Can you share a bit about your career path before joining SICO?
More than 16 years prior to joining SICO, I obtained my Licence in Law and Masters in International Business Law from Universite de Bourgogne in France. I started my legal profession in Bahrain by joining Hassan Radhi & Associates in 2009 with a focus on banking and finance, where I served a number of local, regional and international financial institutions. With time, my focus turned to mergers and acquisitions, bonds and sukuk issuances as well as project finance transactions. Amongst the transactions I handled as external counsel, I had the pleasure of working with SICO’s Investment Banking team on a number of M&As and conversions and this gave me a flavour of SICO’s strong team. I left Hassan Radhi & Associates as a Partner heading the Banking and Finance division within the firm.
What have your first few months at SICO been like?
The first few months have been dynamic and engaging. Unlike what I expected the first 100 days to be, a mere observation period to understand the work dynamics and get to know the team, policies, procedures and systems, I’ve had the opportunity to immerse myself in SICO’s operations, collaborate with talented teams across our Bahrain, UAE, and Saudi offices. I got to understand the unique challenges and opportunities in some of the markets. The welcoming team members at SICO in Bahrain and within the Group made the first few months a pleasant start of a journey dedicated to laying the groundwork for enhancing our legal and governance structures, especially with our regional expansion.
What are your key goals for the first year?
My primary goals for 2025 are to:
- Enhancing our legal framework to support SICO’s regional expansion and ensuring compliance with local laws and regulations across all jurisdictions;
- Building a strong SICO Group Legal team and developing a comprehensive training program for the team member’s growth and ability to serve all teams with current and future products offered by SICO as a group;
- Encouraging stronger collaboration between SICO Group Legal with business and support functions within the Group to align with the Group’s strategic strategies and objectives.
With SICO expanding regionally, how does the legal function support growth while ensuring strong governance?
The legal function plays a pivotal role in the growth and expansion journey by ensuring our operations align with local laws and regulations and upholding the highest corporate governance standards. In my view, SICO Group Legal shall have a proactive role in supporting the Management’s strategic plans and ensuring every step taken for growth and expansion is taken in compliance with local laws and regulations. This objective may not be achieved without the legal function and compliance function within the group working hand in hand. It is our goal to facilitate the growth without compromising on legal, regulatory and corporate governance requirements, which will require working closely with the teams on ground in Bahrain, UAE, and Saudi to adapt to the unique environment of each market.
How do you foster collaboration between legal, compliance, and business teams to drive strategic decision-making?
A culture of partnership and an open line of communication across the teams is key to success. Rather than being reactive and viewed as a problem-solver, SICO Group Legal is currently playing a role at the outset by embedding legal perspective into decision making, product structuring and contract negotiations. I would like to ensure that the team has the capacity to cater for such roles and have regular cross-functional meetings, workshops, and trainings (internally with business teams and externally at renowned training institutions) to increase competencies and ensure alignment with compliance and business teams.
What excites you most about this role, and what impact do you hope to make at SICO?
What attracted me to SICO and excites me most is the challenge of covering different markets and the opportunity to be part of SICO’s regional expansion, as well as being part of the team leading this expansion and helping shape SICO’s future legal and governance framework. With the help of strong team members, we shall aim to build a robust legal infrastructure that supports sustainable growth and strengthens stakeholders’ trust across the Group.
