Youssef Al Kareh has been appointed Acting General Manager of Solidarity General Takaful “SGT”, a subsidiary of Solidarity Group Holding, one of the largest Takaful companies in the world.
Al Kareh’s appointment, by the Solidarity Board of Directors, follows the retirement of Gopinath Rao, Solidarity General Takaful’s General Manager, after an illustrious and notable career in the industry.
Al Kareh was formerly the Head of Asset Management & Investments at Solidarity, and has been with Solidarity since his appointment as Head of Risk Management at the beginning of 2009.
“Youssef is no stranger to Solidarity and has held several senior posts within the group,” said Solidarity Group Chief Executive Officer and SGT’s Board member Ashraf Bseisu.
“His appointment, at the helm of Solidarity General, is a reflection of the Board’s confidence in his abilities to guide our flagship company in the current challenging market environment,” he said.
“The vision of the Board of Directors is to see Solidarity General become the leading Sharia’ compliant insurance company in the Kingdom of Bahrain,” said Bseisu. “On behalf of the Board of Directors, I wish Youssef continued success in his latest assignment,” he said.
Al Kareh welcomed the appointment, and said he was looking forward to the challenges that lay ahead. “The board mandate is clear, and I am privileged to be invited to play such an instrumental role in leading Solidarity forward,” said Al Kareh. “To translate the Board’s vision into a tangible reality, we will need to focus on further improving our operations,” he said.
Al Kareh represents a wide range of experience in the areas of risk management, direct insurance, reinsurance, alternative risk transfer (ART) solutions, asset management and investments. Prior to joining Solidarity, he was a Director of Investment Structuring at an Islamic investment firm in Bahrain. Before that, he was the General Manager of Ensurion, a boutique ART/captive insurance consultancy where he spearheaded the setting up of the first captive insurance company domiciled in the MENA region. Al Kareh was a risk management consultant at Marsh Ltd. in London having been a part of its Structured Risk Practice Unit serving blue-chip clients, public companies, and a number of quasi-governmental bodies.