FACULTY FOR THE CORALS COURSE
Please meet Corals faculty comprised of company executives and senior in-house counsel with outstanding experience in dispute resolution, corporate and legal management, and governance:
From left to right, we are honoured to have Paul Werné (chair), Jean-Luc Chalhoub, Leon Ioannou, Katriina Kuusniemi, Noora Sulaibeekh, and Murtaza Virani as our faculty of seasoned general counsel and senior in-house counsel. Their short bios are set out below.
Paul Werne is CEO of Corail Consulting, a consultancy and training firm for investment, risk management, and the organisation and management of legal and compliance issues within larger groups. He has held various senior positions such as Group General Counsel to e+ (previously Etisalat), and General Counsel for the non-European operations for the Orange Group.
Jean-Luc Chalhoub is Director of regulatory affairs for Orange Middle East and Africa, and general manager of Orange Abidjan participations. He has more than 30 years of experience in the legal field in telecommunications, having positions such as General Secretary to Orange Ivory Coast for 6 years, General Counsel for GlobeCast and other senior positions in the legal field. He has published several articles dedicated to the management of people in legal organisations.
Leon Ioannou is an Investment Manager and Senior Legal Counsel at Omni Bridgeway, a global leader in dispute finance. Based in Paris, Leon is responsible for the sourcing, funding and managing of investments internationally, with a focus on France. He is a cross-border disputes lawyer of over 20 years’ experience. He has a unique mix of internal and external legal and commercial/financial expertise. Before joining Omni Bridgeway, Leon was the general in-house legal counsel for the European operations of an international medical device company, and earlier in his career he worked as a financial analyst at some of Australia’s largest companies. Leon also practiced international commercial and investment treaty arbitration at several leading law firms, handling disputes across various industries and governed by various laws. Recognised in Who’s Who Legal since 2017, Leon is qualified in multiple jurisdictions and fluent in English and French.
Katriina Kuusniemi is Executive Director of Business Affairs and Governance at Dubai Holding. She has 20+ years of experience at global level as a lawyer, business leader and governance & compliance professional. After more than a decade in private practice, focusing predominantly on arbitration and litigation, and several years leading an in-house legal & compliance team as well as a business unit at a global company in the defence and government contracting sector, Katriina is currently leading responsible investment and governance initiatives at Dubai Holding in Dubai, UAE. Katriina is a CEDR accredited mediator, a certified board member (CBM/HHJ in Finland and Hawkamah in the UAE) and holds an executive education certification from Yale School of Management.
Noora Sulaibeekh is Head of Legal for Middle East and Africa at SAP. A Bahreini qualified lawyer, she has more than 16 years of experience, with a special focus on TMT, Cybersecurity, Data protection and dispute resolution, both in private practice and in-house. Prior to SAP she worked as General Counsel to Batelco.
Murtaza Virani is the Chief Risk & Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary of the FINTX Group and has oversight of the Group's Compliance Function, including Financial Regulatory Compliance and evaluation and implementation of Policies and Procedures. Murtaza brings many years of extensive experience across a wide range of practice areas and industries – both in Private Practice Law and In-House – having worked at major law firms, the e+ Group, and the Astra Tech Group.