Michael Preston is a Partner at Cleary Gottlieb. He is Co-Head of the EMEA Private Equity Practice and Co-Head of the Global Sovereign Wealth Fund Practice. Michael is recognized as a Leading Partner by various legal platforms including Chambers Global, IFLR and The Legal 500. He supports clients through the full PE life cycle, bringing together specialist knowledge and sector expertise in PE/M&A transactions (including large-cap and mid-cap buyouts, growth equity and refinancings/exits), portfolio company support (including bolt-on acquisitions and other general corporate support), fund formation (as well as fund financing and secondary/liquidity strategies and hedging) and co-investments. Michael splits his time between Abu Dhabi and London and has helped to build an award-winning team which clients depend on. In the last 5 years, Cleary’s EMEA PE team has advised on 90+ deals with a total aggregated deal value of over US$122 billion. 

KY Tang founded Affinity Equity Partners in 2002, after amassing more than thirty years’ experience in the private equity and banking sectors. KY, together with other former senior partners of UBS Capital Asia Pacific, spun off and formed Affinity Equity Partners. Prior to establishing the Firm, he held leadership positions with UBS, including Chief Executive for Investment Banking, East Asia for the Union Bank of Switzerland. When the Union Bank of Switzerland and Swiss Bank Corporation were merged into UBS, he was named Chief Executive, Hong Kong for UBS Group and Head of Investment Banking, Asia for UBS Investment Bank. His last position with UBS Group was as Chairman of UBS Capital Asia Pacific.

KY holds a Bachelor of Economics (Accounting) with first-class honours from the University of Malaya.

Taimoor Labib is a Founding Partner at Affirma Capital and Head of Middle East & North Africa (MENA) Private Equity and Chairman of Africa Private Equity. He is based in Dubai.

Prior to Affirma Capital, Taimoor was Head of Africa & Middle East Private Equity business for Standard Chartered Private Equity (SCPE) investing and overseeing an approximately $1.5 billion direct investment portfolio in leading companies across sectors throughout Africa and the Middle East. He joined SCPE in March 2010 as a Managing Director and currently or historically sat on the boards of Al Jazeera Poultry, CEC, Eaton Towers, FINE Hygienic (Vice Chairman), GZI, Topaz Energy & Marine, Souq.com (observer), and Union Bank of Nigeria.

Previously he was also Head of Global Private Equity Portfolio Management (2013-2016) overseeing the overall global portfolio throughout Asia, Africa and the Middle East.

Taimoor has 25 years of direct private equity and investment banking experience with leading international and regional institutions, including deep relationships with leading family groups, regulators, sovereign wealth funds and limited partners.

Taimoor began his career with Bear Stearns investment banking in New York, and The Carlyle Group in Washington D.C. and holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Carnegie Mellon University.

Sohail Lalani is a Managing Director at Blue Owl and member of the GP Strategic Capital Global Investment Team. In his role, Sohail focuses on sourcing and evaluating minority investments in private markets GPs as well as working closely with key LPs on strategic partnership opportunities. 

Before joining Blue Owl, Sohail was the Founder and Managing Partner of Eglinton Capital Partners, a Canadian based private investment firm. Prior to that, he was a senior member of the Direct Private Equity investments team of PSP Investments, one of Canada’s largest pension funds based in Montreal. Sohail also spent a decade at the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) based in Abu Dhabi, where he was responsible for sourcing, executing, and monitoring co-investment and direct investment transactions in partnership with leading US and European GPs. Sohail began his career in investment banking at J.P. Morgan and TD Securities. 

He holds an MBA with Distinction from London Business School and HBA (Dean’s List) from the Ivey Business School at University of Western Ontario.

Nabeel Laher is the Managing Partner of the International Private Equity business unit within Old Mutual Alternative Investments (OMAI). He joined OMAI in February 2015 and is a member of OMAI’s Executive Committee (EXCO), Risk Management Committee, Diversity Committee, and the International Private Equity Investment Committee. He is also a former member of the Hybrid Equity Investment Committee. Additionally, Nabeel represents OMAI on several Limited Partner Advisory Committees. With over 20 years of experience in financial services and operations, he brings extensive expertise to his role.

Before joining OMAI, Nabeel worked as an entrepreneur and completed his articles at one of the Big Four auditing firms. He then joined one of South Africa’s premier investment banks, where he participated in debt transactions in leveraged finance, project finance, and balance sheet lending. He was later part of Deloitte’s Corporate Finance Advisory team, advising on mergers and acquisitions across various industries.

Nabeel is a Chartered Accountant and a CFA® Charterholder.