Ahmed Bin Sulayem

Ahmed Bin Sulayem is the Executive Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of DMCC and has driven its growth from a start-up of 28 member companies in 2003 to the world’s leading free zone in 2023 with over 24,000 member companies from 180 countries, employing over 65,000 people.

Tasked with enhancing commodity trade flows through Dubai, DMCC has introduced to the market a number of value-added products and services under Mr Bin Sulayem’s leadership. In 2023, DMCC was named the ‘Global Free Zone of the Year’ by The Financial Times fDi Magazine, for a record nine consecutive years.

Mr Bin Sulayem oversaw the exponential growth of the DMCC Free Zone master development in Jumeirah Lakes Towers (JLT), a 200-hectare business and residential community in Dubai of over 100,000 people living and working in 87 towers. Mr Bin Sulayem also oversees the development of DMCC’s latest real estate project; the much-anticipated Uptown Dubai district.

Mr Bin Sulayem currently serves as the Chairman of the Dubai Diamond Exchange (DDE) and the Dubai Gold & Commodities Exchange (DGCX).

The Kimberley Process officially appointed the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as the first and only Arab country to Chair the Kimberley Process in November 2015. Shortly after, the UAE Ministry of Economy officially appointed Mr Bin Sulayem as the UAE’s Chair of the Kimberley Process for 2016.

Mahmood Badri

Mahmood Badri has over 30 years of rich finance and accounting experience across the government, semi-government and private sectors. He leads the indirect tax and GCC Institutional Business practice at MBG. In his previous role, atthe Federal Tax Authority (FTA), he became the first Head of the Tax returns and Payment Department in the UAE history.

Prior to this, he was the Finance Assistant Director at Dubai Airport Free Zone (DAFZ), where he worked for 14 years. He had also served in the UAE army for 17 years before that. Mahmood has been awarded by the UAE government for his performance many times.

Janardan Singh

Janardan Singh is COO at MBG Corporate Services and has over 15 years of post-qualification experience in consulting dealing with matters pertaining to corporate tax, international tax, transfer pricing, expatriate tax and due diligence.

Janardan has focused on International Tax and Corporate Tax issues related to EPC contracts/project office operations as his area of specialization. He possesses insight into various issues faced by multinational enterprises operating in India.

Janardan has worked on issues related to permanent establishment, source-base taxation of income such as royalty/fee for technical services (FTS), due diligence and he has significant experience in the area of inbound investments and cross border advisory.

He has done extensive representations at the assessment and appellate level on the issues of permanent establishment, expatriates taxation and taxation on the basis of source rules for several corporate entities and individual expatriates.

Janardan is a qualified Chartered Accountant (CA) of India and holds the degree of Bachelor of Commerce (B. Com) from University of Delhi, India.

Bassel Bitar

Bassel Bitar is the Regional Representative – Asia and Eastern Europe at DMCC, the world’s leading Free Zone and Government of Dubai Authority on commodities trade and enterprise.

Joining DMCC as a Team Leader in 2015, Bassel is responsible for promoting the benefits of doing business in Dubai and setting up companies in DMCC.

Prior to joining DMCC, Bassel held senior sales positions at both Etisalat Telecom and Emirates NBD in Dubai.

Bassel earned a Bachelor of Business administration degree in Hotel Management and tourism from the National American University in 2002.