This week has been quite eventful in terms of personnel changes. After the appointments of CIC’s new chief representative in the US, and of the new CEO and CIO for the Hong Kong Investment Corporation (HKIC), which we covered on Monday, we have finally heard about the new leaders for the Emirates Investment Authority (EIA) and the newly established Maharlika Investment Corp. (MIC) in the Philippines.
The federal fund of the UAE, which manages a portfolio of domestic and global holdings estimated by Global SWF in US$ 91 billion, found a replacement for its long-serving CEO, Mubarak Rashed Al Mansoori. Al Mansoori is the only leader the EIA has had since its establishment in May 2008. He started his career in ADIA, where he worked in the Equities department from 1991 to 2000, then he served as the inaugural director general of pension fund ADPF, and also worked as Central Bank governor from 2014 to 2020.
In May 2023, after the appointment of Sheikh Mansour as Vice President of the UAE, the EIA changed its Board of Directors, and Al Mansoori was appointed Chair of federal pension fund GPSSA. It is now known that EIA’s new CEO will be Mohamed Hamad Al Mehairi, another known figure in Abu Dhabi Inc. Al Mehairi started his career in ADNOC and joined IPIC (which was born as a JV of ADIA and ADNOC) in 2006. After acting as director of investments, he was named CEO of subsidiary Aabar Investments in August 2015.
At Aabar, he replaced Mohamed Badawy Al Husseiny, who was later accused of participating in the 1MDB scam and sent to jail, together with IPIC’s then-CEO Khadem Abdullah Al Qubaisi. After Mubadala absorbed IPIC and Aabar Investments, Al Mehairi stayed as Executive Director of Financial Institutions and served in the boards of ADCB, Al Hilal and Unicredit, among other banks. With his new appointment at EIA, he rises once again to the top of a Sovereign Investor in the emirate.
Over 4,350 miles to the East of Abu Dhabi, in Manila, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. appointed Rafael Jose Consing Jr. as president and CEO of the Maharlika Investment Corporation (MIC), after a high-profile, competitive selection process. A graduate in political sciences from De La Salle University, Consing spent several years at Bankers Trust Singapore and HSBC Hong Kong, before going back to Manila and joining the International Container Terminal Services Inc. (ICTSI), where he has been CFO for the past 15 years.
Consing will serve for three years and has been chosen on his merits around domestic infrastructure and project finance, which will be a major focus for Maharlika. The appointment was not exempt of controversy either, as the initial list of requirements for the CEO included “a postgraduate degree in finance, economics, business administration, or a related field from a reputable university”. The list was revised and the requirement removed prior to the appointment of Consing, who would have not met it.
The establishment of the SWF has been subject to debate in the Philippines for the past year. The US$8.9 billion vehicle will be sourced from the Land Bank of the Philippines, the Development Bank of the Philippines, and the Treasury (which will hold three seats at the Board of Directors). Maharlika will support President Marcos’ eight-point socioeconomic roadmap, playing a strategic role in the national economy and catalyzer of foreign capital, likely similar to that of India’s NIIF or Indonesia’s INA.
These are the #23 and #24 new CEOs of Sovereign Investors in 2023, beating the previous marks of 2021 and 2022.
Mohamed Hamad Al Mehairi (left) and Rafael Jose Consing, Jr. (right)
