Board of Directors
Sheikh Omar Bin Saqer Khalid Al Qasimi
Chairman
Independent, Non-executive
Ahmed Essa Al Naeem
Vice Chairman
Non Independent, Non-executive
Raheel Ahmed
Board Member
Non Independent Non-Executive
Aarefa Saleh Al Falahi
Board Member
Independent, Non-executive
Fetooh Al Zayani
Board Member
Independent, Non-executive
Safwan Ghaleb
Board Member
Non Independent Non-Executive
Bernhard Schluep
Board member
Independent, Non-executive
The Management Team
Sanjeev Badyal – Acting Chief Executive Officer
Sanjeev is an industry professional with over 38 years of vast experience. He is known for his entrepreneurial orientation, market insight, customer focus and robust corporate governance.
Prior to joining RAKINSURANCE, Sanjeev has previously held strategic positions and was responsible for leading the insurance / reinsurance operations in the Middle East.
Sanjeev holds a Bachelor’s degree in Commerce and is an Associate of Insurance Institute of India.
Nicola Kelly – Chief Operating Officer – Medical
Nicola is a well-versed professional with extensive knowledge in Insurance and Third-Party Administration (TPA) management. Spanning over 20 years’ international experience spent extensively in Medical and Travel Insurance. She has worked globally in Asia, Europe and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and has considerable leadership practice and a proven ability to work under pressure and change management. She will lead the RAKINSURANCE Medical team.
Nicola holds a master’s degree in Management from Coventry University (UK) and is currently studying at the Chartered Insurance Institute (UK) for ACII qualification.
Krishnan Raghunathan – Chief Operating Officer – General
A professional, with nearly three decades of multifaceted experience in leading and managing the insurance business. Krishnan, brings with him, the extensive expertise of handling distinguished roles in Commercial Lines Underwriting, Claims, Operations, (including Energy insurance), New Product Development and Strategic Account Management. In his role as Chief Operating Officer – General lines of business in RAK Insurance, Krishnan offers innovative and pragmatic insurance solutions to clients and at the same time strives to create value for shareholders.
One of the highlights in his professional career was when he was recognised and awarded with ‘Dubai Quality Assessment Award’ for his exemplar contribution as a Risk Manager in a multi-billion dollar National Oil & Gas conglomerate.
Krishnan holds a Master’s degree in Financial Management, Advanced Diploma in Insurance (ACII) from Chartered Insurance Institute, UK; and Fellowship from Insurance Institute of India (FIII).
Deepesh Narayanan – Head of Life
Deepesh is a seasoned insurance professional with over 15 years of accomplished experience in diverse functions and channels of insurance business in GCC and India. He is responsible for the Retail and Bancassurance division of RAK Insurance. Deepesh possesses profound expertise in Bancassurance, Product Development and Channel Build-up and is highly skilled in retail business development and partner relationship management, pivotal in the establishment and progress of the retail department.
He holds an MBA in Finance & Marketing; and Diploma in Insurance (Dip CII) of the CII, UK.
Jason Carey – Chief Distribution Officer
Jason brings over 20 years of insurance industry experience and has worked in a number of roles across account management, sales strategy, new business development, claims handling and risk consultancy services in the United States, Bermuda and the Middle East: servicing clients across various industry segments. Leading the overall direction of Sales and Market Management operations for the Southern Emirates across all business lines for RAKINSURANCE, Jason is responsible for driving and achieving new business growth through the development of new and existing distribution channels, in addition to having accountability for account retention through responsive client servicing and service delivery across the business.
Jason holds an MBA in International Business and Marketing.
Claude Zoghbi – Chief Commercial Officer
With over 21 years of experience in the Insurance industry across the Middle East, Claude leads the RAK and the Northern Emirates commercial distribution for RAK Insurance to optimise portfolio performance and ensure business profitability. Providing extensive product development and market experience, Claude offers astute technical underwriting advice and strategic insurance solutions to guide and influence partners in decision making, and contributes to business development by creating and implementing distribution strategies and sound policies, procedures and processes, whilst maintaining operations in compliance with the Regulatory standards.
Claude holds a degree in Business Administration major in Accounting and Finance from the Lebanese University.
Shehreyar Azim – Chief Financial Officer
Shehreyar has over 14 years experience in internal and external audit along with a variety of finance business partnering roles across both banking and insurance in the UK, Bahrain and the UAE. Shehreyar qualified as a CA with a Big Four professional service firm in London and is also a graduate of the London School of Economics.
