Marie Diron is global head of Moody’s Sovereign and Sub-Sovereign Risk Group, with responsibility for credit ratings on countries, regional and local governments, public sector entities and multilateral development banks. Marie is also Moody’s Investors Service lead coordinator on ESG monitoring and integration across asset classes. 

Marie has worked in various functions at Moody’s in the Sovereign Risk Group and (then) Credit Policy. In particular, she was lead sovereign analyst for a number of Asia Pacific credits including Australia, China, India and some frontier market sovereigns. She then managed the Asia Pacific sovereign team, before expanding her responsibilities to today’s global role. Previously, in Credit Policy, Marie co-ordinated Moody’s Global Macro Outlook and other credit research. 

Marie was previously Director at Oxford Economics, leading the company’s forecasting and scenario analysis service to financial sector and corporate clients, after a number of years at the European Central Bank and Brevan Howard LLP. Marie received a MPhil in Economics from the University of Cambridge and graduated from the Ecole Centrale Paris.

Annabel Schaafsma is a Managing Director and Global Head of the Structured Finance Group within Ratings and Research. She is responsible for a global team that both assign primary ratings as well as the surveillance of existing ratings covering all asset types including Asset Backed Securities, Corporate and Residential Mortgage Backed Securities, Structured Credit and Covered Bonds.

Annabel has many years of experience in credit analysis, as well as managing credit professionals. Annabel first joined Moody’s in 2001 in the Structured Finance Group where she went onto leading teams assigning Primary ratings to Residential Mortgage Backed securities and the surveillance of Consumer Asset Backed Securities in EMEA. Prior to her current role she worked in Credit Strategy and Standards Group responsible for the Methodology Development Group. Prior to joining Moody’s Annabel worked for Credit Suisse in the Credit Risk Management department in various roles in London and New York. In 2006 Annabel joined Standard Chartered Bank as Head of Credit Research for the Structured Credit Investment team that invested in structured finance instruments. Before re-joining Moody’s in 2010, Annabel was head of Traded Credit Risk Management for Standard Chartered Bank in London responsible for the identification and analysis of credit risks within the firm’s trading business.

Annabel is passionate about diversity and inclusion; she is the executive sponsor of the Moody’s UK Women’s Business Resource Group. Annabel holds an undergraduate degree in Economics focused in finance and accountancy from Manchester University

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).

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).

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.

Neil Griffiths-Lambeth is an Executive Director in Moody’s Infrastructure Finance team, based in London, and responsible for the rating agency’s coverage of regulated and unregulated utilities across EMEA. Over the course of his career at Moody’s, Neil has acted as lead analyst for a broad range of utilities and transport infrastructure companies. He has followed the UK water sector since 2008, writing extensively on regulatory and other developments and playing a key role in developing the rating agency’s strong reputation in the sector. As an authoritative independent commentator, Neil is a frequent speaker at conferences and other events. Moody’s has a leading global Infrastructure Finance franchise, rating some US$2 trillion of corporate and project finance securities, representing more than 90% of all public bonds issued globally in the sector. 140 analytical sector staff cover more than 1,000 infrastructure issuers globally. Moody’s EMEA team of 50 specialists is responsible for rating around 416 issuers. The rating agency covers more than 11,000 corporate issuers and 135 sovereign nations. Prior to joining Moody’s in 2007, Neil spent 15 years at Lazard. Over this period he advised a broad range of clients on raising finance in the public and private markets. Notable transactions included advising the UK Government on support and funding for Network Rail, Veolia on the acquisition and highly-leveraged financing of Southern Water, and Wind Telecommunicazioni on funding for its network roll-out. Neil read Mathematics at the University of Sussex and pursued postgraduate research at Imperial College, London.

Jihad Al-Toukhi is Senior Vice President - Relationship Manager & Country Manager for Moody’s Investors Service, based in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. In this dual role, Jihad manages key MIS relationships in the region, with a mandate to consolidate and grow our business and relevance in KSA and the broader GCC region.Jihad has more than 17 years of experience working in several prominent organizations, including the Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority and Middle East Financial Investment Company. Jihad has also founded businesses in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.During his career, Jihad has developed a range of skills in the fields of marketing, customer relationship management and communication. Jihad holds an MBA and a Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of San Diego, California

Joanna Fic is a Senior Vice President in Moody’s EMEA Infrastructure Finance team, based in London. She is currently responsible for a portfolio of utilities and transport infrastructure companies in the United Kingdom and Africa, in addition to certain transport infrastructure companies in Norway and Turkey. With extensive credit experience across both the utility and infrastructure sectors, Joanna has a deep understanding of both conventional and complex structured financing arrangements.

Over the course of her career at Moody’s, Joanna has written extensively on transport infrastructure credit, covering airports, ports and toll roads. She has contributed to the development of a number of transport infrastructure methodologies and was the author of Moody’s Rating Methodology for Privately Managed Toll Roads, published in October 2017. Joanna has also published widely on European utilities, including in Germany, United Kingdom and Central and Eastern Europe. A highly regarded analyst and respected commentator, Joanna is a frequent speaker at conferences, investor roundtables and other events.

