Mr Panayiotou is a UK national and joined Gulf Finance House as Chief Operating Officer in May 2003 after several years in the London office of Price Waterhouse Coopers. He has over 20 years experience serving the banking and financial services industry in Europe, the U.S.A. and the Middle East. His principal role at PwC in London was to lead transaction due diligence teams and to act as a consultant to the boards of banks, guiding them on corporate governance best practice. Mr Panayiotou has led transaction teams on many cross border deals in the U.S.A., Europe and Russia, ranging from USD 100 million to USD 3 billion in value. He has also featured as a speaker at both GCC and National Banking and Capital Markets Authority conferences. Previously, he led the Price Waterhouse practice in the Sultanate of Oman following a spell as a senior manager in the Bahrain office. Mr Panayiotou is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales and holds a degree in Jurisprudence from the University of Oxford.