DRISS SEFRIOUI
Founding Partner
Driss Sefrioui has 23 years’ experience in M&A advisory and Capital Raising.
Driss has led a broad range of assignments including mergers, acquisitions, equity and debt financings, leveraged buyout transactions and restructurings involving many of Europe’s leading companies.
He advised on more than 50 transactions representing an aggregate value of more than €70 billion. Before co-founding AltRaise, Driss was a Managing Director at Perella Weinberg Partners in London where he focused on advisory for Industrial, Consumer / Retail and Energy sectors.
Prior to joining Perella Weinberg Partners, Driss was a Director at Credit Suisse Investment Banking in Paris advising corporate clients and financial institutions in the Industrial and Energy sectors.
Driss started his career at Lazard in Paris. He graduated from ESSEC Business School.
DENIS VIENNOT
Founding Partner
Denis Viennot has 23 years’ experience in International Development Finance, Corporate Finance and Project Finance, including as an entrepreneur.
Before co-founding AltRaise, Denis was a Principal in the Energy Efficiency & Climate Change team at the European Bank for Reconstruction & Development, where he was notably in charge of developing clean energy programs in the MENA region.
Prior to joining the EBRD, Denis was a Director with GE Capital’s Capital Markets group in London, where he focused on leveraged buyouts and project finance. He then went on to co-found, with former GE Capital colleagues, the ReEnergise Group, a UK-based energy finance and services provider, which received funding by the GIB and SDCL.
Denis began his career in M&A at UBS Warburg. He graduated from ESSEC Business School.
YARA YAZBECK
Associated Partner
Yara Yazbeck has 20 years experience in the technology, sustainability and energy sectors in Capital Raising, Private Equity and Equity Research.
Prior to founding Ekta Partners, Yara was a principal at Deutsche Bank in London, within the energy and infrastructure private equity team (renewables, electricity and transport sectors).
Previously, Yara was an Executive Director and Sector Head at Goldman Sachs in London, where she covered the Technology sector in Equity Research.
Prior to Goldman Sachs, she worked in a tech start up in the Silicon Valley and at Linklaters in Paris.
She graduated from Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales (HEC Business School) and received a Master in Laws from the University of La Sorbonne.
DAMIEN GIRAULT
Senior advisor – Debt Advisory and Agriculture
Damien Girault has 20 years of experience in Corporate Finance, Capital Markets, Real Estate and as advisor and investor.
Damien was most recently CIO of a Single Family Office focusing on real estate, capital markets and impact venture capital.
Prior to that, Damien was member of the management committee and Group Head of Financing, Treasury and Financial Communication of Tereos, a French agricultural cooperative and the 2nd largest producer of sugar and starch products in the world. Prior to that, Damien spent 13 years at Credit Suisse in London and Paris in various positions advising European Corporate and Private Equity funds on multiple M&A and capital markets strategies (both equity and debt).
Damien started his career at Credit Suisse in London in 2000.
He graduated from Universite Paris II Panthéon-Assas, ESCP and Columbia University (School of Internation and Public Affairs)
HICHAM BAYALI
Senior advisor – Emerging markets & microfinance
Hicham Bayali spent 10 years of his career with the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the investment banking arm of the World Bank Group for the private sector, where he led large advisory and investment transactions for the Financial Institutions Group department (FIG) across the EMENA regions.
In 2012, he was nominated as a Global Business Leader within the IFC.
Mr. Bayali began his career as an auditor with KPMG Peat Marwick in 1997 before he joined the corporate finance department of Vivendi Universal. In 2000, M. Bayali joined Citigroup’s arm for North Africa, where he worked across the full spectrum of corporate banking services.
In 2003, M. Bayali joined the microfinance industry as the Chief Financial Officer of Zakoura, the largest microfinance institution in MENA and Africa at that time, before he joined the IFC in 2006.
In 2016, Hicham Bayali founded Atrium Finance, an independent investment bank based in Rabat, to focus on strategic and financial advisory services for a broad range of Africa and Middle East-based clients.
Hicham Bayali holds a Master in Finance from Paris-Dauphine University, a Master in Accounting and Finance from Bordeaux-Montesquieu University and a Master in Business Law.
YOUSSEF ESSAEGH
Senior advisor – Fintech
Youssef is passionate about Finance and Technology. He has a wealth of experience dealing with Tech companies and with the investor community, and how the two groups interact.
Youssef was previously an Equity research analyst at Barclays Investment Bank, covering the Technology and Payment sectors in Europe; a role which is at the crossroad of institutional investors, corporates, financial analysis, and strategy.
Before that, Youssef contributed to various complex structured finance deals and delivered tailored financial risk management solutions to leading corporates and government entities in the Middle East.
More recently, Youssef helped several companies refine their business model, validate business plan assumptions, estimate their own valuation, and improve their communication with the investor community.
Youssef is currently a Product Manager at a Fintech and he leads a team of developers focused on building the Fundamental Financial Data and analytics tools of a new generation of Financial Terminal for Research Analysts, as well as the efforts to build the Mobile Apps.
Youssef has a Masters in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering from French Grande Ecole ISEP, and a Masters in Finance from ESSEC Business School.
Youssef’s key areas of expertise are Financial analysis and modeling, Tech, FinTech, Finance, Banking, Business Development, Business Strategy, Corporate finance, Market finance, and Investor Relations.