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Maryam Ficociello (Chief Governance Officer at The Red Sea Development Company)

Maryam Ficociello

Chief Governance Officer at The Red Sea Development Company

In her role as Chief Governance Officer in the Red Sea Development Company Group, Maryam leads the Governance, Risk and Compliance division (GRC). She is responsible for implementing effective, transparent and accountable governance practices. Her role expands further into identifying, assessing and managing the company’s internal and external risks in order to support the Board and Executive Management in executing and achieving their objectives. She has led the development of the Internal Control Framework as well as the Enterprise Risk Management and Resilience Framework and is responsible for monitoring the company’s performance against them.

Maryam serves on a number of external committees and bodies in matters relating to Governance, Risk, Audit, Compliance and Sustainability/ESG.

Prior to her current role, Maryam garnered extensive experience advising and supporting various public and private entities in Real Estate Development, Hospitality, Aviation, Defense, Media, Healthcare, Education, Manufacturing and Construction, and advising family businesses on developing Family Business governance constitutions/protocols.

Maryam lectured at various educational institutions both locally and internationally on matters relating to governance and managing organizational change. She served as an independent advisor on a number of topics including Governance, large-scale technology implementation, as well as Public Sector transformation and management. She is a member of the GCC Board of Directors Institute.

John Gollifer (CEO of GCC Board Directors Institute)

John Gollifer

CEO of GCC Board Directors Institute

John Gollifer, joined the GCC Board Directors Institute (GCC BDI) as Chief Executive Officer on 15 November 2023.

John was General Manager of the Middle East Investor Relations Association (MEIRA) from January 2019 to 14 November 2023 where he led MEIRA’s development and growth as the go-to professional body for Investor Relations (IR) in the region. Prior to that, he led the UK’s IR Society from 2012 to 2018. In both roles, John was responsible for spearheading partnerships with other independent, not-for-profit organisations, including GCC BDI. John led IR training for the International Certificate in IR in the Middle East and prior to this, in Chile, Indonesia, Japan, Nigeria, Singapore, Thailand, Turkey and the UK. From 2016 to 2018, John lectured at the University of Liverpool in London on the MSc. in Strategic Communication for the IR module which he created. In 2018, John was awarded an Honorary Fellowship of the UK’s IR Society in recognition of his services to IR.

John spent 11 years at the Singapore Exchange where he was Senior Vice President and responsible for investor relations, among other roles in corporate strategy and communications. He established and ran the IR Professionals Association of Singapore from 2006 to 2008, is a multiple IR award winner and created and taught an IR course at the Singapore Management University from 2009 to 2012.

John was trained as a banker and spent 15 years from 1985 to 2000 in Asia and Europe in corporate finance and equity capital markets. He worked for: Barclays Bank as International Manager; Hoare Govett Asia as Senior Manager and Head of Corporate Finance; ABN Amro Rothschild as Assistant Director - Equity Capital Markets, Asia; and at BNP Paribas as Director - Equity Capital Markets, Asia and Australasia.

John has a BA (Hons) degree from Loughborough University, UK, the International Certificate in IR, Diplomas in Banking (ACIB) and Marketing (ACIM) and MBA degree from Henley Business School, UK. John has lived and worked in Dubai, Geneva, Hong Kong, Jakarta, London and Singapore. He is married and has 5 children and 3 grand-children.

Mardi McBrien (Chief of Strategic Affairs and Capacity Building at IFRS Foundation)

Mardi McBrien

Chief of Strategic Affairs and Capacity Building at IFRS Foundation

Mardi McBrien is a Director at the IFRS Foundation where she is currently playing an active role in setting up the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB). Prior to the IFRS Foundation, Mardi spent over a decade leading the global ESG standard setter, the Climate Disclosure Standards Board (CDSB) and the multi-award-winning team to develop high quality disclosure standards and thought leadership on environmental and social issues to drive greater consistency and comparability of information reported to capital markets.