Bio

Jirayr is the Managing Partner of Matouk Bassiouny’s UAE Office. He brings in a wealth of experience of working in the fields of corporate finance, trade finance, M&A transactions and capital markets across multiple jurisdictions including the UAE, Lebanon, Armenia, Egypt, Turkey and Jordan. Prior to joining Matouk Bassiouny, Jirayr acted in a variety of senior roles with leading international banks including acting as Chief Legal Officer and Board Secretary of Investbank, Chief General Counsel and Head of Regulatory Affairs at Rasmala Investment Bank, Head of Legal and Compliance at Bank of Sharjah, Regional Head of legal and compliance at Standard Chartered Bank, and non-Executive Director of the Board of Directors of Lebanese Swiss Bank. Additionally, Jirayr designed the Anti Money Laundering and Terrorist Counter Financing training to the Central Bank of Armenia between 2005 and 2007, with the collaboration of the EBRD. When he was Legal Director at Damas Intl’ Ltd., he was responsible for negotiating an AED 3 billion debt restructuring and delisting the company from private sale. Jirayr was also previously an Of Counsel with Squire Patton Boggs LLC and a Junior Partner at Farid Halim El-Khoury Law Cabinet. Jirayr is additionally a Founding and Board Member of ICC National Committee Armenia and has been appointed as a Member of the Court of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce. He also acted as Senior Legal Counsel to the undersecretary of the Abu Dhabi Judicial Department where he was responsible for establishing and running the Court of Arbitration of Sport, Alternate Hearing Centre in Abu Dhabi through 2019.