at Harvard University, which provided her with fundamental insights into how to design policies to architect people’s behaviors and choices. Additionally, Dr. Omair is a certified board of director from the GCC Board Directors Institute (GCC BDI).

In addition, he was at that time lecturer at the cooperative bank academy as well at the state academy in Karlsruhe/Germany.

Following his training as Certified EFFAS Financial Analyst, he was Head of Research & Asset Management and Investor Relations at a securities trading bank in Frankfurt/Germany. 

In August 2001 he took over to build up and management of the Weberbank Family Office in Berlin. 

From October 2010 to September 2016, he was Managing Director of the Family Office of the biggest finance banking group in Germany (calles Sparkassenfinanzgruppe) under the name Nötzli, Mai & Partner AG in Zurich. 

Since October 1, 2016, Mr. Zenner is managing partner of Family Office 360grad AG in Stans / Nidwalden. He has experience since 21 years consulting in family business and family entrepreneurs.

Johan founded Oryx in direct response to the lack of resources available to GCC-based investors seeking to invest in UK and European real estate, and since inception has furthered its founding mission of sourcing, investing in, and managing real estate principally for this investor group. Prior to founding Oryx, Johan was the Head of International Real Estate at AlRajhi United, a family office based in Riyadh.

At AlRajhi United, Johan managed a real estate portfolio that spanned across the US, UK, continental Europe, and the UAE. The portfolio included several real estate sectors and ranged from core to opportunistic strategies. Johan’s previous professional career includes senior roles with Benson Elliot and Queensgate Investments.

Johan started his career in the real estate investment banking team of Merrill Lynch in London and holds a MSc. in Business and Economics from the Stockholm School of Economics.

His areas of interest include energy transition, agriculture, transportation and infrastructure. Gaetano currently serves on the boards of portfolio companies Mycoworks, Atom Computing, Gilgamesh Pharmaceuticals, Oceanix, and Bandit. Gaetano is a three-time entrepreneur and brings his experience building companies to evaluate opportunities and supports portfolio CEOs in scaling world-changing companies. Obsessed with building teams and organizations, he co-founded and served as CEO of Cabin Technologies, the tech-enabled long-distance mobility company solving intercity travel, and was responsible for launching their never-before-seen, actively suspended cabins that makes highway travel smoother than trains.

Previously, Gaetano was the COO of Betable, the world’s first fintech/game-engine platform powering real-currency play in apps across any platform or device. In 2006, Gaetano founded Machina, a production company focusing on web series, music videos, and commercials during the transition to digitally-consumed content. Gaetano was nominated for a Grammy in 2013 for his work with Foster the People and also produced Beyonce’s “Move Your Body” video for Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move!” project. Before becoming a producer, Gaetano was a consumer and retail investment banker at Goldman Sachs in New York. Gaetano is an alumni of Wharton and the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Having grown up in Brazil, Venezuela, Canada, and the United States, Gaetano speaks three languages fluently and lives to explore.

Additionally she currently serves as member of the Board of Trustees of Astia, USA a unique not-for-profit organization build on a community of over 3000 experts dedicated to propel women’s full participation as entrepreneurs and leaders in high-growth businesses, fueling innovation and driving economic growth, as member of the board of Trustees of First Light Trust, United Kingdom, a grass-roots, community-based charity which assists the 'hard to reach' veterans by providing physical, emotional and psychological aid, as Investment Partner at MedXperts, a Germany-based investment and consulting firm with the focus in the HealthTech and Life Sciences Sectors, as Investment Advisor at Bellwald Partner GmbH, Switzerland, the investment arm of a multi family office, as Strategic Advisor to Impact Investment Partners LLP, United Kingdom, specialized in investing in critical service sectors in emerging markets, as Advisor to Yunus Social Business GmbH, Germany, dedicated to setting up and investing in non-dividend companies created to solve sustainably social or environmental problems, as Member of the advisory board of Social Business Earth, Switzerland, dedicated to raise the awareness on Social Business and to create new social businesses that will benefit the poor and the disadvantaged in countries around the globe, as Advisor to Omnia Strategy LLP, United Kingdom & USA, a worldwide strategic 360° liaison agency for companies and investors, as Consultant to Shanghai Biomedical Enterprise LLC, Hong Kong, as Director Corporate Affairs at Cardionovum GmbH, Germany, specialized in Drug-Eluting technologies and biodegradable vascular scaffolds, and as Advisor to MedPrivee, Germany, which she co-founded in 2011. Ida is registered acquisition coach at High-Tech-Gruender-Fonds, Germany, which is managing two +250 mio € seed fonds and which has helped to start up more than 300 companies since 2005 in Germany, and serves as juror and coach at the European Venture Contest, which identifies each year the most promising European companies from the LifeSciences, ITC and CleanTech sector out of more than 700 companies.

