The Abraaj Group, a leading private equity investor operating in global growth markets, has announced the appointment of Sarah Alexander as managing director.

Alexander joins the group from the Emerging Markets Private Equity Association (Empea), where she currently serves as president and chief executive.

In her new role, she will serve the group’s North American stakeholders providing them with fresh perspectives on global growth markets and drawing on Abraaj’s local presence in 30 of the world’s fastest-growing economies. She will assume her new role with in February, a statement from the company said.

Arif Naqvi, founder and group CEO, The Abraaj Group, said: “We are delighted to welcome Alexander to The Abraaj Group. As the founding chief executive Empea she has been a globally recognised voice in private equity for nearly a decade and has nurtured the development of the industry in growth markets.”

“Her appointment is testament to our strategy of strengthening our relationship and communication with all of our key stakeholders in North America. We are confident that her wealth of knowledge on growth markets, our industry and of the wider private and public financial context in which it operates, make her ideally suited to sharing Abraaj’s insights and experience with a diverse global audience.”

“The Abraaj Group has built a distinguished track record in growth markets over the past two decades based on its unrivalled, in-depth knowledge of the individual countries in which it operates and an extensive international network,” Alexander said. “It has been central to shifting private equity in growth markets from a fringe alternative asset class to a crucial investment class it is today.”

“I am looking forward to working directly with such an impressive team, and to playing a part in Abraaj’s continued development,” she added.

Alexander was instrumental in founding the Emerging Markets Private Equity Association (Empea), the global non-profit organisation that is the leading voice promoting the development of the private equity and venture capital industry in growth markets.  

She grew the organisation to more than 300 member firms representing 60 countries and more than $1 trillion in assets under management, while developing the industry’s leading research products and programmes.

Prior to joining Empea, Alexander was a private equity investor in Asia from 1999 to 2004. She started her career in public service as a foreign policy adviser to the US House of Representatives, before working on international trade and finance policies for the Department of State, and subsequently for the World Bank Group on private sector participation in development finance. – TradeArabia News Service