Joumana Bercetche

Anchor CNBC

Joumanna Bercetche is co-anchor of the European edition of CNBC’s ‘Street Signs’. In addition to providing commentary and analysis on major company earnings and macro events, Joumanna spends much of her time interviewing policymakers and CFOs/CEOs from across EMEA. She also reports live on monetary policy decisions of financial institutions around the world, such as the European Central Bank and Bank of England. She has also moderated panels and hosted roundtables at the Annual Meetings of the IMF, WEF, and OECD conferences, among other global conferences.

Bercetche joined CNBC in 2017 after 11 years in the City, working for Citigroup and Goldman Sachs as a macro and fixed income specialist on the trading floor. She studied Economics as an undergraduate at the American University of Beirut where she was the recipient of the Penrose Award. A dual national with UK and Lebanese citizenship, Joumanna speaks Arabic and English fluently. In May 2022, she obtained her CFA in ESG Investing.

Jihad Azour

Director Middle East and Central Asia Department, IMF

Jihad Azour has been the Director of the International Monetary Fund’s Middle East and Central Asia Department (MCD) since March 2017. Mr. Azour served as Lebanon’s Finance Minister during 2005–08, during which time he coordinated the implementation of important reform initiatives at the national level and within the Finance Ministry. Before and since his time as finance minister, he held a wide range of posts in the private sector, including McKinsey and Booz and Co. where he served as vice president and senior executive advisor between 2009–13. Prior to joining the Fund he was a managing partner at advisory and investment firm Inventis Partners. Mr. Azour holds a PhD in International Finance and a post-graduate degree in International Economics and Finance, both from the Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris.

Masood Ahmed

President, Center for Global Development.

Masood Ahmed is President of the Center for Global Development. He joined the Center in January 2017, capping a 35-year career driving economic development and policy initiatives relating to debt, aid effectiveness, trade, and global economic prospects at major international institutions, including the IMF, World Bank, and DFID.

Amer Bisat

Managing Director, Blackrock.

Amer Bisat, PhD, Managing Director, is Head of Emerging Markets (EM) Fixed Income and a member of the Fundamental-GFI Executive Committee. In this role, he oversees the team managing the firm's EM portfolios across hard currency, local and corporate debt instruments. Mr. Bisat's service with the firm dates back to 2013. Prior to BlackRock, he was a partner in two macro hedge funds (Traxis and Rubicon) and held portfolio management responsibilities at Morgan Stanley and UBS. Between 1991 and 1998, he was a senior economist at the International Monetary Fund where he helped negotiate high profile programs with Russia, Ukraine, and Egypt. Mr. Bisat has also taught graduate level economics courses at Columbia University, co-authored a book on globalization, and published academic and policy papers on growth and financial sector development. He is a trustee of a number of cultural and art institutions, sits on the Advisory Council of the Carnegie Middle East Center and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Mr. Bisat earned a BA in economics from the American University of Beirut and a PhD in economics and finance from Columbia University.

 Monica Malik

Chief Economist, Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank.

Monica Malik is the chief economist at Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, where she works on building economic research to help inform the bank’s decision making. Malik has over 20 years of experience as an economist in the Middle East and North Africa. She was at EFG Hermes where she was the chief economist and previously worked as a senior economist with Standard Chartered Bank (Dubai) and Dun and Bradstreet (London). Malik is the author of several academic books and articles on economic development in the Gulf Arab countries. She holds a PhD in economic development in the Middle East from the University of Durham and an MA in development studies from the University of East Anglia.