Prior to her current roles she served as Investment Partner at Bellwald Partner GmbH, as Head of Business Development at NonWoTecc Medical GmbH, as Vice President Business Development at mNEMOSCIENCE GmbH, and as Director Business Development, Sales Manager and, Training and Education Manager at the KRAUTH group. Before joining the KRAUTH group, Ida served as European Marketing Manager at Medtronic Inc., and as Marketing Manager at both AVE GmbH and Cordis GmbH, the latter of which is where she started her career.

Prior to founding ARTEX, Yassir successfully set up two similar ventures: ITRAXX at BNP Paribas, the first liquid credit index family and the most traded product in credit in 2020. The UBS PIN CDS platform took UBS to top ranks in CDS houses within a short timeframe.

He started his career in Europe and has been serving international families for over 16 years. He relocated to the UAE in 2013 and is currently acting as a trusted advisor to a number of successful families across the Middle East region. He is leading PwC Tax and Legal service offering to private clients, entrepreneurial & royal families and family offices in helping them understand and manage their global affairs, overcome cross-border tax challenges and identify opportunities to achieve their family and business objectives.

Prior to joining PwC, Ismael was acting as head of Private for another big four firm and was responsible for the design and execution of the overall firm strategy for private companies and their owners across all service lines. He also founded and led their MENA family enterprise and family office award-winning consulting practice which specialises in assisting successful families, entrepreneurs, and family offices across MENA at managing risks, preserving and growing wealth.

Ismael has contributed to building and is currently serving multiple Family Offices. He is a regular speaker in the Middle East on topics such as family business and private wealth institutionalisation, global tax transparency, succession planning, governance and the role of the family offices.

Ismael holds a Master Degree in Business Administration, HEC-Ulg School of Management (Belgium) and is a certified chartered accountant in Luxembourg (“expert-comptable”). He also holds an Islamic finance qualification, Institute of Islamic Banking & Insurance (UK). He is a Trust and Estate Practitioner (TEP, Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners) and holds a Certificate in Family Business Advising (CFBA, F).

Abdallah is experienced in designing bespoke solutions aimed to achieve longevity and sustainability of families’ wealth objectives including asset protection, wealth preservation, succession planning and owner’s strategy and in the creation and optimisation of global ownership structures and family offices. Abdallah works with ultra high net worth private clients, family enterprises and family offices to assess and develop fit-for-purpose governance frameworks.

Abdallah has also worked in the corporate finance space within two big four firms before focusing on the wealth management and private client industry. During that time, he has gained extensive transaction advisory experience ranging from equity valuations, developing financial models, financial due diligence, restructuring, and business plan development across various sectors.

Abdallah holds a Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) with a concentration in Finance, American University of Beirut. Abdallah holds a Certificate in Family Wealth Advising (CFWA, Family Firm Institute).

Sana has 8 years’ experience in advising successful families, entrepreneurs, family offices and wealth managers across the MENA region on tax, confidentiality, governance and inheritance related matters. She has experience in designing bespoke solutions to achieve families’ objectives (such as asset protection, wealth preservation, succession planning and tax optimisation) to create wealth ownership structures through the use of corporate entities, trusts and foundations across multiple jurisdictions.

Through the Family Office Advisory Services practice, Sana has supported the set up of various single family offices in the MENA region and provided assistance in implementation of their Family Office policies and procedures and their governance frameworks.

Sana has a L.L.B degree from University of London and holds a Certificate in Family Business Advising (CFBA, Family Firm Institute).

In this capacity she has participated in transactions from various roles, limited partner, principal and advisor with venture capital, private equity, mergers & acquisitions and long short hedge funds including: Projects of Energy Investments Corp (Panama), Sands China, Ltd. (Macau), Frontier Resource Group (then privately held, now listed on SEHK), Starr International Co. Inc. (Asia), Dragon Capital Group (Vietnam), Vision Investment Management (Hong Kong) in strategic developments and Equinox Group (Nigeria). She has served as a member and observer on various boards of portfolio interests, and has been seconded time to time to various organizations in special situations: She was Special Advisor to the Chairman of Equinox Group, a Nigerian based resource and real estate corporation on in bound investment projects; Special Advisor to the CEO of Sands China, Ltd., Special Advisor to the Deputy CEO of UC Rusal during their dual listing on the Securities Exchange of Hong Kong and NYSE-Euronext Paris Exchange, and Autorité des Marchés Financiers building out their compliance and institutional investor and retail programs; and Executive Advisor to the Chairman at Prudential Corporation Asia she advised on the proposed acquisition of $1.3Bn AIG Global Investments Asia Real Estate Fund portfolio.

