Farah Foustok joined Lazard Asset Management to head up its new Dubai office, leading a team of former ING Investment Management Middle East staffers, confirmed a Lazard spokeswoman.
Ms. Foustok, managing director and senior executive officer of the new Dubai office, will lead the growth and development of the $176 billion money manager's operations in the region, as well as oversee sales and distribution of its strategies.
Ms. Foustok was most recently CEO and chief investment officer of ING Investment Management Middle East.
ING repositioned its Dubai office into a sales and client servicing presence in the Middle East, discontinuing its Middle East and North Africa equity investment activities. “The development … is in line with the overall strategy of ING IM to only continue full-fledged local-for-local asset management operations business in countries where ING also has a strong insurance presence,” an ING spokesman said in an e-mail.
Ms. Foustok's appointment is part of Lazard's expansion in the Middle East, where it already has an office in Bahrain.
As part of the expansion, Lazard has hired five other former ING Investment Management Middle East staffers.
Fadi Al Said joined as director and portfolio manager/analyst, leading an investment team to manage Middle East and North Africa and frontier markets equities strategies for Lazard's local and global clients. He was previously head of investments and portfolio manager for ING Investment Management Middle East. The spokesman for ING Investment Management confirmed his departure.
Mr. Al Said's team includes portfolio manager Walid Mourad and research analysts Talal Noueihed, Jagdish Bathija and Sleiman Aboul Hosn. They also joined from ING Investment Management.