Mukhtar Ahmad – Financial Controller
Mukhtar has over 10 years experience in internal and external audit along with a variety of finance business partnering roles across insurance, Reinsurance, Life Insurance and with Big four consulting firms in Pakistan, Bahrain and the UAE.
Mukhtar is a member of Institute of Public Accountants (IPA) MIPA AFA (Australia) and Completed BSC (Honours) In Applied Accounting from Oxford Brooks University (UK). Mukhtar is specialised in accounting and reporting and holding an Advanced Diploma in Accounting & Business from Association of Chartered Certified Accountants UK.
Mukhtar oversees accounting and reporting of RAK Insurance with a key objective of Management reporting and make sure that all the reportings are done in line with IFRS and local regulations. Ahmad is also working as a project Manager for the IFRS 17 implementation.
Rajesh Thaper – Chief Risk and Compliance Officer
Raj has nearly 20 years extensive risk management experience having worked across banking and insurance industries. He initially started his risk management career with the UK financial regulators (the PRA) and then moved into risk management consulting for PwC and KPMG followed by senior industry roles including heading up the Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) division for a GCC insurer. His expertise includes developing and implementing ERM frameworks covering areas such as risk appetite, strategy and risk governance. In addition, this is coupled with strong working knowledge of regulatory requirements such as Solvency II and developing ORSA frameworks.
Raj oversees the Risk and Compliance Department of RAK Insurance with a key objective of strengthening and embedding the risk management framework in line with good market practice and driving the desired risk behaviours. Raj holds a degree in Engineering and Management from the University of London.
Zohaib Arshad – Chief Reinsurance Officer
A Chartered Insurer from CII (UK) and an MBA degree holder in Insurance & Risk Management has diversified experience of various managerial positions for more than 12 years in the reinsurance industry. Zohaib started his career in 2008 as a Reinsurance Broker with AON and served for more than 5 years in Singapore and Pakistan offices. He joined Trust Re, Bahrain in 2014 as a Treaty Underwriter to look after and develop the Indian- sub continent markets for more than 2 years before being nominated by the Management to be relocated to Oman Re for the company revamp. In 2017, Zohaib joined Oman Re and lead the Treaty department for more than 3 years, built and trained the treaty team along with being responsible for the overall treaty business portfolio of the company before moving to RAK Insurance in Feb 2020.
Girish Gopinath – Chief Information Officer
Girish is a seasoned Insurance Technology Professional comes with over 30 years of industry experience in building solutions to business difficulties. He has a proven track record in the Sultanate of Oman Insurance Market where he held senior positions with major Insurance Companies like ‘Al Madina Takaful’ and ‘Oman United Insurance Company’. He worked with and implemented industry’s various leading Insurance business systems. He was the chief architect of the first real-time Insurance B2B/B2C eCommerce Portal in his previous engagement. During his consultant role, he worked with Insurance Companies to build their Digital Strategies and assisted them to automate various business processes.
Girish is a Computer Science Graduate and holding MBA in Banking and Insurance in addition to various industry specific certifications.
Anupama Katariya – Senior Actuary
Anupama is a qualified general insurance actuary from Institute and Faculty of Actuaries, UK with over 7 years of experience. Prior to joining RAK Insurance, she has held actuarial positions with EIC and RSA for Middle East market and AXA for their UK business. She has a diverse experience in pricing, reserving, retention modelling for Motor, Medical, Home and Pet insurance. Leading the actuarial function in RAK Insurance, she is responsible for equitable pricing, holding adequate reserves, portfolio monitoring, performance management, aiding implementation of IFRS17 and satisfying the regulators.
Bing Sape – Human Resource (HR) Manager
Bing is an accomplished HR Professional responsible for the Human Resource Department. Having successfully completed the associate level of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, UK, she oversees the RAK Insurance HR function and provides effective support service across the company. Bing is a certified HR Practitioner with over 7 years experience across multiple disciplines. She has a strong knowledge of the UAE Labor Law and Emiratisation requirements, and has a proven record of reliability and commitment.
Abeer Hilwenji – Board Secretary
Abeer joined RAKINSURANCE in 2015. In June 2020, she was promoted as the Board Secretary with her three years competent and practical experience in handling Board and Board Committees meetings. Abeer posseses strong knowledge of Insurance Authority regulations and assist in managing other regulatory requirements. Currently, Abeer supervises the Legal team on the Company’s administrative requirements .
Abeer has a Bachelor’s degree in English and Certificate in Commercial terminologies, ICDL.
