Essdar Group is a market leader in the GCC, both in terms of its people, as well as its products, processes and systems. The Board Members  of Essdar Capital Holdings Limited, Essdar Capital Limited and Essdar Capital Managers Limited are of international backgrounds and the enjoy the local experience required to understand the needs of the region. The Directors of the Boards of Essdar Group entities are as follows:

Hugh Frater joined the board of Essdar Capital Holdings Limited and its subsidiaries Essdar Capital Limited and Essdar Capital Managers Limited in November 2008 as an independent director.

Hugh has had a long and distinguished career in investment management and financial services and works with Good Energies on strategic projects. He was a Founding Partner and member of the Management Committee at BlackRock, Inc, one of the world's leading investment management firms from 1988 to 2004. From 2004 to 2007 Hugh was Executive Vice President of PNC Financial Services, BlackRock's largest shareholder at the time. Before he joined BlackRock in 1988, he was a vice president in investment banking at Lehman Brothers.

While at BlackRock, Hugh served as co-head of the Account Management Group responsible for institutional client service and business development and also as head of the Real Estate Group, responsible for investments in high yield real estate debt and related securities. At BlackRock, Hugh Frater also formed Anthracite Capital, a publicly traded specialty finance company, and launched Carbon Capital, a series of institutional mezzanine funds. At PNC, he was responsible for the real estate businesses which included project and securitized lending, loan servicing and technology and tax credit equity investment and syndication for affordable housing. He was the CEO of PNC's wholly-owned loan servicing and technology subsidiary, Midland Loan Services, and also served on the board of PNC Investment Corporation responsible for investing excess economic capital in alternative investments.

Hugh Frater earned an AB from Dartmouth College and an MBA from Columbia University.

Jassim Al Seddiqui is Chief Executive Officer of Al Nahdha Investment Company, a private investment firm based in Abu Dhabi. He was previously Head of Business Development & Structuring at Abu Dhabi Capital Group. His early career was spent in the energy sector both as a lecturer at the Petroleum Institute (Abu Dhabi) and an engineer with Abu Dhabi Gas Industries Ltd (GASCO). Jassim has several publications in international journals in the areas of non-linear systems, optimization, and engineering economics. He received his Master’s degree from Cornell University and Bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Mr. Buchheit is a senior international partner at the New York Office of Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton LLP. Mr. Buchheit joined Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton in 1976 and became partner in 1984. From 1987 to 1990, he was resident in the Hong Kong office; from 1979 to 1982, in the London office; and from 1976 to 1979, the Washington, D.C. office. He is considered one of the leading global experts on international financial transactions and sovereign debt restructurings.

Aside from his legal practice, Lee is the author of two books in the field of international law and more than 40 articles on professional matters. He has served as an adjunct professor at the School for International and Public Affairs of Columbia University (1994-97), as a visiting professor at Chuo University in Japan (1997-98), as a Lecturer on Law at the Harvard Law School (2000), as a Visiting Lecturer in Law at the Yale Law School (2005) and as an adjunct professor of law at Duke University Law School (2006-07). Lee is also a Visiting Professor in the Centre for Commercial Law Studies at the University of London.

Lee received a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 1975 and a Diploma in International Law from Cambridge University in 1976. Lee received an undergraduate degree from Middlebury College. Lee is a member of the Bars in New York, the District of Columbia and Pennsylvania.

Sarah V. Ingram (née Watts) is a reputed name in the capital and commodity markets compliance industry with more than 15 years of experience. She joined Essdar Capital from Dubai Mercantile Exchange Limited, set up in 2007 to establish the first sour crude benchmark within an international regulated exchange environment. 

Before DME, Sarah was with Standard Bank Plc. with full oversight of global asset management and private client services businesses. Prior to Standard Bank Plc, Sarah worked at the London Metal Exchange and Japan Metal Centre, London.