About

Among a number of highly complimentary nominations received for Moulham Al Chawa, one was particularly informative: ‘I have had the pleasure of working closely with him for over a year on a number of highly sensitive and complex projects. Throughout this time, he has shown impressive powers of organisation to manage the many moving parts on these projects and provide us with clear and lucid guidance at all times. One of his most impressive qualities is his tenacity and innovative thinking, which go far beyond the abilities of many of the general counsel that I have previously worked with’. This clearly illuminates Al Chawa’s impressive administrative abilities alongside a talent for collaborating with other stakeholders both internal and external to the company. This is all in addition to notable technical legal talent that has allowed him to achieve a number of successes for RAK Economic Zone Authority where he is general counsel. As he explains, ‘In addition to drafting the first companies regulations for RAK Economic Zone, I played an essential role in drafting the first compliance and sanctions policy for RAK Economic Zone along with the establishment of the first compliance committee including drafting its charter’. Al Chawa considers his work on the consolidation of RAK Free Trade Zone and RAK Investment Authority into its current iteration of RAK Economic Zone Authority to be among the major highlights of his career. ‘I can say that the merger of the two entities is one of the events which most contributed in building my career’, he says. ‘This transaction is the most complex and difficult task I have ever worked on, given that it meant consolidating two entities with different cultures, staff, policies and regulations to become one entity with one culture and one business model. Doing this while keeping or improving the profitability and not losing clients was painful. However, this type of challenging transaction made me who I am now and expanded my horizons. Without this, I doubt that I would have achieved becoming a general counsel in such a relatively short time’.