Silvan A. Said ACII, Chartered Insurance Practitioner

Chief Executive Officer

Silvan A. Said ACII, Chartered Insurance Practitioner

Mr Said was GII's first Head of Academy joining the institute from its foundation and was appointed CEO in April 2009

Mr Said is top level risk and insurance management executive with 28 years experience in the industry as an insurance broker and consultant, a trainer and director and senior executive with a passion for technical insurance and risk knowledge.

As an insurance broker and consultant he has been involved in advising corporate clients on risk management programs, insurance audits and drawing up insurance solutions for shipping, commercial and industrial enterprises and negotiated and placed tailor-made covers at Lloyd’s and other London and international markets. He has dealt with large and complex claims in these areas negotiating settlements with international adjusters and underwriters. He has experience with such diverse clients as large manufacturers, foundries, power utilities, shipyards, ship-owners, ferry operators, importers and exporters, offshore bunkering, crude oil washing, food chains, hotel chains and others.

As a senior executive and manager Mr. Said managed companies reporting directly to the board of directors, drawing up business plans, advising on corporate structures and governance and leading teams of people to achieve business targets and objectives.

As an academic and trainer he has researched, written course manuals, delivered lectures and examined candidates in many insurance subjects in property, engineering, liability, marine, professional indemnity, bankers blanket bond, risk management, regulation and supervision among others.  Mr Said is an experienced public speaker and communicator with all levels of staff and executives conducting training and workshops for diverse audiences from novices to board of directors of insurance companies.

With an advanced knowledge of I,T. Systems he has been involved in many I.T. development projects including insurance agency systems, CRM, e-learning, Web portals and online travel booking systems.

During his tenure in the Middle East, he has travelled and networked with many executives of companies operating in the region and attended numerous conferences and workshops to increase his knowledge and understanding of the business in the region.

Mr Ahmed Mahdi ACII, Chartered Insurance Practitioner

Head of Training

Mr. Mahdi is an Associate of the Chartered Insurance Institute, UK, who has a well-rounded background in both academic and practical skills, having over 12 years professional experience working in the insurance industry, followed by over 8 years’ experience of lecturing insurance subjects.

Starting his career with the Insurance and legal services department of the Ministry of Electricity and Water in Bahrain, he then moved to Bahrain National Insurance Company where he developed his career as an insurance practitioner. The last position he held at Bahrain National Insurance was head of claims department where he dealt in- depth with various classes of insurance business, and over the years also gained vast experience in the reinsurance and underwriting departments. As part of his early professional development, Mr. Mahdi also spent time training with MARSH in U.K. 

Mr. Mahdi then left insurance practice and turned to passing on his accumulated knowledge and expertise through lecturing and course writing. He worked as an insurance lecturer at the Bahrain Institute of Banking and Finance (BIBF) for several years.

Mr Mahdi moved to GII as deputy head - Insurance & Risk Management where he was part of the team in developing GII's  framework of qualifications and programmes as well as overseeing its translation into Arabic. Mr. Mahdi was appointed Head of Training in April 2009.

Mr. Reda Derbas FGII, Insurance Management Diploma (BIBF)

Associate Lecturer

Reda Derbas holds an Insurance Management Diploma from the Bahrain Institute of Banking and Finance and has over 12 years experience in the insurance industry. He is currently studying for his CII Advanced Diploma. Mr. Derbas became the first Fellow of the Gulf Insurance Institute in 2009.

Before joining GII, Mr. Derbas held the position of Section Head with Takaful International Company managing the General Takaful Department (Technical) where he was responsible for underwriting and claims of a wide range of insurance classes including marine, engineering, fire, miscellaneous accident and reinsurance for direct and facultative businesses.

Before his promotion to section head he occupied various roles throughout the company including supervisor for marine and engineering handling all business inquiries through brokers and client relationship management. As surveyor he was carried out pre-risk and claims surveyor on non-motor claims.

He joined Gulf Insurance Institute as an Associate Lecturer in October 2008 where he has been lecturing regularly in insurance principles and practice as well as property, marine, and claims.
 

Ms. Bahja Abdul Hadi Al-Mubarak B.Sc. English Literature, MBA

Supervisor-Registration and Student Counselling

Ms Al-Mubarak graduated from the University of Bahrain in English Literature in 2005 and went  on to read for an MBA with the open university of Malaysia with specialisation in Human Resources and Marketing.

