Nominated Investor of the Year by AIBC summit UAE May 2021. Board member of entities such as DEX, RealEx, MENA Fintech Association, BeMobi, Jahani & Associates, LEAD Ventures, Royale Finance, Artha, TeraBlock and Kenzi Wealth, to name a few.

Traditional Finance – fixed income specialist working for the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority.

Over the last four years Saeed’s work life has been committed to growing blockchain and crypto ecosystem, both internationally and in the UAE.
Currently focused on advising blockchain startups and traditional businesses on utilizing blockchain technology.

Nihit Shah is the Chief Operating Officer at Sheesha Finance. Nihit guides the teams in building collaborative and efficiency focused operating environments, to enable the business and teams in achieving their set out strategies.

Nihit brings a wealth of experience working with top tier investment firms and sovereign wealth funds.He has headed multicultural teams in global roles across Australia, UK and UAE, in implementing robust controls and operational processes to achieve success.

He brings this experience to Sheesha Finance. He is also Fellow of the Chartered Accountants Institute of England and Wales. Nihit is passionate about DeFi and blockchain technology and is a firm believer that this will change the traditional finance space in the near future and beyond.

Nathan Cooper is the Chief Program Officer at Sheesha Finance. Nathan strategically leads transformative Web3 projects across product lines at Sheesha Finance.

An accomplished executive with over 20 years of experience as a leader in technology projects in finance, Nathan has worked on projects with a combined worth of over $500M+ across Europe, Middle East, Asia, US and Canada, building great teams and creating new value streams. Outside Sheesha, Nathan serves as an advisor to multiple companies. He also cares deeply about education and sits on his alumni board chapter in Los Angeles. A passionate learner,

Nathan holds an MBA from one of Europe’s top business School, IE Business School and is in his final year as a Doctoral student majoring in Strategy and Innovation. After becoming frustrated by the inefficiencies in traditional finance, Nathan developed a passion for blockchain technology and the limitless possibilities it has to enhance people’s lives. Nathan believes the amalgam of NFTs and gaming will provide the catalyst to mainstream adoption of decentralized finance. Nathan strives to create a world where everyone at every level can be part of DeFi in a frictionless, accessible and safe way.

Jei Rahman is a Chief Investment Officer at Sheesha Finance. Jei is a firm believer that blockchain technology has the ability to revolutionize traditional financial markets in many ways bringing transparency, efficiency and most importantly lowering the barriers to entry for the unbanked.

Jei has a wealth of experience in traditional finance spanning almost 15 years from the financial capital of London. He majored in Aerospace Engineering, which allowed him to establish a great technical footing and grounding to enter the world of finance. The early part of his career was focused on asset liability modeling for both pension and insurance funds focusing on capital adequacy before slowly transitioning towards financial modeling. This led to working closely with tier 1 investment banks and asset management firms to de-couple their existing equity models from other dependent data vendors.

He looks forward to helping Sheesha Finance grow a diversified pipeline of blockchain projects by partnering with the best protocol foundations, VCs and partners that are well regarded in this space. His aim is to bring traditional investment processes and methodologies when assessing projects to invest in. He is passionate about investing in blockchain projects of tomorrow that will pave the gate way for mainstream adoption in both DeFi and NFT space.

Juri Kopotko is a Chief Technology Officer at Sheesha Finance. Juri investigates emerging technologies, assesses their impact on the company’s business, prototypes and evaluates new concepts, and recommends new strategies and solutions through Sheesha’s innovation initiatives. Juri manages a team of in-house developers while leading the company’s tech accelerator business arm. Juri is in charge of the design architecture for company projects like DAO, crypto onramp, web3 fitness, smart contract audit, metaverse, and staking.

He is a 20-year software startup veteran who uses his technological and communication skills to define team success. He has a track record of assembling high-performing teams that span geographies and deliver results that exceed expectations.