Catherine holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of California, Berkeley, in political science with minor in biochemistry, and Juris Doctor from Georgetown University Law Center with election to The Tax Lawyer as Associate Editor. Catherine is admitted to the New York State Supreme Court’s Appellate Division, First Department, and U.S. Federal District Court for the Southern District of New York and the State Bar of California.

Franck spent 20 years in Ocala, Florida, and Lexington, Kentucky training young horses (yearlings) into becoming racehorses. Franck developed a conditioning method based on patience, observation, and empathy to teach the young thoroughbreds to race. The yearlings learn via a system whereby they shadow a team of accomplished older horses, known as “schoolmasters”, in a gentle and calm environment.

Renowned for his natural and progressive training method, Franck has sold thoroughbreds to the most prominent investors of the sport; Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Stonestreet Farm/Barbara Banke, Team Valor International, and more.

Most recently, Franck has been selected to purchase 35 horses for Mukesh Ambani and is also acting as a special advisor for the Royal Family of Bahrain.

Franck is also a respected writer in his field and in 2020, was nominated for ‘Best Specialist Writer Derby Award’ (SkySport/HWPA) by an international panel of judges representing the industry. In 1996, he was a speaker at the 3rd International Workshop on Animal Locomotion (IWAL 3).

Notably, Franck has been a vocal and determined opponent of the use of therapeutic drugs on race day in America and has been instrumental in the formation of the ‘’Water Hay Oats Alliance’’ in 2012.

Holder of a Master's Degree in Exercise Physiology, Franck has also worked as a Research Associate in Animal Genetics for France's National Research Institute for Agriculture, (INRA), (years 1992-1994).

In the 1990s, he contributed to the innovation of an original gait analysis system based on body 3D acceleration measurement and software for automatic gait analysis and phenotyping horses' exercise ability, (Equimetrix {R}).

The groundbreaking technologies and solutions being created attracts the best talent to the team while the operating culture led by Kam’s personal commitment to integrity, employee well-being, and delivering the best technical solutions to the market keeps each person committed to the mission.

In 2016, Kam started his fourth visionary business when he co-founded Axiom Space. The vision of Axiom Space is to advance the commercial utilization of space to benefit everyone, everywhere. Axiom is designing and building the world’s first commercial space station, which will serve as the central pillar of a thriving network of commerce in space.

Kam co-founded Intuitive Machines in 2013. Intuitive Machines operates with a vision of creating a lunar economy by being the premier provider and supplier of space products and services that enable sustained robotic and human exploration to the Moon, Mars and beyond.

In 2010, Kam created X Energy to address the ongoing energy challenges facing our world. The nuclear reactor and fuel design company brings a technology solution that is clean, safe, secure and affordable meeting the increasing demands of energy while drastically reducing carbon emissions.

To further impact civilization Kam created a non-profit organization called Limitless Space Institute. LSI, is a research and educational non-profit organization created to inspire and educate the next generation to travel beyond our solar system and to support the research and development of enabling technologies that will allow for interstellar human space exploration. His philanthropic spirit expands the globe where he is the sole donor to a school in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, that is providing education to more than 500 students, as well as supporting organizations that provide services to underprivileged and homeless youth and underprivileged communities in need of medical services.

Kam started his entrepreneurial career in 1994 by founding Stinger Ghaffarian Technologies, Inc. (SGT), a government services company focusing on IT, Engineering, Science Applications, and Mission Operations. SGT became NASA’s second largest engineering services provider, employing over 2,400 people and generating annual revenues of approximately $500M prior to being acquired by KBR for $375M.

Prior to SGT, Kam held numerous technical and management positions at Lockheed Martin, Ford Aerospace, and Loral, among others. Dr. Ghaffarian holds a B.S. in Computer Science, a B.S. in Electronics Engineering, a M.Sc. in Information Management, and a Ph.D. in Management Information Systems.

.....which is the think tank and hub for research on allocators, private capital funds, and hedge funds at the University of Pennsylvania.

Ziad specializes in researching and building relationships with allocators and private capital funds and represents the University of Pennsylvania at alternative investments conferences globally, where he is a frequent speaker and panelist.

Ziad teaches executive education classes on alternative investments at Wharton, attended by 50-70 C-level executives and investment professionals. He develops technical content for such investment classes and authors case studies on private equity.

He also sits on advisory boards and provides consulting services on investment and fundraising affairs to companies, funds, allocators, and governments.

Before his current role, Ziad worked for Zouk Capital, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and Deloitte in the U.S. and EMEA regions, where he advised private equity funds, family offices, and corporate groups on M&A deals and capital deployment.

Ziad is a U.S. certified public accountant and holds a Master of Business Administration in Finance.