In January 2008, Steve joined Gulf Finance as Chief Executive Officer with a mandate to transform the 10-year-old firm. Since then, Gulf Finance enjoyed its most profitable year ever in 2008 and was well re-structured to face the more challenging business climate that began in the second half of that year.

As a result of his strategy, Gulf Finance has successfully repositioned itself as an SME asset finance lender and has built a strong asset book, a fresh and compelling brand and a team of professionals quite unlike any other comparable Financial Institution in the UAE.

Gulf Finance has successfully exited unattractive markets and has made the significant achievement of maintaining its BB Stable Outlook rating through 2008, 2009 and 2010. The company now operates across Abu Dhabi, Dubai & Sharjah and has formed a reputation of being the transactional lender of choice in the SME market.

Steve joined Gulf Finance from Lloyds TSB in Dubai, where he was Chief Operating Officer and a member of the Board. He also was a member of the bank's Executive Development Scheme. Originally he moved to Dubai with Lloyds TSB in August 2004 as Head of Commercial and Retail Banking.

During his four years with Lloyds TSB in Dubai, Steve grew the business in the Middle East from a single office to a multi-branch operation that is a highly profitable, well-respected component of the Lloyds TSB Group.

With more than two decades of leadership and hands-on experience in business banking, branch banking, customer segmentation, product development and customer treatment strategies, Steve knows his industry and his clients. He joined the Lloyds TSB Group in 1989 and, in his last UK posting with the bank before making the move to Dubai, developed the customer-treatment strategy for the bank's corporate business.

Active in the British Business Group, Steve is a former Director of Business Development for the association. He is also a Director of a number of other SMEs and studied finance and accounting at the Executive Education department of the Stanford Graduate School of Business in California.

Steve enjoys running, reading & travelling but is most engaged in the set-up and success of small businesses. Having championed hundreds of businesses he was Contributing Editor for the recently published and nationally acclaimed book 'Sink or Swim' which explores the lessons learnt from businesses that survived the downturn in the UAE.

Tom is the Managing Director of Commercial Finance at Gulf Finance. He is responsible for managing sales teams, sourcing new business and launching new products and contributes to senior management decisions on the direction of the firm.

For more than 10 years, Tom has worked in roles of increasing responsibility in retail, commercial and corporate banking, and in areas as diverse as small and medium-size enterprises and inter-bank markets. Before taking up his current responsibilities here at Gulf Finance, he worked at a leading UK bank, where, among other roles, he established both a property finance team and a hedge fund specialism.

Outside of Gulf Finance, Tom is an avid football fan as well as an active golfer.

Layla is responsible for the strategic development of the company's IT and Operations capabilities and sits as a member of the executive management committee.

Layla originally joined Gulf Finance with a directive to establish a Consumer Finance operation that would focus on the needs of underserved segments within the UAE finance market. She swiftly set up a successful business that offers a Marine Finance capability, as well as a variety of secured and unsecured personal loan products to professionals in specialist fields such as banking, accounting and law. After successfully completing this endeavor Layla's role broadened to her current position where she is responsible for running the Operations, Collections and Legal side of the business.

Layla studied Business Management at the University of Aberdeen and was awarded her MA (Hons) in July 2002. Her 8 year banking career started with Barclays Bank in the UK with roles in both consumer and business banking. After moving to Dubai in 2004 Layla joined Lloyds TSB with roles spanning across sales and management in consumer and retail banking. This included the set up and running of two customer service centers as well as being involved in a number of key strategic change initiatives.

Paul is Chief Financial Officer at Gulf Finance. He is tasked with the treasury, finance, accounting and reporting functions and also manages bank relationships to ensure optimal liquidity to fund our growth. A Fellow of the Association of Certified Chartered Accountants, Paul has over twelve years experience during which he has gained extensive strategic knowledge of the SME market place.

As our HR Business Partner, Nichola looks after the most vital part of our business - our people. She believes in not only recruiting passionate and exceptional people, but also in developing and nurturing their talent and abilities. With seven years experience and extensive specialist knowledge in her area, Nichola is perfectly placed to lead a strategic HR function that supports our vision and business objectives.

Nichola was previously employed as the HR Manager at Kelly Services and looked after over three thousand staff members. She has an MSc degree in Occupational Health and Safety, a BA (Hons) in Business Studies and is a Chartered Member of the Institute of Personnel and Development.

Outside of Gulf Finance, Nichola enjoys travelling and has visited places across the globe including Cambodia, Vietnam, Singapore, Thailand, Borneo, Australia, Portugal and Egypt. She is also a keen golfer.

Edward is Director of Strategy & Credit at Gulf Finance. He is responsible for formulating and executing the company's strategies, developing and implementing credit policy and portfolio management, and for embedding the risk management culture of the business.

An eight-year veteran of the UK banking and insurance industries, Edward joined the Gulf Finance team from Barclays Bank plc, where he was Head of Strategy & Planning for the institution's UK secured lending unit, a business with assets of £4 billion. Before that, he worked at Lloyds Banking Group in the UK, the largest provider of UK home insurance, where he held several positions, including Head of Strategy & Planning in the General Insurance unit and Market Development Manager in the Wholesale Banking division.

Edward earned a Master of Engineering degree, with a specialism in Manufacturing and Management, from the University of Durham in the UK, where he won the Procter & Gamble Prize for his thesis on catastrophe theory and its application to manufacturing strategies.

Faiz is responsible for guiding the company through transactional and litigation related matters and managing legal risk throughout Gulf Finance. Faiz has a sound knowledge of the intricate legal issues surrounding business and finance in the GCC. Prior to joining Gulf Finance, Faiz held the position of Legal Counsel at Barclays Bank PLC for over three years.