We are as passionate about your business as you are.

We are a group of seasoned professionals, driven by a deep passion for disruptive innovations, strategic growth, and leveraging our resources and networks to help you build and grow sustainable businesses.

We have diverse professional backgrounds and extensive experience investing in and supporting deals between the Middle East and China.

Our Team

Benn
Ben Jelloun
Founding Partner
Mo
Mo Chen
Co-founder & Origination Partner
Samir small
Samir Yamani
MENA Managing Partner
Nicholas small
Nicholas Studholme-Wilson
Executive Director
Marco small
Marco Tam
Executive Director
Hani
Hani Alkhalifa
Senior Advisor
Faisal
Faisal Haque
Senior Advisor
Value Creation Officer
Harakati small
Abdulrahman Harakati
Strategic Partnerships Director
Joanne
Joanne Cheung
Vice President
Crystal
Crystal Leung
Senior Analyst
William
William Hay
Senior Legal Counsel
tony li
Tony Li
Venture Partner & Senior Adviser

Our team is small.
Our network is strong. Backed by prominent industry expert
and business leaders in the community.

We value our relationships and connections, and we work closely with our extensive, ever-growing network of experts and talents to support our portfolio companies.
GCCVest’s network represents some of the most knowledgeable, well respected leaders of their respective fields, including technology advisors, venture partners, respectable advisors from the public sector and academia, and business leaders in the tech community across both GCC and Asia.
General Inquiries
info@gccvest.com
Job Inquiries

recruit@gccvest.com

2021 Copyright – GCCVest Advisors Limited

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Ben Jelloun

Founding & Managing Partner

Hong Kong

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Ben Jelloun has over 17 years of global experience providing M&A Strategy and Advisory services to Fortune 500 clients and PE firms in North America, Europe, Middle East, and Greater China. Ben helps companies across the deal cycle, including synergy planning, post-deal value creation, cross-border growth and expansion, etc. Ben also has experience leading a PE platform in the Middle East focused on investing in filmed entertainment.
Prior to founding GCCVest, Ben led the PE advisory services for the Global Strategy Group at KPMG China for the last 3 years. He led the creation of the PE value creation offering for PE clients and also the fund-in-a-box services for emerging fund managers.
Prior to joining KPMG, Ben was a Senior Manager with Deloitte M&A practice in NYC. Throughout his career, his focus has been M&A in corporate and private equity entities and restructuring, both at HSBC Investment Bank in London and Dubai and in Accenture’s integration/separation practice in North America.
Ben has also served as a VP and fund manager of International Investments and Portfolio Restructuring for a leading global Investment house in Kuwait and has led the creation of the first-of-its-kind filmed entertainment PE platform in the Middle East (MENA MEDIA).

Mo Chen

Origination Partner

Shenzhen

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Mo Chen has over 18 years of professional experience, serving many senior roles in Private Equity, Asset Management, Mutual Funds, and Consulting. He has extensive experience in deal sourcing, fundraising, and post-deal management, and has developed a strong network of global GPs and LPs. He is especially focused on technology-driven ventures, with extensive connections with Chinese entrepreneurs in the technology and healthcare spaces.
Prior to joining GCCVest, Mo founded Mindlight Capital, a fast-growing investment advisory firm based in Shenzhen, China. Mindlight helps raise capital for leading Chinese technology companies. The firm also assists leading Chinese venture and growth capital manager to raise their RMB and USD funds.
Mo served as Senior Executive at EBRF Private Equity firm under China Everbright, a Fortune 500 company and one of the leading Chinese conglomerates active in financial services and asset management. He also served as COO at Zhongrong Asset Management and Director at Yinhua Fund Management, where he gained domestic deal experiences and established a strong network with financial institutions in China. Mo developed a strong background in strategy and operational management as he served as Consulting Director Mercer, where he worked as the key consultant for several Fortune 500 companies in New York and many large corporations in Mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan.

Tony Li

Venture Partner & Senior Adviser

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Tony is a founding partner of Baywise Capital, a growth fund focused on technology companies across Asia. He has both an entrepreneurial and investment background.

Tony worked for 5 years at General Atlantic as principal and 3 years as managing director at Hillhouse Capital, where he was co-head of the Internet and software businesses.
› Prior to joining General Atlantic, Tony worked as a senior analyst at McKinsey & Company.

Tony has co-founded the leading fintech company Finvolution (NYSE: FINV).

Tony received an MBA from Wharton School and a Master’s degree in computer science from Shanghai Jiaotong University.

