MENA region focused Retail FX and CFDs broker Amana Capital has announced the appointment of industry veteran Muhammad Rasoul as its new Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Rasoul takes over from Ahmad Khatib, who will be stepping down for what the company calls personal reasons after spearheading the organization’s operations and growth since Amana Capital’s founding in 2010. Mr. Khatib will stay on in a strategic advisory role to ensure a seamless leadership transition and support Amana Capital in its growth.

Muhammad Rasoul was a longtime GFT Markets and Gain Capital senior executive focusing mainly on the institution sides of those institutions, who left his position as Gain’s Chief Product Officer in 2016 to co-found Alpha Capital Markets (ACM). ACM provides market making, and risk management and liquidity services to FX/CFD brokers and institutional traders, and was acquired by Playtech (LON:PTEC) in 2017 for $150 million and rebranded as TradeTech and later as Finalto. He remained at ACM/TradeTech/Finalto until last summer, as was exclusively reported at the time by FNG.

Mr. Rasoul will be relocating from the US to the UAE for his new position.

Karim Farra and Ziad Aboujeb, co-founders of Amana Capital said:

“We are thrilled that Muhammad will be joining the Amana Capital family, and are confident that his plethora of industry experience will prove to be very valuable for the brand as we push forward with our growth trajectory. We also want to thank Ahmad for his dedication and exemplary leadership over his 11 years that made Amana Capital the regional leader it is today.”

Outgoing Amana Capital CEO Ahmad Khatib said:

“As part of the search committee to select a new CEO, I was thoroughly impressed by Muhammad’s industry acumen and approachable persona. Although stepping down from Amana Capital as CEO – an organization that has been my family for over a decade – was a very difficult decision, Muhammad is ideal to navigate Amana Capital through the coming years. I personally look forward to working closely with him.”

Muhammad Rasoul added:

“It is an extremely exciting time for the industry around the globe, but none more so than in the Middle East. I want to thank the founders and Ahmad for their support and their confidence in my capabilities, and not only do I look forward to my new role at Amana Capital and meeting everyone in the organization in person, but to calling Dubai home.”

Amana Capital operates offices in Dubai, London, Limassol, and Beirut. The company has subsidiaries which are regulated by the Dubai Financial Services Authority in the United Arab Emirates, the Financial Conduct Authority in the United Kingdom, the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CYSEC) in Europe, the Capital Markets Authority (CMA) in Lebanon, the Labuan Financial Securities Authority (LFSA) in Malaysia, and the Financial Services Commission (FSC) in Mauritius.