Leadership
Dr Saliba Sassine
Founder and Managing Director
Dr Sassine is a highly experienced executive across corporate finance, merchant capital as well as serving as Chairman or Managing Director of a number of public and private companies across biotechnology and pharmaceuticals, telecommunications, natural products and resources. Dr Sassine has served as Senior Ministerial Advisor at State Government level and was also advisor at National level. He chaired a number of government working parties and committees, including representing Western Australian on the National Prices and Incomes Advisory Committee. He has served on the Senate and Council of two universities in Western Australia and served as Chairman of the Perth Theatre Trust which controlled the major performance venues in the State with around $1 billion in assets. Saliba has a First Class Honours Degree from the University of Western Australia and is a Doctor of Philosophy from the same university.
Elias Michael Farah, B.Eng.
Director S.E. Asia & Middle East
Mr Farah is BlueMount Capital (WA)’s specialist in the energy and mineral sector, bringing a wealth of experience to the investment banking team. He is an accomplished commercial and globally experienced Business Leader with a verifiable 38-year track record of success progressing to Vice President level in game-changing commercial business development and project leadership roles.
Mr Farah has proven abilities in shaping and executing high-yield growth strategies; combining deep industry insights and technical acumen with exceptional commercial skills. Experienced in leading matrix teams across Malaysia, UAE and Australia; balancing risk and reward to deliver ground-breaking contracts and drive revenue/EBIT growth beyond expectations amidst challenging market conditions.
Mr Farah has worked at QP/BP in the Middle East and Chevron in Australia, predominately in project management and development. He also worked for Technip, Bumi Amada and NPCC, managing tendering and commercial activities for mega-projects around the world.
Bradley Denton
Director – Business Development
Mr Denton is a business development professional with over 20 years of commercial experience in the financial services industry, capital raising, private equity funding, pre-IPO, venture capital, real estate, mining, M&A, management consulting and project execution.
Mr. Denton has been a director and advisor to Australian, Asian and African companies’ growth and development opportunities with a history of creating internal and external long-term value in a broad range of industries.
Abul Hashem, B. Com (Hons) MBA
Regional Director GCC
Mr Hashem has deep experience in commercial banking, investment banking and merchant banking. He worked as an executive at Standard Chartered Bank in Bangladesh and at Lankabangla Securities, the country’s largest stockbroking firm. Mr Hashem established International Trade Management to provide alternative financial solutions and advisory services to trade finance and banking. He has deep knowledge of structuring and arranging trade finance limits, banking instruments and credit insurance. Mr. Hashem has B. Com (Honors) Accounting and an Executive MBA Finance.
Allan Thompson
Executive Consultant, Business Development
Allan Thompson is a highly experienced executive in both the private and public sectors. He has an extensive range of experiences at Commonwealth and State Government level, including in Treasury, central agencies and Ministerial offices. He has deep understanding of Commonwealth and State Government departmental operations, including in the area of Native Title.
Allan has worked in the private sector in a national business development capacity for Skilled Group, covering the oil & gas, mining and construction sectors. Allan’s commercial experience includes significant exposure to business start-ups, particularly in the technology sector. Allan has been and continues to be involved in the non-profit sector and serves on several boards including at Chairperson level.
Allan provides extensive strategy, business development, project management, marketing and commercial experience to BlueMount clients, enabling them to leverage his multi-sector contact base and capabilities, as part of BlueMount’s service offerings. Allan is a a graduate of the University of Western Australia, with First Class Honours in Economics.
Yuan (Sophia) Gao
Investment Manager
Ms. Gao is an experienced investment manager in China previously filling that role at CITIC Medical & Health Group Co. Ltd. where she was mainly engaged in medical and health investments. Prior to that she was Vice President for Marketing and Risk Control at CCB International (China) Limited. She was also a Senior Associate at Chum Investment Corporation, one of China’s most successful privately-owned merchant banks. Ms Gao started her career as an Assistant Manager in the Audit Department in KPMG Beijing. She is a graduate of the School of Management at Renmin University of China and the Central University of Finance and Economics.