Samir Yamani

MENA Managing Partner

Bahrain
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Samir Yamani has over 20 years of experience across Strategy, PE/VC, Islamic Finance, and Venture Building in MENA. Samir developed and led the first venture debt fund in MENA.

Prior to joining GCCVest, Samir was a Partner at Shorooq Partners where he led the initiative to establish the first dedicated venture debt practice in MENA, a venture debt fund that provides alternative credit solutions for innovative high growth companies in the MENA region. Samir also founded and led Autarky Advisors and its finance arm, Autarky Capital, which was acquired following significant interest in the venture debt space in MENA.

Prior to founding Autarky Advisors, Samir served various roles in the finance sector, including KKR, EY, family offices and his own ventures.

His academic background is in Engineering and Economics, where he holds an MSc. From Imperial College London and received the Jonathan Ziman Memorial Award and the Applied Economics Award for his thesis amongst others. Samir is entirely devoted to the MENA region with a bias towards the Saudi ecosystem.

Nicholas Studholme-Wilson

Executive Director

Hong Kong
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Nicholas Studholme-Wilson has over 25 years of investment experience in hedge funds, long only and private equity funds, and have held management positions as Managing Partner and COO. He has expertise in investment, operations, securities regulations, and risk management.

Prior to joining GCCVest, Nicholas served as COO at HakuCapital Global Investment Advisors, a multi-strategy hedge fund, where he was in charge of setting up the full infrastructure of the business, including regulatory processes and procedures, IT and risk systems and counterparty relationships. He also served as COO at ActusRayPartners and Richlink Capital Hong Kong.

Nicholas also had the responsibility of managing his own hedge fund business, Pembroke Capital, as well as managing an Asian hedge fund at TT International. At Pembroke Capital, Nicholas took the business from zero to $250mn and at TT he took the hedge fund and long only fund from zero to $200mn and $1bn respectively. He was active in marketing and met most global hedge fund allocations. He has presented at several global conferences and sat on several industry panels.

Marco Tam

Executive Director

Hong Kong
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Marco Tam has over 12 years of investment experience. He is SFC-licensed as Responsible Officer for Type 4 and 9 activities, having held several roles as RO responsible for overseeing regulatory compliance and supervision of daily operations.

Prior to joining GCCVest, Marco served as Head of Investment and Board of Director at United Talent Ventures, where he was respomsible for overall daily management and supervision of operations to ensure compliance. He also served as Compliance Consultant at Prosynergy Consulting Ltd., where he provided assessment and licensing advice to corporate clients and ROs, including working closely with clients on virtual asset backed projects for potential launch in Hong Kong.

Marco previously held roles as Director at Kingdom Investment Managers Limited responsible for the channel building and preparation of fund setup with focus on investing in Greater China. He was also the Director of CVP Asset Management (subsidiary of Madison Holding Group) and Vice President (Private Equity) at China Merchants Securities (HK).

Marco has a legal background with a LL.B. Law and postgraduate diploma in Corporate Law. He has previously served as Paralegal (Corporate) at Pang & Co.

Hani Alkhalifa

Senior Advisor

Saudi Arabia
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Hani Alkhalifa has over 15 years of experience as a trusted advisor for public and private sectors, delivering high-impact consultancy services for Governments and Government-owned enterprises in GCC. He often collaborates with multi-national consultancy firms to deliver value through opportunity identification, strategy, governance, and business transformation.
Prior to joining GCCVest, Hani served on the FDI Attraction & Development team at KPMG Saudi and worked with a range of government clients to support their economic development objectives. He also founded and managed ACIT Advisory and Consultancy, a boutique advisory firm, to provide Setup and Advisory services to Foreign Investors clients interested to invest or expand their footprint in Saudi Arabia.
He served at Saudi Telecom Company where he headed the company’s B2B product portfolio and communication strategy development and implementation. He also served in multiple senior roles with FMCG blue-chip companies such as PepsiCo International and Colgate Palmolive, where he has accrued expertise in corporate strategy, finance, performance improvement, organizational development, and automation and digital transformation.

Faisal Haque

Senior Advisor / Value Creation Officer

Saudi Arabia
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Faisal Haque is responsible for collaborating with GCCVest portfolio companies to accelerate their growth and expansion in the MENA region. He specializes in strategic differentiation, go-to-market, portfolio management, market entry, M&A strategy, and other growth initiatives. Faisal has over 20 years of experience in M&A strategy, and has successfully led large-size regional, cross-border and global transactions.
Faisal has experience leading the entire M&A lifestyle from strategy, target identification, strategic fit analysis, due diligence, to purchase agreement, close negotiations, and synergy realization. Post close, he focuses on EBITDA enhancement through value creation and performance improvement initiatives.
Faisal has over 15 years of experience in TMT industry sectors and over 10 years of experience in the Energy industry. Previously, Faisal was a Partner in Grant Thornton’s US Transaction Advisory Services practice focused on M&A advisory and value creation services. Prior to GT, Faisal was a Managing Director in KPMG US’ M&A Strategy practice and Senior Manager at Deloitte Consulting’s US M&A and Restructuring practice, focused on serving Fortune 500 clients and private equity firms.

