Our People

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Financial Crimes Compliance Practice Lead

Fouad C. Khalifeh is managing director and co-founder of KCG. With more than 25 years of experience, Fouad provides expert counseling on financial crimes matters ranging from transactional compliance decision-making, internal investigations on anti-money laundering and counter-financing of terrorism, regulatory monitoring and reporting, sanctions and embargoes programs oversight, anti-bribery and corruption program validation, correspondent banking relationship management, suspicious activity reporting, fraud protection, code of conduct and code of ethics review, cyber-security enhancement, and virtual assets-related issues including Fintech and Regtech.

Before co-founding KCG as the Practice Lead for Financial Crimes Compliance, Fouad held the roles of the Group Chief Compliance Officer and the Chief Risk Officer of many leading commercial banks in Lebanon, and of a Senior Examiner at the Banking Control Commission of the Central Bank of Lebanon. Fouad also served as a member of the Compliance and Risk Committees of the Association of Banks in Lebanon, and was a Professor of Risk Management and Compliance for 12 years at the Faculty of Economics of Saint Joseph University in Beirut.

Fouad holds a Bachelor’s Degree and a Master’s Degree in Economics from University of Paris 1 (Panthéon – Sorbonne) in Paris, and an MBA in Management from Holy Spirit University Kaslik (USEK) in Beirut. He is the winner of 2016’s “Top Minds in Compliance” Award granted by the US Compliance Week Magazine.

ESG Practice Lead

Dr. Marc-Antoine Zabbal is a Partner of KCG and the Practice Lead for ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance). He currently holds the position of Rector and co-owner of the American University of Cyprus (AUCY), established in 2020 with 4 Faculties, and an ongoing current effort to establish a Medical School with a University Hospital in Larnaca, Cyprus.

AUCY is the second project after AUL Kaslik in Beirut where Dr. Zabbal served as Campus Director and Managing Partner for more than 13 years, reaching a total of 3000+ on-campus students. He is currently working on a third educational project in Greece, and his main focus is built around creating a friendly/social educational environment with a flat/decentralized management and governance system. 

Dr. Zabbal has extensive experience in managing organizations’ corporate financial interests that focus mainly on sustainable and ethical impacts, and applies such non-financial factors as part of clients’ analysis process to identify risks and growth opportunities.

Dr. Zabbal holds a PhD in Sociology (Emphasis on Social Psychology) from the Holy Spirit University in Lebanon and the University of Paris V, and a BA and MA from Notre Dame University in Beirut.

His publications are mainly related to Psychology, Sociology, Education and Politics.

Tax and Audit Practice Lead

Karim G. Istfan is a Partner of KCG and the Practice Lead for Tax and Audit. He is a Lebanese Certified Public Accountant and a University lecturer on business and tax topics. He worked for several years with a multinational insurance company in training and business development. 

Karim has a wide experience in management consulting, business planning, financial due diligence and valuation. He advises businesses in choosing the appropriate legal and tax structure, based on his extensive knowledge with Lebanese and UAE laws including international Double Taxation Treaties.

Karim holds an MBA Degree with Marketing emphasis from Notre Dame University-NDU and an MS Degree with Finance emphasis. He also holds a Certificate in International Financial Reporting-ACCA and is currently pursuing an Executive Masters in Financial Management at ESA Business School in collaboration with SDA Bocconi School of Management in Italy.

Senior Counsel

Charbel Abi-Antoun is a Partner of KCG and a Senior Counsel. He is the founder and managing partner of Beirut Law Firm, and has earned broad expertise during more than 20 years of practice, with wide knowledge drawn from his diverse participations in different legal activities. He has gained various recognitions from people known for their professionalism in the fields of Law and Business.

Between 1993 and 1998 Charbel was a Judicial Aider and a Head-Clerk of the Instant Court of Beirut. He was assigned by the Ministry of Justice a Notary Public in Beirut, and was delegated to the “Arab Center for Juridical and Judicial Researches” for the “Arab Countries’ League” under the auspices of the “Council of the Arab Ministers of Justice”. 

In May 2008, Charbel was assigned by the “National Center for State Courts (NCSC) as the “Court Administration Consultant” for “Lebanon Judicial Strengthening Project”, a project developed and managed by and for the “United States Agency for International Development” (USAID). 

Beside his Legal diverse engagements, Charbel is a Board member of an American-Lebanese Pharmaceutical/Bio-Chemical Joint-Venture based in Nashville – Tennessee and Dbayeh - Lebanon; and was, for 5 consecutive years, a board member of an international IOT leading company based in Los Angeles - California, USA. 

For more than 30 years, he participated, with leading roles, in more than 15 charitable and Societal Organizations, such as Lebanese Red Cross, UNICEF, Terre des Hommes, UNIPADH, ANU-LIBAN, amongst others. In June 2017, he became a Member of the Advisory Board of CAIL (Center of American and International Law), Plano – Texas; and in 2019 he was elected a Council member for the EMEA (Europe, Middle East & Africa) Region, at IACCM, a Leading International Contract Management Association based in Connecticut - USA.

His practice areas are Business-Corporate, Mergers & Acquisitions, Joint-ventures and Restructuring, Banking and Finance, Capital Markets & Securities, Taxes and Compliance, Telecommunications and Technology.

Charbel holds a Bachelor of Law from the Lebanese University, an EMBA, UQAM from Québec University in Montréal, Technology Transfer and IP Licensing from IDLO- Rome (an International Development Law Organization), and American and International Business Law from SWIICL (Southwestern Institute for International and Comparative Law) and CAIL (Center for American and International Law) in Plano – Texas, USA. He is also affiliated with IACCM – International Association for Contract and Commercial Management.