Optimising Family Business Structures: Legal, Financial, and Practical Insights

Mohammed is a partner in Clyde & Co’s corporate group. He advises family businesses, financial institutions, investors, and Saudi and multinational corporations on mergers and acquisitions (M&A), divestitures, joint ventures (JVs), restructurings, reorganisations, corporate governance and compliance, general corporate advisory, and capital markets matters in Saudi Arabia.
Mohammed has advised on a number of corporate transactions, working with clients operating in the aviation, education, energy, financial services, healthcare, infrastructure, technology, real estate, and retail and consumer sectors.
Mohammed is a licensed lawyer in Saudi Arabia, a qualified attorney in the State of New York, and a qualified solicitor in England and Wales. He completed the Executive Programme in Private Equity from the Said Business School – University of Oxford in 2019.

Lamisse is a senior associate in Clyde & Co’s intellectual property (IP), technology and commercial group. She advises international, regional, and local entities on IP, commercial, technology, entertainment, and media matters in Saudi Arabia.
Lamisse has 10 years’ experience advising clients on IP protection strategies and commercial transactions relating to all types of intangible assets, including copyrights, trade marks, patents, goodwill, know-how and data. Her experience includes drafting and negotiating contracts for the sale and purchase of IP, licensing, mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, tenders and procurement, franchising, and distribution. Lamisse is also an expert in Saudi Arabia data protection laws and excels in advising on emerging technologies.
Lamisse regularly advises clients operating in the education, healthcare, hospitality, retail and consumer, and technology sectors.

Basma Al Zamil hails from a well-renowned family enterprise, the Zamil Group based in Saudi Arabia. She has the distinct privilege of being one of the first female family members to work in the family enterprise, and through her various accomplishments, has risen to become one of the new generation of leaders within the group. She is regarded both in her family and the country as an expert in family enterprise transitions through governance, succession planning, leadership development, and technology.
Today she advises leading families in the region working as advisor in LGA Global, supporting the families to navigate complex issues while maintaining a harmonious family dynamic. She is deeply committed to empowering women and promoting gender diversity, and has been instrumental in championing these causes.
Basma started her professional journey at Imam Abdulrahman bin Faisal University as a Student Affairs Coordinator.

Ismael Hajjar is a UAE based partner specialising in international tax & wealth structuring, family office and private capital advisory.
He started his career in Europe and has been serving international families for over 16 years. He relocated to the UAE in 2013 and is currently acting as a trusted advisor to a number of successful families across the Middle East region.
He is leading PwC Tax and Legal service offering to private clients, entrepreneurial & royal families and family offices in helping them understand and manage their global affairs, overcome cross-border tax challenges and identify opportunities to achieve their family and business objectives.
Prior to joining PwC, Ismael was acting as head of Private for another big four firm and was responsible for the design and execution of the overall firm strategy for private companies and their owners across all service lines.

Shahad Nejaim is the Group Business Sustainability Director at Al-Dabbagh Group (ADG), where she leads the sustainability agenda to create stakeholder value across its strategic portfolio. Shahad brings seven years of consulting experience to the role. Prior to joining ADG, she spent four years at McKinsey & Company’s Riyadh office where she served private and public sector clients across EMEA. She is an acting non-executive director on four board of directors and has earned her master’s degree from Georgetown University.

Ovais Naqvi is a Private Equity leader and Venture Capital investor with a track record of investing in some of the pioneering VC-invested companies in growth markets. He has been – or is – an investor in leading “unicorn” success stories such as Careem, Kitopi, NinjaVan and Big Basket, as well as The Giving Movement, the GCC region’s leading omnichannel sustainable fashion player.
Ovais is a Partner at Rise Capital, a firm focusing on early-stage investing in growth markets. Rise Capital’s investments including Kitopi in the GCC, Egypt’s Homzmart and MaxAB, Nigeria’s GoKada and Lat Am’s BNPL leader, Kueski, as well as Brazil’s social commerce market leader, Faci.ly and StockGro, SaveIN and TradeX in India.
He founded Clear Mountain in 2020; the advisory firm is focused on growth and fundraising advisory and Ovais has been a Board & IC member at modest fashion market leader, Modanisa.

Hassan manages the private wealth practice at Alzawawi Law Firm. He trained at an international law firm in London and worked for two leading Saudi law firms in Jeddah and Riyadh prior to joining Alzawawi Law Firm. He has a particular focus on providing corporate and regulatory advice to private wealth clients and their businesses. He also focuses on providing legal advice in relation to acquisition transactions, corporate restructurings and advising multinational clients on setting up their businesses in the Kingdom and in relation to contentious matters. Hassan has a wide experience across various sectors including food and beverage, hospitality and hotels, casual dining, pharmaceuticals and healthcare. As well as being a qualified lawyer in Saudi Arabia, who represents clients before the Saudi courts in various disputes, he is also a qualified solicitor in England & Wales.

Suleman joined EY with more than 25 years of professional tax experience including advising multinational clients on Saudi Arabian zakat and tax, international tax planning, transfer pricing, agreement structuring and local compliance matters.
Suleman holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree (Accounting) and Diploma in International Tax from South Africa, Completed an EMBA from University of Edinburgh and the ADIT certification. Previous work experience includes KPMG and PWC both for 10 years each in Saudi Arabia; and prior to his move to the Middle East he had spent 5 years as a corporate tax consultant with the South African Revenue Services. 
He has dealt with tax and zakat issues for clients covering a wide range of industry sectors, including diversified family groups, TMT, oil and gas, industrial, oil and gas, IPP and logistics.

Peter has over 28 years’ experience with Family Offices, Ultra High Net Worth Individuals, their families and corporate services. He is responsible for overseeing a range of management activities and regularly has oversight of family wealth and complex cross-border transactions.
Peter joined the Group in 2014 from a leading multi-family office and has a wealth of experience dealing with families.
Peter has travelled to the Region and in particular KSA for the last 15 years and is generally in the Region at least five times a year.
He has been involved in strategic planning for family governance, including succession planning and family constitutions, and is well versed in the establishment, administration, and governance of multi-jurisdictional structures for holding a variety of international business interests, investments, lifestyle / luxury assets, family run businesses and philanthropic activities.

Christopher Reed is a member of Walkers' Investment Funds & Corporate practice group in Jersey. As the head of Walkers' Middle East desk in the Channel Islands, Christopher has a particular focus on the Middle East region and spends a lot of time focussing on clients originating from the GCC states.
He assists a broad range of clients, from international corporations, private equity investors and sovereign wealth funds to HNW individuals and family offices in relation to their M&A activity, general corporate and commercial matters, and investment structuring arrangements.
Christopher's corporate practice involves him advising on a broad range of transaction types – in the M&A space he advises on large-scale acquisitions and disposals of private equity investments and real estate assets; and in general corporate matters he assists all types of clients with their investment holding structures and group restructuring projects, as well as corporate governance matters.