Lehman Brothers, the global investment bank, has appointed Makram Azar to the newly-created role of global head of Sovereign Wealth Funds.
In this cross-divisional role based in Dubai, Azar will report to Jeremy Isaacs, CEO for Europe, Middle East and Asia-Pacific, Steve Lessing, global head of Senior Relationship Management and Jasjit Bhattal, CEO for Asia-Pacific.
“Sovereign Wealth Funds have become an increasinglyimportant force in todays international markets, and I am excited about the opportunity this appointment creates for us to further develop our relationships with these clients. Makram brings a wealth of experience to this role including strategic advisory strength and a greatrecord of building relationships and executing transactions for our clients,” says Isaacs.
Azar joined Lehman Brothers in 1990 and had most recently been leading the Media, Consumer & Retail investment banking businesses in Europe & the Middle East. Under his leadership, Lehman Brothers was named Media M&A Bank of the Year 2007 by MediaFinance magazine for having advised on most of the significant 2007 transactions in the media sector, including the takeover of ProSiebenSat.1 by KKR and Permira, the merger ofCanal+ and TPS, and the sale of Endemol.
In recognition of Azars strong knowledge of and relationships in the media industry he is also being named chairman of Media InvestmentBanking for Europe and Middle East.