Prior to joining Sheesha, Juri worked as an СTO, team lead and an architect at a number of start-ups and companies, where he worked on complex blockchain software components to create high throughput data and coordinated across multiple teams to implement clustered highload enterprise platforms. Juri is a firm believer in web3 technologies and advocates for the mass adoption of blockchain for the benefits of global economy.

Adham Abaza joined Sheesha Finance in November 2021 as Director of Operations where he oversees Compliance, Process Optimization and Business Strategy Development.

Adham has two decades of Multinational Corporate experience in Risk Management, Auditing, Sourcing & Commercial Operations as well as Change Management from two Top 10 Fortune Companies. He has a successful track record in leading and managing cross-functional global teams. He also has a wealth of knowledge in Web3 and DeFi which has become his latest passion.

Prior to joining Sheesha Finance, Adham worked at GE and ExxonMobil where he managed a $1B spend portfolio. He gained valuable global exposure and held multiple dynamic roles, both as a leader and an individual contributor, mobilizing teams with trust, conviction and influencing action at every level of the organization. Outside of Sheesha Finance, Adham is a passionate investor in the areas of Fintech, Biotech and Aerospace. In his free time, Adham enjoys spending time with his family, sailing & scuba diving. Adham holds a BSc in Economics from the University of Ottawa in Canada.

Jaafar Al Doori is responsible for the growth and development of the business, through his strong relations with local and regional government entities. Jaafar comes from an Engineering background and has a Bachelor’s Degree specializing in communication, having lived in the region for over 20 years, he brings a wealth of knowledge and experience in the Blockchain industry.

Jaafar is a strong supporter and advocate of blockchain technology, together with Sheesha Finance team he works every day to mainstream awareness and adoption of cryptocurrency. Jaafar believes that by supporting projects and products that are helping build the crypto economy we increase economic freedom around the world and help build a strong efficient blockchain ecosystem and infrastructure.

He has represented multiple Dubai Royal Family offices in his career, managing the end-to-end process of organization startups in the UAE across SME’s and multi-national companies. Now, he heads the division to lead and build teams to focus on developing emerging markets as well as providing solutions for our partners to reach their target market and most importantly achieve their goals. Being an expert in DeFi, Jaafar is passionate about adding to building a new financial system and accelerating growth within the crypto economy.

Projects can benefit from Jaafar’s expertise in product development, go-to-market strategies, tokenomics, technical requirements, road mapping, user engagement, and other areas.

Yusef Fanous is the Head of Business Development and Marketing at Sheesha Finance, where he is responsible for creating, communicating, and delivering offerings that have value for communities, projects, clients, and partners across the crypto ecosystem. Managing a team of experts across social media and community, design, content, and business development to deliver the best possible experience with Sheesha Finance.

Prior to joining Sheesha Finance, Yusef developed well rounded experience, with a diverse background across a variety of roles and industries at FTSE 100 companies and leaders within their respective field, including Banking, Metaverse, FMCG and Recruitment.

Yusef holds a Bachelor of Law from Brunel University, where he received a scholarship and has a variety of industry accreditations, including CFA Level 1.

Adam Graney is a Marketing Manager at Sheesha Finance. He plays an integral role in shaping the branding, strategy and growth internally and externally in the organization. Adam brings along over a decade of experience in branding/marketing including project management, strategy, business development, and content creation.

After graduating from UCF with a degree in Communications and a minor in Marketing, Adam continued his career as Director of Marketing for an international media company. He rounded out his education by completing the full-stack UCF Coding Bootcamp, focusing on front end mobile design. Adam’s crypto experience started in 2017 when he worked for a DEX called Ethex which was built on Ethereum. Throughout the years Adam worked as a consultant for different crypto startups ranging from remote educational platforms to a trading and investing data metrics hub.

In his spare time Adam likes to kiteboard, snowboard and hang out with his family. He is in a hiatus from a 20+ year DJ career that had him playing clubs and pool parties from Orlando Florida to Phuket Thailand.