Kathrin joined Moody’s Ratings in April 2010 as a member of the Sovereign Risk Group. She is the lead analyst for a number of European sovereigns including Turkey and Israel as well as several MDBs such as the IFC, EBRD and AIIB among others. She is also Moody’s global coordinator for all of Moody’s MDB ratings.

Prior to joining Moody’s Kathrin was a Director with Merrill Lynch, working as Sovereign Ratings Advisor to governments and banks in emerging markets. Prior to that, she was Chief Economist for Deutsche Bank in Spain.

She holds a M.Sc. in Economics, Latin American Politics, Spanish and Portuguese languages from the University of Tuebingen as well as a post-graduate economics degree from the College of Europe, Bruges.

Nitish Bhojnagarwala is an Executive Director with Moody’s Financial Institutions Group. Based in Dubai, Nitish covers a portfolio of large conventional as well as Islamic financial institutions in the Middle East, Africa and Turkey.

Nitish joined Moody’s in 2011, and has led sukuk roundtables and conducted workshops on Banking and Islamic finance at various conferences in the Middle East, Europe and Asia. Nitish has also authored several research pieces, with a focus on regional banking, credit issues and issuer-in-depths for conventional as well as Islamic banks.

Prior to joining Moody’s, Nitish spent five years at Tamweel in the Treasury function. He has also worked for KPMG in the UAE, where he covered financial institutions. Nitish holds an MBA from S P Jain Institute of Management & Research, with a major in Finance (Investment Banking).

Alexander Perjéssy is Senior Vice President at the Moody’s Sovereign Risk Group.

Based in Dubai, he has lead analyst responsibilities for a number of sovereigns in the Middle East, including most of the Gulf Cooperation Council member states and several regional multilateral institutions.

Prior to joining Moody’s in November 2017, Alex worked for two years as economist at the Islamic Development Bank in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

Before relocating to the Middle East, Alex spent more than 12 years covering macroeconomic developments and sovereign risk assessment in the emerging markets of the EMEA region for AllianceBernstein and The Rohatyn Group, both US-based asset management firms in New York, as well as for Goldman Sachs in London.

Alex holds an MA in Economics from the University of Maryland and a BA in Economics from Middlebury College.

Rehan Akbar is an Executive Director in Moody’s EMEA Corporate Finance Group, based in Dubai. He currently manages the corporate team responsible for rating coverage of companies in the Middle East, Africa, Turkiye, and the CIS region. Prior to joining Moody’s in 2011, Rehan worked as a credit analyst at Mashreq Capital, focusing on emerging market corporates. He began his career as a software engineer and technology consultant.

Rehan holds a Master’s degree in Management Sciences and Engineering from Stanford University and a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from Lahore University of Management Sciences. He is also a CFA charterholder.

Raffaella Altamura is a Vice President - Senior Credit Officer in the EMEAInfrastructure Finance team, based in London. She is currently responsible for a portfolio of transport infrastructure operators in Europe, including toll roads, airports and ports, as well as a number of project finance issuers, mostly active in the healthcare and education sectors. Raffaella is one of the most experienced analysts within the infrastructure team, with a wealth of experience across a range of sectors, jurisdictions and financing arrangements. Raffaella has authored a series of publications focused on transport infrastructure trends and operators and has been a speaker at various Moody’sconferences. Moody’s has a leading global Infrastructure Finance franchise, rating some US$2trillion of corporate and project finance securities, representing more than 90% of allpublic bonds issued globally in the sector. 180 analytical sector staff cover more than1,700 infrastructure issuers globally. Moody’s EMEA team of 46 specialists is responsible for rating around 430 issuers. The rating agency covers more than 39,000issuers and transactions. Prior to joining Moody’s, Raffaella worked in the internal credit department ofMediobanca in Milan. She holds a degree in law and business administration from Bocconi University in Milan.

David Staples is a Senior Advisor for Moody's Corporation focusing on identifying and developing opportunities across Moody's Ratings and Analytics for deepening Moody's engagement in the KSA and broader GCC markets.  He was integrally involved over the past year in establishing Moody's Corporation's Regional Headquarters and broader strategy in KSA.  David spent over 20 years as a Managing Director in Moody's Ratings with responsibility for Corporates and over 15 years covering Emerging Markets from Russia through Turkey, the GCC and Africa, having been based out of the Dubai office since 2011. 

 David has a Masters degree from The Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, D.C. (1984) and a Bachelors degree from the University of Cincinnati (1982).