Navigating the Economic Storm: Macroeconomics | Interest Rates | Inflation

Gary Dugan is CEO of The Dalma Global CIO Office based in Dubai. For twenty seven years Gary worked in the City of London as a leading investor at some of the world’s major investment banks. In more recent years Gary has worked between the UAE and Singapore in wealth management. Gary Dugan is a seasoned investment professional with 40 years’ experience working in Managing Director roles at some of the world’s leading Banks and Wealth Managers. For the past twenty years he has held Chief Investment Officer roles, manging money for institutions such as sovereign wealth funds, through to Ultra-High Net Worth clients. For the core of Gary’s career (1993-2004) he worked at JPMorgan. Subsequently he held CIO roles at Barclays, Merrill Lynch in Europe, and Emirates NBD and NBAD in the Middle East and Coutts in Singapore. Gary is well-known in the industry for his outspoken but often-timely call on financial markets. His views are widely featured on TV and quoted in the financial media. He regularly speaks at investment conferences throughout, the Middle East and Asia. In 2015, he was awarded GCC Private Banker of the year by Wealth Briefing He has a degree in Economics from Salford University. He is an ASIP in the CFA Institute.

Zachary Cefaratti is the principal founder of Dalma Capital, AIM Summit, and a Venture Partner at Draper Associates. He transformed Dalma Capital’s role in investment banking, skillfully executing M&As up to ~$500m and managing financings around ~$2bn. Specializing in cross-border transactions, Zachary connects emerging and developed markets. His expertise covers sectors like EdTech, AI, Blockchain, FinTech, and more. He’s proficient in various financial structures, with global deal-making experience from the UAE to Latin America.

With over 15 years in finance, Zachary’s journey began trading bonds as a child actor and evolved through academic pursuits at institutions like LSE and UPenn. Beyond academia, he identified top-performing portfolio strategies, providing infrastructure to budding funds. He also played foundational roles in the Franklin University Investment Club and the AIMA Middle East Executive Committee. As an early financial enthusiast, his origins trace back to trading assets earned as a child actor.