30 min

5 min

Dr. Walid Abanumay, Chair – SCCA

5 min

HRH Princess Hala Bint Khaled Bin Sultan Al-Saud, Chair – Burhan Al-Marifa

5 min

Dr. Hamed Merah, CEO – SCCA

15 min

Presentation of trends and key findings in recent KSA caselaw.

Mr. Christian P. Alberti, Chief of ADR & General Counsel – SCCA

10 min

50 min

Mr. Gary Born, Chair of the International Arbitration Practice Group – Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP.

Moderator:
Ms. Sarah Malik, CEO International Disputes Counsel – SOL International

Including Q & A (15 – 20 min)

20 min

Chair of the International Arbitration Practice Group, Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP

Gary Born, Chair of the International Arbitration Practice Group at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP, is one of the world’s preeminent authorities on international commercial arbitration and international litigation. He has served as counsel in over 650 arbitrations, including several of the most prominent arbitrations in ICC and ad hoc history. He has sat as an arbitrator in over 200 institutional and ad hoc arbitrations. Mr Born is President of the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC) Court of Arbitration and serves in an advisory capacity in other institutions worldwide. He is a member of the American Law Institute and of the Board of Trustees of the British Institute for International and Comparative Law. He has served on the Executive Council of the American Society of International Law, the Advisory Committee of the ALI’s Restatement of US International Arbitration Law, the Advisory Committee of the ALI Restatement of US Foreign Relation Law (Fourth) and as co-chair of the ABA International Section, Committee on International Aspects of Litigation.

Chief of ADR & General Counsel – Saudi Center for Commercial Arbitration (SCCA)

Christian P. Alberti is the Chief of ADR and General Counsel of the Saudi Center for Commercial Arbitration (SCCA) based in Riyadh. He supervises the SCCA’s case management secretariat and legal department. Before joining the SCCA in 2019, he was the Assistant Vice President of the International Centre for Dispute Resolution (ICDR), the international division of the American Arbitration Association, Inc. (AAA), in New York. He supervised staff and related management activities and oversaw hundreds of significant complex multi-party arbitrations and mediations covering all types of disputes and industries each year. He also taught as Adjunct Professor at New York University School of Law (NYU) on International Arbitration and International Sales Law between 2017 and 2019. Before joining the ICDR in 2005, Christian headed the Italian Desk of a mid-size law firm in Germany.

Christian is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (FCIArb), a founding member of the International Arbitration Club of New York, the past President and Honorary Member of the Alumni Association of the Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot (MAA), and a member of various international ADR associations. He is regularly invited to speak at international conferences and guest lectures at various universities about international arbitration and mediation worldwide. He successfully coached NYU’s Vis Moot Team between 2007 and 2019 and the Foreign Direct Investment Moot Team between 2008 and 2019.

After studies at the Philipps-University of Marburg, the German University for Administrative Sciences Speyer (DHV) and the University of Queensland, he was admitted to practice law in Germany in 2003 and the State of New York in 2011. He obtained an LL.M. from Tulane University Law School in 2002.

He speaks fluent English, German and Italian.

CEO – Saudi Center for Commercial Arbitration (SCCA)

Dr Hamed Merah is an internationally recognised leader and expert with an extensive track record of achievements during his career encompassing Banking, Investment Banking, Insurance (Takaful), and the development of related Industry Standard-setting. Led one of the most important specialised international organisations in the Islamic Finance “IF” industry, with activities and members in more than 45 countries.

Comprehensive academic qualifications, professional fellowships, and advanced training courses in Law, Shari’ah, Leadership, Compliance, Governance, Insurance, and Capital Markets, such as:

• Harvard Business School Alumni
• MSC and PhD from The Higher Judicial Institute in Riyadh
• MCIArb, Member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, UK
• Attended the Diploma in International Commercial Arbitration, University of Oxford. Organised by CIArb.

Dr Merah has conducted courses, workshops, and keynote speeches at numerous specialised Conferences in more than 30 countries; and is the Author of two published books.

