The position was described as a new one, and created in order to strengthen ties between London and the Middle East, specifically with respect to the bank’s Kuwaiti shareholders. Al-Omar, a Kuwaiti national who had been a non-executive director of the bank, will be based in London.
BLME received authorisation from the Financial Services Authority in July 2007 and claims to be the largest bank of its kind in Europe. It focuses on private banking, asset management, corporate advice, corporate banking and markets for the international Shariah-compliant investment market.
BLME chief executive Humphrey Percy said Al-Omar had been “instrumental” in helping to establish BLME, and had been working closely with BLME officials since 2006, when the bank’s business plan was being developed.
At BLME, Al-Omar will be responsible for BLME’S business development and relationship management in the MENA region, BLME said in a statement.
In addition to his non-executive directorship with BLME, Al-Omar most recently has been managing partner of Frontier Advisors LLC, a company he co-founded in Kuwait in 2009. Prior to this he was executive manager of Direct Investments at Boubyan Bank, where he led investment origination, due diligence, negotiation and monitoring investments.
Other previous roles have included chairman of the board audit committee of Bahrain-based First Investment Bank.
Earlier on in his career, Waleed was chief operating officer of Rekaz Systems, a start-up focused on developing Oracle based software solutions for the Islamic finance industry.
