Shifting Horizons: The Middle East in the Age of Trumponomics 2.0

In the heart of downtown Dubai, EXANTE Horizon brings together top institutional investors, strategists, and industry leaders to decode Trumponomics 2.0 and explore what’s on the Horizon for financial markets.

In a new era of political populism, protectionism, shifting power dynamics, and fiscal tightening across major economies, join us to explore the latest developments transforming global financial markets.

Palace Downtown Hotel, Dubai

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The Horizon Panel

Serena Sebastiani

PwC Middle East Virtual Assets Lead
Director Financial Services Consulting

Serena Sebastiani is a Senior Director in the Financial Services Advisory arm of PwC Middle East and Consulting Virtual Assets Leader. She also looks after the PwC innovative Assets & Wealth Management platform.
Serena has 15 years of experience in supporting Regulators, Governments and the Private Sector to achieve these objectives, through designing strategies, policies and implementation actions that will define the Future of Banking and Finance.
As an ex-Regulator, Serena supports Regulatory Authorities in the Region to design their future -looking strategies and policies in the Fintech and Virtual Assets space, works with Banks and other TradFi institutions to enter the Virtual Assets space, and advises VASPs on their strategies, operations, compliance issues.
Serena supports the growth of the Fintech and Web3 ecosystem in the Region by contributing to the active community of players across the value chain. She is also co-chair of the Digital Assets Committee at the Mena Fintech Association, a mentor in acceleration programs and speaker at major industry events.

Deepak Mehra

Chief Economist
Commercial Bank of Dubai

Deepak Mehra serves as the Chief Economist at Commercial Bank of Dubai, where he is primarily responsible for analyzing the macroeconomic landscape to identify emerging risks and opportunities that impact the bank's various functions. He is also a member of the executive board of CBD Financial Services LLC, the equity brokerage subsidiary of the bank. Previously, at CBD, he was the Head of Investments starting in 2007 and was instrumental in establishing the product and advisory platforms. He was also instrumental in launching the region's first Robo Advisory app from a bank in 2021.
In his career spanning over three decades, Deepak has held leadership positions in banks like Citibank and Credit Suisse. He is an alumnus of Indian Institute of Technology and an MBA degree from IMT. A regular speaker at conferences and on television he is also the author of two successful self-help books Ready, Steady, Go and Think Like a Golfer.

Zeina Rizk, CFA

Co-Head of Fixed Income
Amwal Capital Partners

Zeina joined Amwal in January 2024 as a Co- Head of Fixed Income and Partner based in Dubai. Zeina will be focused on leading the public fixed income.
Prior to joining Amwal, Zeina was a portfolio manager for Arqaam Capital. Where she was lead PM on all the funds and all the discretionary mandates managing various strategies in Global Emerging Markets Conventional and Global Sukuk for institutional accounts.
Zeina has over 15 years of experience in the financial services, 13-year track record co-managing Global Credit Funds, and 10-year track record co-managing Shariah Global Credit funds. Prior to joining Arqaam, Zeina was part of the management team of a global fixed income fund domiciled in Luxembourg and worked as a fixed income advisor to the Private Banking Team. Previously, Zeina held a position as a credit and market risk supervisor and worked in securitization part of the structuring team for asset-backed securitization deals. Zeina holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics and Finance and has been a CFA Charterholder since 2011.

Sree Kochugovindan, PhD

Senior Economist, abrdn Research Institute

Dr. Sree Kochugovindan is a Senior Economist and is responsible for inflation research and Japan Economics at Aberdeen. Sree joined the company in 2019 from Barclays Investment Bank where she worked for 17 years as a global economist and macro strategist. Prior to that, Sree worked as an FX strategist at State Street and as a lecturer for University of London.
Sree graduated with a PhD in Economics from Queen Mary College, University of London.

About the Event

Horizon Dubai will delve into the changing financial market landscape shaped by changing trade alliances, deregulation, and shifts in monetary policy.

The discussion will explore how global supply chain realignment, shifting geo-energy dynamics, tightening fiscal policies and diverging monetary policies are reshaping global markets, affecting the performance of cryptocurrencies, equities, bonds and other asset classes.

We will also examine the sustainability of the GCC's counter-cyclical strategies amid these wider global changes.

Event language: English.

The EXANTE Horizon series is a global platform for insightful discussions on market trends and offers extensive networking opportunities within the financial sector.

Within the EXANTE Horizon series, we invite seasoned international market analysts to share their insights on emerging trends and future forecasts.

Our events are hosted across major global financial hubs and in rapidly developing financial centres.