KUWAIT: The London-based EMEA Finance magazine has named Adel El-Labban, Group CEO and Managing Director of Ahli United Bank, as CEO of the Year, Pan Middle East 2016, in recognition of his vision, leadership and outstanding contributions to the regional banking industry.

The announcement was made at EMEA Finance’s Middle East Banking Awards 2016, held in Dubai on March 1^st, 2017, and attended by banking and business leaders from across the Middle East.

In recognising Mr. El-Labban, Christopher Moore, Publisher and CEO of EMEA Finance magazine, said: “At EMEA Finance, we recognise CEOs who have truly moved their banks forward, and whose vision and leadership empower those they direct and reward shareholders simultaneously”.

“El-Labban’s career and leadership is a textbook success story. He has brought together and employed his unique vision and diverse experiences to build a world-class business model for AUB, growing it into one of the region’s powerhouses and consistently increasing its key financial metrics year-on-year. The decade he spent at the helm of Commercial International Bank and building it into Egypt’s largest private bank, has included many firsts for Egyptian and Middle Eastern banking. We are privileged to honour tonight his impressive track record and outstanding contributions to the regional financial industry”.

In accepting the award, Adel El-Labban, said: “It is both a great honour and a humbling experience to receive this recognition by the well-regarded EMEA Finance, and to accept it on behalf of the 4000 colleagues whom I have been privileged to work with across AUB Group. This award is an outcome of and testament to our collective efforts since 2000 to build a strong and professional regional banking group, one which earns and maintains the trust of our shareholders, customers and the communities we serve at large”.

Throughout his career, Mr El-Labban had received a string of honours and recognitions, including for his “Distinguished Services to Arab Banking” by the Arab Bankers Association (United Kingdom) in 2015 and for his ‘Outstanding Contribution to Financial Services’ by Euromoney in 2011. He was also awarded a ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’ by Banker Middle East in 2011 and in 2010 the Union of Arab Banks named him ‘Arab Banker of Year 2009’.

Under Mr. El-Labban stewardship, AUB won several top regional awards from leading international publications, including most recently ‘Bank of the Year Middle East Award 2016’ for the second time by ‘The Banker’, the leading monthly publication of Financial Times Group.