Permanent Advisors

An unmatched consortium of competencies and technical expertise

B.e.e. commits to bring to each consulting assignment the specialized experts holding valuable and exceptional competencies and able to pinpoint the client’s exact needs and deliver with professionalism.

We believe that the depth and breadth of our experience, our practical and theoretical exposure, and the unmatched skills our team has built over the years, constitute the most priceless assets we pass on to our clients.

Ms. Leila Atwi

Ms. Atwi is the Managing Partner of Business Engineering Experts. She has been engaged in sophisticated consulting assignments delivered to major companies in the region.

Within this scope, she has worked on a number of valuation projects including due diligence and investment analysis of projects. She has advised companies in relation to investment and financing decisions as well as the allocation of corporate investment portfolios and has contributed to the development of multifaceted valuation and funding models for leading companies in the region.

She has gained extensive experience in corporate governance structures and principles through the work on a number of projects in the region including major companies which embarked on corporate governance restructuring programs.

Leila has several articles and research covering the issues of valuation and corporate governance in the Middle East and other emerging markets published in leading international journals.

She taught a corporate finance course at the American University of Beirut for several years.

Leila holds an MBA degree from the American University of Beirut, an International Certified Valuation Specialist (ICVS) certificate, and a Corporate Finance Qualification from the Chartered Institute for Securities and Investments (CISI) and the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW).

Professor Sheridan Titman

Professor Titman holds the McAllister Centennial Chair in Financial Services Center for Energy Finance at the University of Texas and is a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research. He was the President of the American Finance Association (AFA) for 2012 and is currently the President of the American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association.

Professor Titman is a leading expert in investments, corporate finance, valuation, and real estate.  In addition to his leading advanced corporate finance textbook entitled “Financial Markets and Corporate Strategy”, he coauthored two books on valuation capitalizing on his profound professional and consultancy experience and covering complex sophisticated considerations and techniques (strategic analysis and real options, value of flexibility, irrational behavior and risk management, etc.). He has taught valuation in the special setting of large-scale investments in power plants, refineries, oil and gas development projects and electric power companies. He served as special assistant to the Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy where he analyzed proposed legislation related to the stock and futures markets, corporate takeovers and leveraged buyouts.

Professor Titman has a Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon University, has taught at UCLA and Boston College and has served as the department chair for the finance group at both universities and as the Vice Chairman of the UCLA management school faculty.

Professor Titman’s academic publications include both theoretical and empirical articles on asset pricing, corporate finance, energy finance, real estate finance and urban economics.

Dr. Scott Gibson

Dr. Gibson is an Associate Professor of Finance at the College of William and Mary Mason School of Business. He previously held academic appointments at Cornell University and the University of Minnesota. He holds a B.S. and Ph.D. in Finance from Boston College. Prior to his academic career, he worked as an analyst with Fidelity Investments and as a credit team leader serving a Fortune 500 clientele with HSBC Bank.

His consulting activities include serving as an expert witness on issues related to the mutual fund industry, providing valuation expertise for mergers and acquisitions, and developing quantitative targeting models that detail compatibility between securities issuers and institutional investors.

His current research interests include institutional investor trading strategies and their relation to stock and bond returns and conflicts of interest in the delegated portfolio management industry. His research publications include papers in the Journal of Financial Economics, Review of Financial Studies, Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Journal of Financial Intermediation, and Journal of Portfolio Management. Recent research awards include the Best Paper in Quantitative Investments at the 2008 Western Finance Association Meetings. His research has been featured in the financial press, including the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, New York Times, Barons, Business Week, and Bloomberg.

Dr. Zeigham Khokher

Dr. Khokher holds a Ph.D. in finance from the University of Texas at Austin, and has held a faculty appointment at the Ivey Business School at the University of Western Ontario for more than five years. He has also served as visiting scholar at the Securities and Exchange Commission in Washington D.C. While at the SEC Dr. Khokher worked as the lead economist on the collapse of the energy hedge fund Amaranth, he has also worked as an advisor to energy firms in Texas.

He has served as a member of several workshops and roundtables related to Energy issues in Toronto, New York and Washington DC. He has been invited to present his Energy Finance related research at Morgan Stanley. His research has been published in the Journal of Finance.

Insights by our Advisors:

Investor Protection and Governance in the Valuation of Emerging Markets Investments – by Dr. Sheridan Titman, Dr. Assem Safieddine, and Leila Atwi –Journal of Applied Corporate Finance; Volume 29, Issue 3, Summer 2017, Pages 89–100

How do the investor protection at the country level (legal and institutional frameworks) and the company level (corporate governance) interact in the valuation of companies in emerging markets?

 

Women Board Quotas: International Experiences and Insights to the Arab Countries; by Dr. Assem Safieddine, and Leila Atwi – Harvard Business Review Arabia – HBR Arabia; October 25, 2017

It is evident that the Arab countries ought to take action to improve the women representation rates on board of directors. But are they ready to introduce board quotas? And if they do, are they likely to succeed in meeting the targets?

 

Comparison of Transparency and Disclosure Practices in the Largest Middle East Economies; by Dr. Assem Safieddine, and Leila Atwi – Harvard Business Review Arabia – HBR Arabia; July 3, 2017

The Middle East markets have been directing significant effort to grow and attract foreign investments. But are these markets playing the transparency card correctly? Is the public information sufficient to encourage investors’ market exposure?

 

Is a Governance Culture Innate or Acquired? Implications for the Middle East; by Dr. Assem Safieddine, and Leila Atwi – Harvard Business Review Arabia – HBR Arabia; April 9, 2017

The journey to governance is certainly not short nor quick. Nevertheless, it is not a far-reaching aspiration. How can the Arab countries follow suit of the countries that improved their governance standings? The previous international and regional experiences unveil important cornerstones.

More Insights…

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