She joined the Ministry of Education in Bahrain in 2005 working with different levels of students and preparing educational plans for different ages using many teaching methodologies blending traditional and modern techniques. Her responsibilities included maintaining quality teaching control and satisfaction records organizing programs conducted by the department and writing various progress and evaluation reports and assessing the effectiveness of these programs. She also supervising various activities conducted by students and new teachers.

Ms Al-Mubarak recently joined GII to take responsibility for talent development programmes and as a language and and personal development skills instructor.

Mr. Keith Laver Dip PFS

Adjunct Lecturer

Keith is a highly qualified  training professional with in excess of 15 years training experience and in excess of 20 years experience in the financial services industry. Keith has worked successfully with a number of household names, including Fidelity FundsNetwork, Legal and General, Norwich Union, Standard Life, Scottish Widows, Lloyds TSB, HBoS, Bradford & Bingley, Sun Life of Canada, Prudential and British Telecom.

He is a TAP qualified trainer having achieved passes in Training Delivery Skills, Training Design and Development Skills and Facilitation Skills under the Trainer Assessment Programme. 

Keith has experience of designing and delivering training relating to both skills and knowledge, as well as project management experience and carrying out observation assessments and providing feedback and coaching.  He has worked with people at all levels of experience and in many different job roles. 

Technical subjects that Keith delivers range from the International Introduction to Investments Award by the Chartered Institute of Securities and Investments, and the Diploma subjects of the Chartered Insurance Institute.

Simon Grech BSc(Hons) Financial Services FCIB

Areas of Specialisation: Securities and Investments, Wealth Management, Fund Management, Financial Services Education

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Shahbaz H. Syed, CFA, FRM, CMA

Areas of Specialisation: Asset/ Investment/ Portfolio Management, Treasury/ Cash Flow Management; Risk Management, ALM, Fund Transfer Pricing, Capital Adequacy Planning; Investment Analysis, Financial Analysis & Modeling, Project & Trade Finance, Credit Risk Analysis; Islamic Finance (Investments, Assets Management, Banking & Takaful); Business Planning & Budgeting/ Corporate Performance Evaluation & Reporting.

Miguel Borg M.A. Economics

Areas of Specialisation: Enterprise Risk management, Basel II implementation,Applied stress testing , Operational risk, Economic capital allocation, Value-at-Risk applications, Securities and Investments.

Salem Patel B.Sc. (Hons) Business Studies (Specialising in Finance)

Areas of Specialisation: Securities and Investments, Islamic Finance, Wealth Management,Training

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Ahmed Shukri B.Sc Eng. M.Sc HR

Areas of Specialisation: Quantitative Methods, Management, Economics, Marketing and H.R.

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Sam Mulholland CBCP MNZCS

Areas of Specialisation: Business Continuity Planning, Disaster Recovery

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Mark L Agius BSC (HONS) FINANCIAL SERVICES, ACIB,CDCS 

Areas of Specialisation: Financial Planning, Securities and Investments, Wealth Management, HNWI Relationship management, Fund Management

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Mark Camilleri CAMS, FCII, DMU(AMS)

Areas of Specialisation: Life & Disability Underwriting, Anti-Money laundering

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Shirley Dockerill M.Sc. (HRD), Post Grad. Dip in Marketing, MAC, MCIPD

Areas of Specialisation: Management coaching, Psychometric Testing, Human Resources Development, Marketing

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Pauline Azzopardi BSc., ACII., Cert FS, CeFA

Areas of Specialisation: Wealth Management, investment advice, offshore bonds, unit trusts and mixed portfolios, mortgage, pension advice and personal financial planning.

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Dr. Carmel Cascun BA, FCII, ACI.Arb, M.Jur LL.D

Areas of Specialisation: Marine and Aviation insurance, Insurance Broking, Insurance law, Arbitration

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Terry Callus ACII

Areas of Specialisation: Insurance Lecturer, Research and Development of insurance academia, insurance examiner

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Lamia Mohamed Kuwaiti B.A Business Management & Marketing, Dip. CII,

Areas of Specialisation: Fire & General Accident Underwriting, Personal Lines underwriting

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Dr. AbdelGadir Warsama Ghalib  

Areas of Specialisation: Insurance Law, Technology Law, Banking Law, Credit, Debt and Collections Law, Environmental Law, Intellectual Property, Investment  & Securities Law

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Mr. Hani Abbas Issa Abdalla B. Com., M.P.M  

Areas of Specialisation: Human Resources Training & Development, Management Education, Organisational Behaviour, softskills

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