Mike Knapik, CFA

Mr. Knapik joined the GCC investment community in 2014 and has served high-net-worth principals and government entities in the region for more than a decade. Most recently he served as Chief Investment & Strategy Officer at Al Jazira Investment Group, an Abu Dhabi family office, where he managed a USD 1.6 billion cross-asset portfolio and oversaw direct deal sourcing across venture capital, real-estate credit and private equity. Prior to that, he served as Vice President, Strategy & Investments at Royal Group, an Abu Dhabi conglomerate overseeing more than USD 300 billion in assets across affiliated entities, including the publicly listed International Holding Company (ADX:IHC), G42 and other related platforms. Reporting to the Managing Director, he originated and executed transactions ranging from USD 6 million growth equity tickets to a USD 12 billion management buy-out and delisting of a publicly traded mining business. On secondment from Royal Group, he served as Head of Strategy at the Department of Economic Development, where he directed Abu Dhabi's city-level economic strategy — coordinating strategic planning across more than sixty Abu Dhabi government departments with a combined annual budget of approximately AED 220 billion. In that capacity he co-authored the Abu Dhabi Industrial Strategy 2022–2028 (AED 10 billion budget) and led foundational strategy workstreams across foreign direct investment, ESG, and small-and-medium-enterprise development.

Earlier in his career, Mr. Knapik served as an Advisor with Alvarez & Marsal in Dubai, where he led the leveraged-buyout analysis and real-estate due diligence for an approximately USD 850 million consolidation of the Gargash family's holdings, and produced restructuring plans, commercial due diligence and transaction documentation for a high-net-worth real-estate portfolio. He started his career at Mennheim Associates (a consulting boutique founded by ex-BCG partners), where he progressed from Analyst to Managing Director and built functional expertise in nuclear energy, defence and ultra-high-net-worth special projects, including private transactions for senior members of the Saudi royal family. He also completed assignments with The Boston Consulting Group in Warsaw and BCG Digital Ventures in Los Angeles.