Mr. Souaid is the founder and Managing Partner of Keystone Equity Partners WLL. Prior to forming Keystone in late 2006, Mr. Souaid was MD of Global Investment Banking at HSBC Bank (Middle East) from May 2000, where he joined as a result of the acquisition of CCF by HSBC, until June 2006. At HSBC Mr. Souaid was responsible for regional activities in the key areas of corporate finance, privatization, M&A, corporate restructurings, and equity capital raising (Private Placements and IPOs). His experience in the Middle East started in 1995, and has encompassed all GCC markets, the Levant, Egypt, Morocco, as well as Iraq and Iran, covering various sectors including banking, telecoms, minerals & mining and oil & gas.

Mr. Souaid successfully led several privatization mandates in the Middle East including: Industries of Qatar (Qatar); Arab Potash Company and Jordan Phosphate Mining Co. (Jordan); Oman Telecommunications Company (Oman); Emirates Building Materials Company “Arkan” and Emirates Feedstock & Mineral Water Company “Agthia” (UAE); and the Dual Mobile Telephony Operators (Lebanon). In 2006, Mr. Souaid has advised on and led, landmark equity offerings including the regional IPO of Dana Gas, the first privately-held natural gas company in the Middle East, and the international IPO of Investcom, the leading emerging markets telecom. In the field of M&A, Mr. Souaid has, amongst other deals, advised BaTelco (Bahrain) on its acquisition of Umniah Telecom (Jordan) and, TECOM (U.A.E.) on its acquisition of ‘Inter-Route’ the EU broadband network operator. He has also advised HSBC on its acquisition of Dar Al Salam Bank (Iraq).

Prior to joining HSBC/CCF, Mr. Souaid was MD of Corporate Finance at Middle East Capital Group, a regional merchant bank partly owned by the IFC, NCB and Barclays Bank, where he advised various regional companies on floatations on the Beirut, Amman and Cairo Stock Exchanges. He also led-managed a number of cross-border M&A transactions, including the acquisition of Mobil Oil assets and facilities in the Lebanon by the Baksh Group of Saudi Arabia, as well as the strategic corporate alliance between Emirates Bank International (UAE) and Bank of Beirut.

Mr. Souaid has led, between 1990 and 1994, a successful career as a corporate finance attorney in New York working at Gordon Hurwitz Butowsky Weitzen Shalov & Wein a leading Wall Street law firm specialized in M&A and securities offerings.

Mr. Souaid holds an LLB from the Jesuit School of Law at St. Joseph University (Lebanon); an LLM from Harvard Law School, and Executive Program Certificates from Harvard Business School in the areas of Corporate Valuation and Restructuring. Mr. Souaid is member of the New York State Bar Association and the International Institute of Strategic Studies (London).

Prior to joining KeyStone as a co-founding Partner, Mr. Doumani was the senior advisor to Mizuho International in the Middle East for Investment Banking and Export Financing Services. Mr. Doumani started his financial career 30 years ago at E.F. Hutton at the time, as account executive, where he became licensed member of the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ.

Mr. Doumani moved to New York in 1982 where he joined Sharjah Group, an investment company lead by Sheikh Naser Sabah Al Ahmed of Kuwait capitalized at 300 million dollars at the time, he was given the responsibility of the direct investments in the company for USA where he was seconded to the president of Donaldson Lufkin and Janneret Mr. Carl Tidemmen and he supervised the investment there for almost two years, where he was involved in evaluating real estate, among other things like investing in the film industry, and capital venture in silicon valley.

In 1985, Mr. Doumani returned to London and became the asset manager for the company with Sharjah group for American and Asian stocks, he managed over 100 million dollars at the time.

In 1988, he moved to Nomura International in London where he set up a Middle East desk for Corporate Finance, Asset Management and Investment Banking, and became the vice president for Nomura Middle East.

In 1993, he was recruited by the Carlyle group to set up their Middle East operation out of Dubai, during his tenure with Carlyle he introduced the private equity to the private sector in the Middle East as it was there with the institutions and increased Carlyle exposure and recognition in the area.

In 1997, Mr. Doumani retired himself from Carlyle and established his own advisory service where he assisted in expanding the Hard Rock Café Middle East, and became a board member of the company, he helped introducing and expanding the business of Nespresso in the area, and created a chain of restaurants like Henry J Beans. In addition to that, he was advisor to Investcom for two years where he was behind financing the Ghana license, and helping in the Yemen partnership.

In 2000, Mr. Doumani moved to Morocco believing that this country has to boom, based on its geographical and political location. He opened a Tiffany & Co shop and carried the luxury brands in the shop like Lalique and other jewelry and watches and expanded the business in Morocco to have four shops of high end brands like Façonnable, Villeroy and Boch alongside the existing ones. Over that he opened more retail stores in the food business based on his experience, therefore he created a VIP catering where he ended up selling the business.

