Bessem Soua

Division Manager, Sub-Saharan Africa and Europe at ICIEC

Speaker

Bessem Soua has over 18 years of experience holding different senior and leading positions at the Central Bank of Tunisia and the IsDB Group (the Islamic Corporation for the Insurance of Investment and Export Credit (ICIEC)). He is currently leading an international team based in various locations around the world (Saudi Arabia, Senegal and Turkey) and is in charge of business expansion in sub-Saharan Africa and Europe.

Bessem has extensive exposure to business origination, structuring and closing of trade finance, infrastructure and investment finance transactions from/in Europe, the MENA region and sub-Saharan Africa. Clients have included financial institutions, investors, contractors, exporters, development banks, etc. Besides his primary role, he has also been highly involved in strategic and business planning.

Bessem’s cross-functional expertise and skills are his key strengths including business development, customer relations, marketing, project finance, trade finance, financial analysis, due diligence, negotiations of complex transactions and also budgeting, financial planning, strategic planning, strategic thinking, etc, all via various task forces in which he has played a leading role. He has been a speaker/panelist at many seminars and international conferences.

Bessem’s education accomplishments include the completion of an MBA from IE Business School, Madrid. He has also attended specialized executive education programs at Harvard Kennedy School and Berkeley Business School with a specific focus on innovation and entrepreneurship.