Walid Cherif 2021 Speaker

Managing Director

BluePeak Private Capital

Biography

Walid is the co-founder of BluePeak Private Capital, an alternative asset management firm that focuses on investments in mezzanine and credit in Africa. Prior to BluePeak Private Capital and until 2018, he was the head of the private debt business at Gulf Capital which he founded in 2011 and built a platform that invested in the Middle East and Africa markets. He has raised more than $800m of commitments for mezzanine and equity funds as well as structuring and executing more than 25 junior debt and structured equity transactions on the investment and divestment sides. Before joining Gulf Capital, he was the head of the NBK Capital Mezzanine Fund (a subsidiary of National Bank of Kuwait) where he made several mezzanine investments in companies operating in the Middle East and Turkey. He currently sits on the board of several companies in the Middle East and Africa including ADES, a listed company on the London Stock Exchange (LSE). Prior to joining NBK Capital in 2007, Mr. Cherif spent ten years at the International Finance Corporation (the “IFC”) – The World Bank Group in Washington, D.C., Dubai and Istanbul. Mr. Cherif holds a Master in Business Administration (MBA) in Finance and International Business from George Washington University in the USA, and a Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of Tunis III.