Also, he’s Chair & member of several national & international advisory boards & councils, including:

• Chair, Islamic Finance Development Committee under the Financial Sector Development Program “FSDP” (one of KSA Vision2030 programs)
• Part-time expert in the (new civil Law drafting team) in the (judicial legislation Project) launched by HRH, the Crown Prince, to prepare Saudi laws.
• International Monetary Fund (IMF) Interdepartmental Working Group on IF (2017– 2014)
• International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) IF Consultative Group (2017 – 2015)
• ·Advisory Council on IF of the Astana International Financial Centre, Kazakhstan (2019 – 2018)

Dr Hamed has led the official delegation representing Saudi Arabia in the meetings of The United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) and is the Former Secretary General and Board of Trustees member of the Accounting & Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI), Bahrain.

Founder – Burhan Al-Marifa

HRH Princess Hala bint Khaled bin Sultan is the Founder of Burhan Almarifa; a Saudi company focused on maturing the culture, encouraging innovation, and enabling research and development in the legal sector in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. She is the Founder of the Saudi Law Conference and Chairman of its Organizing Committee since its launch in 2018. She is passionate about preserving and conserving the ocean and has been Director of the Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation’s board since 2016. She is Senior Advisor at Al Akeel & Partners in Cooperation with Mayer Brown. Princess Hala was also KSA’s ICC Young Arbitrators Forum representative from 2019-2021. She started her career in 2008 as a legal researcher at the Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority Economic Cities Agency (SAGIA-ECA) and then as a legal advisor at SAGIA-ECA. She was a Co-Founder of The Empowerment Hub, a social enterprise which focused on raising awareness about health and fitness for women and youth in Saudi Arabia until 2018. Princess Hala graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in International Relations from Wellesley College in 2005 and then earned her Juris Doctorate (JD) degree from Boston University School of Law in 2008.

She is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (CIArb) in the UK, Vice Chairman of the Steering Committee for the establishment of the Saudi Branch of CIArb, and a member of the Advisory Committee to the Alyamamah University College of Law in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

She was recognised as “Woman of the Year” at LexisNexis’s first Women in Law Awards in 2022.

CEO of SOL International and International Disputes Counsel

Sarah Malik is an award-winning lawyer who achieved Litigator of the Year (2022) at the first GCC Women in Law Awards and received an honourable mention in the ‘Law Firm Leader of the Year’ category at the same awards.

In March 2022, SOL was named by Legal 500 EMEA as a ‘Firm to Watch in Dispute Resolution: Arbitration and International Litigation’. Sarah and SOL have been further nominated as Women Lawyer of the Year and Rising Law Firm of the Year. She is a member of the SIAC Users Council in the Middle East and is appointed to the Lagos Panel of Arbitration Neutrals. Sarah is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and accepts appointments to sit as an Arbitrator. She undertakes international commercial arbitrations as Counsel (DIAC, ADCCAC, DIFC-LCIA, ICC) and practices commercial litigation at the DIFC and ADGM Courts.

At the end of 2019, she authored “A Guide to GCC Arbitration”, published by LexisNexis and in 2018, she authored “The UAE Chapter on Arbitration in the International Comparative Legal Guide”. Sarah is regularly invited to speak worldwide on arbitration, including for the ICC, CIArb and IBA.

Chair– Saudi Center for Commercial Arbitration (SCCA)

Dr Abanumay is a Global Investor and has been managing his personnel and family Investments in developed and emerging markets for over two decades. Dr Abanumay is a Director of SODIC (Six of October Development and Investment Company) and B Investment, both listed on the Egypt Stock Exchange. He is also on the Board of SAMBA Financial Group, Listed on Saudi Stock Exchange. Dr Abanumay is also serving on the Board of many unlisted companies across the World. He is presently the Chairman of Abanumay Industrial Company and Arabian Waterproofing Company. Dr Abanumay obtained a PhD in Business Administration (Majoring in Finance) from Southern Illinois University after completing his master’s degree in management information systems.