Abdulraman Haraki

Strategic Partnerships Director

Saudi Arabia
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Abdulraman Haraki has 12+ years of experience in business development and developing business opportunities, initiatives and strategic partnerships in various fields including education, real estate, tourism and electronic & Intellectual Sports

  • Founded RcKeen International to provide advisory services to investors and investment banks in Saudi Arabia.
  • Built more than 85 feasibility studies related to management, market assessment and marketing advisory.
  • Involved in establishing an Education Fund of SAR 200 million.
  • Business Development Manager on Pilgrims Experience Program (PEP) to identify and build initiatives and opportunities in Hajj and Umrah sector for private and non-profit sectors. Working with leading tech companies globally to identify opportunities to innovate the Haj and Umrah Ecosystem

Joanne Cheung

Vice President

Hong Kong

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Joanne has over 8 years of experience providing M&A advisory services in Hong Kong and the UK. She has extensive experience in deal strategy, including target identification and negotiation support, due diligence support, business case validation, synergy assessment, performance improvement, etc. She has supported multiple cross-border transactions in Asia, Europe, the US, and Australia.
Joanne joined GCCVest from KPMG Deal Advisory where she has worked closely with our founding partner for 4 years within the Private Equity and Deals Practice and has led multiple of his cross-border deals and engagements, including end-to-end sell-side advisory on a MENA bank’s divestment of a renewable plant and JV strategy advisory for a US company in China.
Joanne also has experience advising clients on their business and operational strategy to drive value creation and performance improvements, including post-integration planning and digital transformation of a leading insurer in Asia and operational improvement strategy for a leading European utility company in Asia.

Crystal Leung

Senior Analyst

Hong kong
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Crystal has over 2 years of strategy consulting experience in advising clients in deal strategy and buy-side transactions. She has experience supporting value creation and assessment, due diligence, and target identification and has supported multiple cross-border transactions across industries.
Prior to joining the team, Crystal was a Consultant in the Global Strategy Group at KPMG China, working closely with our founding partner within the Private Equity and Deals practice. Crystal has supported multiple cross-border deals and engagements, including value creation assessment for the acquisition of a leading Middle Eastern logistics and infrastructure company and buy-side advisory for the biochemical business of a major US chemicals company.

Prior to joining KPMG, Crystal also served in a US search fund focused in the healthcare sector, primarily supporting target identification, due diligence, and investor communications.

William Hay

Senior Legal Counsel

Hong Kong

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Will has over 40 years of transactional experience across US and 11 Asian countries, with extensive operational and strategic advisory experience. Will advises private investors and their portfolio companies on legal and related strategic issues arising from fundraising, M&A, leveraged finance and stock market listings, and other forms of exit.
Will’s previous experience includes serving as General Counsel of Baring Private Equity Asia, a leading Asia-based private equity firm. Prior to Baring, he held similar positions with GE Capital Asia and Colony Capital. He was a Partner at a Wall Street law firm before relocating to Hong Kong in 1995.
With more than 30 years of experience in Asia, Will has been recognized for providing creative and effective solutions for legal and business matters across the region. He has been recognized as an outstanding Asia in-house counsel by IFLR, Asia Law & Business, and The Asian Lawyer. The Financial Times recognized him as one of the top 10 innovative lawyers in Asia and The American Lawyer has recognized him for the top M&A deal in China. Will received his BA from UC Berkeley and his JD magna cum laude from Harvard Law School. Will is a qualified lawyer in Hong Kong and New York and is fluent in Mandarin Chinese.

Nasser Alazaiby

HealthTech Venture Partner

Saudi Arabia
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Nasser Alazaiby has over 12 years of Healthcare sector strategy and advisory experience with top healthcare providers in Saudi Arabia.

Nasser currently serves as the Head of Healthcare Investment and Manufacturing at Saudi Authority for Industrial Cities and Technology Zone (MODON). He was responsible for driving industrial growth in Healthcare manufacturing in 202-2021 by 28%, with more than SAR 1bn of investments.

He also serves as the Group Chief Operation Officer for Saudi German Hospital. He is a member of Healthcare Investment in Saudi Arabia and Partner in International Competition Co. for Consultation.