Andrew Robinson

Non-Executive Director,
Audit Committee Chairman and
Consultant - United Arab Emirates

Andrew Robinson is a Non-Executive Director, Audit Committee Chairman and consultant based in the United Arab Emirates, with clients including public companies, financial firms and family groups. He is a UK qualified accountant (FCA) and treasurer (AMCT) and presents training courses on Mergers and Acquisitions, Business Valuation and Corporate Sustainability. He arrived in the Middle East in 1989 and completed a 30-year career with KPMG when Andrew took early retirement as an equity partner in 2014. As an audit partner Andrew has a proven ability to lead teams and coach individuals and also present issues at the top table.

Moderator - Sharon Ditchburn

Managing Director
Capital Advantage

Sharon Ditchburn is the Founder and Managing Director of Capital Advantage, a Governance Risk and Compliance advisory firm based in the UAE since 2004.  She is a Fellow of the Governance Institute of Australia, The UK Chartered Governance Institute and CPA Australia, a Member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, and is a lawyer and accountant with an MBA specialising in Corporate Governance, Entrepreneurship and Strategy. She is a member of the ESG Committee for CPA Australia’s Centre of Excellence, and is on the Independent Oversight Committees for several public funds.  She is one of the few individuals in the GCC certified by the IFC/World Bank to deliver their Director Development Programmes, and has been delivering Governance Risk and Compliance advisory and training programmes since 2005 in the Middle East, Africa and Asia for Institutes of Directors, Corporate Governance and Sustainability.  Sharon has worked with the full range of listed, private and government owned enterprises, stock exchanges and financial institutions. She has been registered as an Authorised Individual by the DFSA with over 30 companies since 2007.

Host - Aidan O'Mahony

Senior Consultant
Robert Walters

Aidan is a Business Studies graduate from Bournemouth University, he started his career in recruitment straight from university, joining and then going on to lead a Financial Services Compliance desk in London for 4 years. He has come to know his market extensively and dealt and placed with project managers through to a number of C-Suite level clients across the UK. His speciality has come in the placement of large scale operational redress and remediation programmes at a number of top tier UK banks, notably in the area of KYC/CDD where Aidan has single handed resourced and screened programmes of up to 80 Consultants onsite through a Managed Service. Outside of this he has supported a number of largescale Financial Crime change projects at the majority of UK and single placement roles ranging from Head of Compliance to Analyst level. Aidan is best positioned to ensure your organisation has the personnel required to ensure your regulatory commitments are adhered to in an ever changing landscape.