Barclays Wealth Taps Merrill for Senior Middle East Private Banker

Stephen Harris

15 March 2007

Barclays Wealth has appointed Talal Shamel as a managing director to its private banking team in the Middle East. Mr Shamel joins the firm from Merrill Lynch in London where he was a key player for business development in the Gulf region and had responsibilities for investments in Merrill’s Global Private Client Group. At Barclays Wealth, Mr Shamal will support the expansion of the private client franchise for high net worth and ultra high net worth clients in the Middle East, reporting to Soha Nashaat, managing director and head of Middle East for Barclays Wealth. Mr Shamel spent 17 years at Merrill Lynch and was responsible for portfolio management for ultra-high net worth individuals, institutions, governments and banks in Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait, Lebanon, Syria, Egypt and Jordan. Prior to that he worked at the National Bank of Kuwait in London, Arab Bank International in Paris and Gulf International Bank in Bahrain. This latest high profile appointment follows that of a number of key hires to Barclays Wealth's Middle East team within the past few months including Yousef Helou and Tarek Malas, also from Merrill Lynch. Other recent hires include Maneesh Dungarwal and Ali Khatau from Julius Baer Middle East. Soha Nashaat joined Barclays Wealth in September 2006 from Merrill Lynch to spearhead and build up Barclays Wealth's presence in the region. And as previously reported, Manoj Prasad is leaving Barclays Wealth in April. He was a director and market leader for the South Asia business based in Dubai.