Prior to joining Moody’s in 2007, Joanna was a credit risk manager at Citigroup in Warsaw, where she was responsible for a diversified portfolio of corporates. Joanna holds a master’s degree in Finance and Banking from Warsaw School of Economics.

Aurélien Mali is currently Vice President - Ratings.  He acts as the firm’s expert in Africa. His position is a combined lead analyst and analytical outreach/credit ambassador role. As a member of the Sovereign Risk Group since August 2002, he was involved in Moody’s sovereign ratings in Europe and the Middle East at the beginning of his career. Over the last 8 years, he has been at the forefront of Moody’s growing footprint in Africa. He has been sovereign lead or backup analyst for almost all sovereign issuers and multilateral development banks we rate in Africa. Aurelien was relocated to our Dubai office early 2013 from our London office. Aurelien manages a research programme that supports the development of Moody’s reputation for analytical insight and excellence. He also assumes a greater role in participating in regular Moody’s and third-party conferences on the continent, Africa-related investor briefings, and undertaking analytical outreach to inform and explain Moody’s credit judgments. Aurelien also supports other Moody’s franchises using his unique experience and visibility across multiple sectors and asset classes in the region. Finally, he remains the lead/backup sovereign analyst for few countries including Nigeria, Côte d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Angola and South Africa. Aurélien holds a BSc in Economics and a postgraduate degree (DEA) in Money, Finance and Banking from the Panthéon-Sorbonne University in Paris.

Aziz Al Sammarai joined Moody’s Corporate Finance in April, 2018. Aziz is based in Toronto office where he covers a portfolio of U.S. and Canadian based companies mainly in the paper and plastic packaging and forest products industry as well as Canadian based airlines and homebuilders. Prior to joining Moody’s, Aziz held multiple roles in the credit rating industry in Toronto. Previously, Aziz worked in external audit roles for KPMG.

Aziz has a Master’s in Finance from the Queen's University and a B.Sc. in Finance from the University of Bedfordshire Oman.

Badis Shubailat is a Vice President with Moody’s Financial Institutions Group. Based in Dubai, Badis covers a portfolio of large conventional as well as Islamic banks in the UAE, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia and Morocco. He is the lead analyst responsible for the Bahraini and Tunisian banking systems and also covered in the past financial institutions in Kuwait, Qatar and Turkey. Since joining Moody’s in March 2014, Badis has authored research publications focusing on GCC and North African credits as well as Islamic Banking. Badis holds a Bachelor in Business Administration from John Cabot University (Rome, Italy) and an MSc in Finance from EADA Business School (Barcelona, Spain). Badis speaks English, French, Arabic and Italian.

Lea Hanna is an Analyst with Moody’s Financial Institutions Group. Based in Dubai, Lea covers a portfolio of bank credit ratings across the Middle East and Pakistan, with a focus on Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Pakistan and Iraq. She is the lead analyst responsible for the Bahrain, Pakistan and Iraq banking systems.

Lea joined Moody’s in 2019 and has seven years of experience in banking credit analysis. Prior to Moody’s, she worked in wealth management at Standard Charted Bank, as well as in operations at Strategy& (Previously Booz & co).

Lea holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from the American University of Beirut and is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA).

Pier Paolo Vaschetti is a Vice President – Ratings, in the Methodology Development Group responsible for the development of structured finance methodologies. In his previous role, he was lead analyst for several structure finance transactions across different regions and backed by a variety of assets. He is also author of rating methodologies for RMBS and other asset classes and speaker in several Moody’s conferences. He spent two years in the Moody’s London office mainly working on UK RMBS transactions. 

Before joining Moody’s, he completed a Masters in Quantitative Finance at Bocconi in Milan, Italy. Previous to that, he obtained degrees in Political Economy at Bocconi University.

Based in Dubai, he has lead analyst responsibilities for a portfolio of banks across the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), with a particular focus on Islamic financial institutions. His analytical work covers Islamic banking, sukuk markets and credit developments across key Islamic finance jurisdictions. 

Since joining Moody's in 2024, Abdulla has authored research on Islamic banking, sukuk markets and broader Islamic finance trends. He is also a frequent speaker and moderator at industry conferences and roundtables, discussing developments in banking, sukuk and Islamic finance across the Middle East and Asia. 

Prior to joining Moody's, Abdulla was an Associate Director at Fitch Ratings, where he covered financial institutions across the Middle East. Before Fitch Ratings, he worked at the Central Bank of Bahrain, where he was responsible for the prudential supervision of wholesale banks. 

Abdulla is a CFA charterholder and holds a First-Class Honours degree in Banking and Finance from the University of Bahrain. He is also the author of Principles of Financial Planning, Investment & Trading, a book focused on long-term investment and portfolio management.