Our Team

Saad started his career in 2004 in JP Morgan’s London M&A Middle East team, moving to the TMT team in 2005 where he helped execute several transactions including i) Advising leading regional telecom operators in their international expansion – namely Orascom, Qtel and Etisalat (incl. its $2.9 billion acquisition of Egypt’s third mobile license, ii) Advising French media group Lagardere on its acquisition of a 20% stake in Canal+ Group (€1.5 billion+), and KKR on its acquisition of Pages Jaunes (€6 billion+). In 2008, Saad joined Kingdom Zephyr Africa Management (KZAM) the leading pan-African private equity fund at the time. At KZAM, Saad sourced, executed, managed and exited multiple transactions including the full exit from CNIA Saada in Morocco (insurance company), where he led the successful IPO. He also worked on a number of transactions that became a success in the Africa PE space, namely OSEAD Mining, IHS Towers, Banque Atlantique and GTA (insurance).

In 2011 he moved to London based asset manager Duet Group where he co-founded and managed its Africa private equity platform. At Duet, he led the origination and execution of the second largest private equity transaction in Ethiopia to date ($90 million in Dashen Brewery; the second largest brewery in the country) as well as investments into QCIL in Uganda.

Saad graduated from EM Lyon with an MSc in Finance. He is a native Arabic and French speaker, and is fluent in English.

Abdelwali started his career at Attijari Finance Corp, the Investment Banking division of Attijariwafa Bank where he supported the execution of M&A transactions. Previous to his banking experience, Abdelwali did a brief stint at Upline Group Securities in Casablanca, where he monitored public equities and conducted research.

Abdelwali holds a BA in Business Administration from IE Business School in Spain. He is a French and Arabic native speaker, fluent in English and conversational in Spanish.

Nathalie joined 54 Capital at inception. She started her career at TLG Capital in 2009, a private equity fund focused on frontier markets, where she worked on various transactions in the healthcare and FMCG sectors. She joined the Duet Group’s Africa Private Equity team (founded and led by Saad) in 2011.

Nathalie holds a BA in History from the School of African and Oriental Studies, and an MSc in History of Empires from the London School of Economics. She is an English native speaker.

Prior to joining 54 Capital, Mili worked at BDO Chartered Accountants and Advisors, where she was in charge of audit for a portfolio of clients in manufacturing, retail, trading, health, education, hospitality, professional services, construction and real estate sectors. She started her career as a tax consultant at Shah & Alshamali Associates Chartered Accountants. She possesses in depth knowledge of the International Financial Reporting Standards, International Standards on Auditing and Value Added Tax.

Mili is a Fellow Member of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) and has cleared CFA Level III. She also holds a BSc in Applied Accounting from Oxford Brookes University.

Hamza is a member of the investing team at 54 Capital, where he is involved in the sourcing, execution, and portfolio management of investments in Morocco. He started his career in the Private Equity division of Goldman Sachs in Paris and London, focusing on real estate investments in France and Southern Europe. He then joined Brookfield Asset Management in Dubai, where he specialized in real estate acquisitions across the Middle East.

Hamza holds a Bachelor in Business Administration from IE Business School and a Master’s in Management from ESCP Business School in London and Paris.

Vania started her career as barrister in litigation appearing before various courts in Mauritius in civil, criminal, family, labour and commercial law matters and chaired disciplinary committees in relation to the industrial law. She then joined the banking sector in the compliance and operation risk and control department for First Capital Bank Group. She was part of the team setting up this department at the Mauritius office and has been involved in the drafting of policies and procedures to ensure that the Group complies with all legal regulations and ethical standards.

Vania was called to the Bar of England and Wales as a Member of The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple in 2015 and the Bar of Mauritius in 2017. Vania holds a Bar Professional Training Postgraduate Course (BPTC) from City University of London, UK and a Bachelor of Laws, (LLB Hons) in Law and Business Finance from the University of Buckingham, UK. Vania is a native English and Creole speaker and fluent in French.

Hisaan has over 7 years of audit and accounting experience and is currently pursuing the ICAEW Chartered Accountant qualification (ACA). She started her career as an external auditor at EY Mauritius where she worked for over 3 years. She was involved on audits for one of the leading hotel group in Mauritius, retail companies and the leading duty free company in Mauritius  before moving on to work for Stonehage Fleming as an accountant in their Corporate Client Services division. She has been involved in preparation of financial statements, preparation of income tax returns, preparation of management reports, day to day accounting and other related tasks for offshore companies.

Houda joined the Morocco office of 54 Capital in 2024 as COO of the Moroccan Operations, where she oversees portfolio management, investor relations, and reporting. She also manages the administrative and financial operations of the Morocco office.

She has over 18 years of experience in finance and asset management. Before joining 54 Capital, she held key positions at AFG Asset Management, Capital Trust Gestion, and BMCE Capital Gestion, where she led initiatives in internal control, middle office, and administrative and financial management.

Houda holds a Master's degree in Audit, Management Control, and Information Systems from ESC de Lille, as well as a Finance and Banking degree from EDHEC.