About

Throughout his career, Ali Khalaf has always sought to combine his legal ability with business acumen. Indeed, he places this business expertise (honed using expert knowledge gained via an MBA from Kogod School of Business at American University in Washington DC) as instrumental in his being identified as an ideal candidate for an in-house role by Rasmala Investment in UAE. Khalaf was working in private practice prior to this in Washington DC, and Rasmala Investment has provided his first experience of life as corporate counsel. His successful rise through the ranks at Rasmala was the springboard for his accession to his current position of general counsel with Dubai-based alternative investment firm and operator Evolvence Capital. Khalaf mentions the variety of deals and projects he has worked on as being an aspect of the job he particularly enjoys. ‘Since my time with Evolvence commencing in 2012, we have, amongst other accomplishments, raised finance for and built two new schools, listed a related company, led six acquisitions, exited an investment and launched two PE funds of funds’, he explains. Khalaf has also had a marked effect on the way the legal and compliance functions operate at Evolvence during his tenure: ‘Upon joining, I looked to enhance and implement legal-related documentation, particularly with respect to compliance and training, and have looked to modernise and institute software that can retrieve and assist in filing. We have also built up the team with a proper compliance focus, and we now have three compliance professionals as part of the department’. When recruiting, Khalaf is keen to seek out those who fit his template for what makes an excellent corporate counsel. As part of this process, he believes that in-house lawyers should not be afraid to speak up when dealing with senior management. ‘You need to have the constitution to question the CEO and members of the Board’, he points out. ‘Being deferential can be a disservice to those you are advising and ultimately the shareholders. My primary responsibility has been and remains to ensure that all stakeholders are aware of the parameters in which to operate on behalf of the company; however, it is more and more imperative that my team always have a variety of alternatives and advices while upholding our duties to the company,’ Khalaf concludes.