Mara Group Recruits Managing Director of Morgan Stanley as its Third Managing Partner

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, July 8, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --

Mara Group, a pan-African multi sector conglomerate with headquarters in Dubai, announces the appointment of Bradford M. Gibbs. Brad will serve as the third Managing Partner of the Group alongside Prashant H. Manek and Ashish J. Thakkar, and share responsibility for the operations, administration and strategy of Mara.

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Prior to joining Mara, Brad was a Managing Director at Morgan Stanley, where he worked for thirteen years, executing mergers, acquisitions and capital markets transactions across a broad array of industries. He was based, at various junctures, in the New York, London, Frankfurt and Johannesburg offices. During his tenure at Morgan Stanley, Brad served as Head of South Africa Investment Banking and Head of EMEA Chemicals, Building Materials and Paper & Packaging.

Mara Group is a young and dynamic diversified group of companies, possessing in-depth knowledge and unrivalled expertise in Africa. Founded by Ashish J. Thakkar almost two decades ago, the Group started out as a small family business but has, since then, evolved into an international multi-sector business with operations in 26 countries, spanning four continents. Mara's current businesses operate in a broad range of sectors including information technology (IT) services, business process outsourcing (BPO), a multi-faceted mobile-enabled online platform, agriculture, real estate, hospitality, packaging and asset management.

"We are delighted to bring on board someone of Brad's calibre and experience as our third Managing Partner. At Mara, we are continuously looking to further strengthen our management team to help lead the future growth and development of the Group", says Ashish J. Thakkar, Founder of Mara Group and Mara Foundation.

Today, in addition to its core team and as part the Mara network, the Group benefits from the advice and insight of Michael Buchen and David Burlison, Managing Directors of Dhabi Holdings, as well as of Marwan Abedin; a seasoned finance and investment specialist with over 15 years of experience. Marwan also serves as the CEO of Dubai Healthcare City (DHCC) and the Dubai Financial Support Fund (DFSF).

Contact:
Sabina Lindstedt
Group Communications Director
+971-567-798-974 or sl@mara.com