Left to right and top to bottom: Aisha Abdallah, Jose Daniel Amado, Neil Kaplan CBE QC SBS (President), Dr. Hassan Arab, Valeria Galíndez, Toby Landau QC, Ank Santens, Professor Maxi Scherer, May Tai, Paul Werné, Roland Ziadé
As Delos continues to grow and gain traction internationally, including through the insertion of its arbitration clause, we are excited to announce that its Board of Advisors is expanding to include four new members, reflecting the institution’s increasing global reach: Aisha Abdallah, Valeria Galíndez, Paul Werné and Roland Ziadé (short bios below). They join existing Board members Jose Daniel Amado, Dr Hassan Arab, Toby Landau QC, Ank Santens, Professor Maxi Scherer and May Tai.
Board President Neil Kaplan CBE QC SBS shares that "I am pleased to welcome Aisha, Paul, Roland and Valeria to the Board of Delos. This announcement reflects the organisation’s commitment to gender and ethnic diversity as well to experience and professionalism. I look forward very much to working with them all.”
Delos’s Board advises the institution on the full range of its activities, endeavours and initiatives, and further supports the institution through shared values of excellence, integrity and independence. In this manner, it also acts as an ethics committee, and validates the Rules of Arbitration and the key processes of case administration.
ABOUT THE NEW MEMBERS OF THE DELOS BOARD OF ADVISORS
Aisha Abdallah heads the Disputes Resolution department at Anjarwalla & Khanna. Her practice focuses on commercial litigation, with a particular emphasis on fraud, economic crime and disputes over land, the environment and natural resources. Aisha is dual qualified as an Advocate of the High Court of Kenya and Solicitor of England and Wales. Aisha was appointed to the MARC Court in 2017, the ADR arm of the Mauritius Chamber of Commerce and Industry. She is the lead author of the Kenyan chapter of the 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th editions of the International Arbitration Review. She is also a member of the Africa Users Group for the Singapore International Arbitration Centre. Aisha is part of an expert team that has drafted Anti-Money Laundering, Remittances and Mobile Money Bills for Somaliland and is the lead author of the Kenya chapter of the 2018 Chambers Anti-Corruption Global Practice Guide. She is also the lead author of the ALN Anti-Corruption Guide 2019. Aisha provides training and writes and speaks on a wide range of contentious issues, including international arbitration, corruption, economic crime and pro bono work. Aisha is rated and recognised by both Chambers Global and Legal 500 for her work.
Valeria Galíndez, a dual national of Brazil and Argentina, has focused her practice on arbitration since 2001. She founded Galíndez Arb in 2019, after having worked in some of the most prestigious Brazilian and international firms in Paris, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. Valeria has acted as counsel in more than 50 cases and as arbitrator in over 65 proceedings. She has been particularly active in commercial cases involving construction, energy (including eolic and solar energy), joint ventures and corporate acquisition matters. Valeria has also been acting as arbitrator in investment cases administered by ICSID and the PCA. Since 2009, Valeria has been consistently recognized as one of the most notable practitioners in Latin America (Chambers Global and Who’s Who Legal). In 2021, she was the sole Latin American female ranked as “Most in Demand Arbitrators” in the region by Chambers Global. Valeria is the current Senior Vice-Chair of the Arbitration Committee of the International Bar Association. She is also a member of the ICC Latin American Arbitration Group; the Board of Editors of the ICC Bulletin in Dispute Resolution; and the ICC Task Force on “Addressing Issues of Corruption in International Arbitration”. Valeria speaks Portuguese, Spanish, English and French.
Paul Werné is an independent business consultant focussing on business developments in Africa and the Middle East. Paul has been working as Legal or General Counsel for major international groups, mainly in the field of telecommunications. After spending many years in the Orange - France Telecom group, successively as General Counsel for its Directory and Advertising, then its Satellite Transmission and Broadcast line of business, and finally as General Counsel for the group’s non-European operations, he moved to the Middle East where he held the position of Group General Counsel of the United Arab Emirates’ national telecommunications operator, Etisalat, for 8 years, during which Etisalat substantially updated and enhanced its strategy, increased its global reach and ambitiously developed new technologies and activities. Paul has extensive experience in creating, reorganising and managing international legal teams, in mergers and acquisitions, company law, corporate governance and dispute resolution.
Roland Ziadé is the Global Co-Head of International Arbitration at Linklaters and a member of the Paris, New York and Beirut Bars. He acts as counsel in both commercial and investment arbitration cases and has acted as arbitrator in over 50 arbitral proceedings. Roland is the current President of ICC-France Committee on the selection and appointment of arbitrators and was a member of the ICC International Court of Arbitration for 9 years (2009-2018). He is also a member of the Executive Committee of the FIAA, the Bureau of the French Arbitration Committee (CFA), as well as various arbitral organizations and working groups. Roland teaches arbitration at Paris Saclay University, Paris II (Assas) University, as well as at Sciences Po. He is the author of numerous publications and articles on international arbitration. Roland holds an LLM from Harvard Law School (Fulbright Scholar), as well as postgraduate degrees from Assas and Sorbonne Universities. In 2017, GAR ranked Roland in the top three worldwide on the list of partners below 45 and in 2018 he was selected by Who’s Who Legal among the 10 leading and most highly regarded arbitration counsels and arbitrators in France. He is also consistently recognized as one of the most active dispute resolution lawyers in the Middle East and in Africa (Chambers Global and Jeune Afrique), as well as a Global Elite Thought Leader for international arbitration (Who’s Who Legal 2019 and 2020). His working languages are English, French and Arabic.