Silvan A. Said ACII, Chartered Insurance Practitioner

Chief Executive Officer

Mr.Silvan Said  has over twenty seven years experience in the industry as underwriter and broker working out of Malta in the London and European market and has held senior management and CEO positions for over fourteen years.

As a young underwriter he worked in the marine, commercial property, construction and engineering department of the Middlesea Insurance Company. He also spent a year during the initial setting up of the company's Life Assurance department which later became the Middlesea Valletta Life Assurance Co. 

He moved to insurance broking when he became partner and managing director of a company he was instrumental in setting up placing commercial tonnage, large industrial and engineering risks in the London and international market. He successfully placed and managed binding authorities at LLoyd's in marine, property accident and motor for over 12 years.

For the last eight years he has devoted his career to training for the insurance industry developing and delivering courses and workshops in a range of topics in Europe and the Middle East to a multi-national audience. He has regularly lectured at advanced level various classes including property, casualty, construction and engineering and marine as well as special subjects such as regulation and supervision, insurance law, E-commerce, insurance broking and management.

Before his appointment as CEO in April 2009, Mr Said served as GII's first head of academy where he headed his team to develop GII's framework of qualifications and programmes. As one of the first employees and part of the senior management he was heavily involved in the early stages of setting up Gulf insurance Institute.

Mr Said is a regular speaker at industry conferences and contributor to industry magazines and journals.

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. Muhammad F. Khan MBA, ACII, ARM, CPCU

Assistant Head - Qualifications and Membership Services

Muhammad F. Khan started his insurance career from National Insurance Company Limited (NICL) in Pakistan in the year 2001 in Engineering and Fire department, handling engineering and project insurances for construction and erection phases of mega projects for Hydropower and Nuclear power plants, miscellaneous manufacturing facilities as well as for Oil and Gas sector. He later moved to the Head Office to look after reinsurance for the same portfolio.
After serving the company for about six years he left for Kingdom of Saudi Arabia where he served as the Insurance Consultant at Dar Mousa Insurance Advisory Company led by respected and well known icon of Saudi insurance industry, Mr. Mousa A. Rubaian.

Before joining Gulf Insurance Institute, Mr. Khan was serving t’azur, a newly formed regional takaful company as Senior Business Analyst for Underwriting and Retakaful in Bahrain as well as in Dubai, setting up and developing Underwriting and Retakaful operations.

Mr. Khan is an MBA from International Islamic University Islamabad, Chartered Insurer and an Associate in Risk Management from Insurance Institute of America. He attained his ACII title during his tenure with NICL as a part of on job training. He completed his CPCU from American Institute for Chartered Property and Casualty Underwriters in 2007.

He was elected as Governing Council Member of Lahore Insurance Institute in 2006. Mr. Khan was instrumental in the success of MBA Insurance and Risk Management program at Hailey College of Banking and Finance, Punjab University Lahore in the same year and also the first visiting faculty appointed for the same program.

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

Talent Development Counsellor and Instructor

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.

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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Jaffar Jahromi Advanced Insurance Diploma (BIBF)

Areas of Specialisation: Insurance Management, General Business Underwriting, Insurance Training

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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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Maria Sofia Kourti B.A. (Hons) Business Administration, M.Sc. Securities and Investments

Areas of Specialisation:Securities Investments and Banking, Financial Economics; Wealth Management, Business Finance.

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Dr. Suzanne White FCII, Chartered Insurance Practitioner

Areas of Specialisation: Insurance training and consultancy

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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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Jonathan J. Abela ACII, AMIM (Chartered Insurer)

Areas of Specialisation: Personal Lines insurance, Motor insurance, E-commerce,Insurance Intermediaries

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Mustafa Al Sayed Mustafa B.Sc (Maths & Statistics)

Areas of Specialisation: Life & Medical, Takaful, Insurance Finance, Business Statistics

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Charles Price BA (Hons) in Oriental Studies, MA, TEFL Certified

Areas of Specialisation: Teaching English as a Foreign Language, Business English

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Terry Callus ACII

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

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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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Simon Grech BSc(Hons) Financial Services FCIB

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

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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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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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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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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.