In addition to his professional advisory role with Mizuho International, Mr. Doumani has formed in the year 2000 a medium size entrepreneurial fund which has raised capital from regional investors and has participated in establishing various businesses throughout the Middle East including the setting up and management of internationally branded food and beverage chains and consumer goods (Hard Rock Café and Henry J Beans in the UAE), the structuring of participation in real estate investments (Lebanon), the part-financing and founding of new telecom ventures (Investcom in Yemen and Ghana) and the establishment and management of high-end retail outlets (Tiffany’s, Lalique and Façonnable, in Morocco).

Mr. Doumani is still an advisor to a number of high net worth families in the Middle East.

Mr. Macki brings with him seventeen years of rich experience in Banking, Corporate Finance and Management. He started his career in 1991 with the Central Bank of Oman (CBO) in their Treasury & Investment Department. During his seven years in CBO, he was actively involved in revamping the Treasury & Investment Department from a passively managed reserve system to an active one wherein he was one of the three members of a team managed a portfolio of US$ 3 billion earmarked for dealing in debt/fixed income securities. In 1998, Mr. Macki moved to Oman Arab Bank and was in charge of their Investment Banking Division. Apart from gaining exposure in handling Corporate Finance and Structure deals, he also managed two IPO's successfully despite of the prevalent depressed market conditions.

Between 2001 and 2003, Mr. Macki held the position of Executive Director in Al Mawarid Securities Company in Oman, where he was responsible for spearheading the turnaround and reengineering/re-strategizing in order to re-focus the company into a new direction. In 2003, he was instrumental in making a tripartite merger happen with Al Mawarid Securities Co. and two other firms, the first in the history of Oman's financial sector, which resulted in the formation of FinCorp, currently one of the leading investment banking firm of the country.

On formation of Financial Corporation SAOG, Mr. Macki assumed the responsibility of Chief Executive Officer until 2006, he managed the day-to-day business of FinCorp including administrative and executive responsibilities. However, his major role has been in managing human capital of the entire three firms post merger and ensuring the formation of successful and winning teams. His achievement in FinCorp in the last three years includes managing landmark privatization mandates like the Al Maha Marketing (the nation's largest chain of petrol fuel distribution), Oman Flour Mills and the Omantel privatization. Mr. Macki also diligently and actively established and structured both the Asset Management team, whose activities include high net worth individuals and pension funds. This culminated in FinCorp receiving the best brokerage award from the MSM in 2003 and the best managed brokerage firm award in 2005. Further right from Mr. Macki’s tenure in CBO till date, he has also been pursuing his private and entrepreneurial businesses, which included setting up of a leading consultancy firm, a web services firm and also managing his family's trading and investments business. In 1998, he partnered and built from feasibility stage a world class Fire Services Engineering College. His recent turning around of this college from a heavy loss making business to one of profit in the 4 years of his taking over as Chairman is worthy of mention. In 2006, Mr. Macki resigned from Fincorp as a CEO but assumed the role as member of the Board of Directors until July 2008. However, in summer of 2006 he helped setting up a private buyout firm established as an investment holding company and became a Partner of Keystone Equity Partners until date.

Mr. Macki holds a BS in Business Administration from the University of Arizona (USA).

Mrs. Khoury is the Partner responsible for the monitoring of the Portfolio Companies from corporate and legal perspectives, in addition to overseeing GrowthGate’s corporate affairs, including liaising with third party advisors and authorities.

Mrs. Khoury’s career in investment banking started some 13 years ago in Middle East Capital Group. In 1998, she became Vice President-Project Coordinator where she was mostly in charge of coordinating transactions internally and with third parties.

Mrs. Khoury has spent eight years with HSBC Bank Middle East, Investment Banking, two of which in Beirut, Lebanon (with PrimeCorp Finance, then part of the HSBC-CCF Group) and six in Dubai, UAE. She has been Director in charge of managing transactions and overseeing their execution from origination to closing.

Mrs. Khoury was heading a team with various transactional skills, mostly involved in the execution of transactions, in addition to their involvement in pitches, proposals, sector mappings and various client presentations. She handled the client relationships throughout the execution process, as well as the selection of and interaction with other external advisors (lawyers, auditors, industry experts, PR firms). Throughout her exposure to a variety of transactions and geographies, she has developed a solid knowledge of and experience in the regional regulatory and legal landscape, and a network of government and other quasi-government agencies and bodies (ministries, regulators, stock exchanges, etc.).

Mrs. Khoury has contributed to the execution and closing of around 25 deals, in excess of US$5 billion in total, including landmark deals in privatizations, IPOs, M&As and others in the Gulf and the wider Middle East region.

Mrs. Khoury holds a BA in Business Administration from the Lebanese University in Beirut since 1983, and had participated in Executive Programs in Insead (2006), Singapore, and Harvard Business School in the US (2007).