Meet our Team

We commit to all aspects of making great ideas come to fruition and support those leading these ideas to overcome the challenges.

Meet our Team

We commit to all aspects of making great ideas come to fruition and support those leading these ideas to overcome the challenges.

Symax Group

Symax Group is an investment holding group with diverse interests in various sectors including Technology, Food, Property, Education and Media. Symax aligns itself to innovators and pioneers with great ideas, products and services.
Symax brings extensive operational, executive and entrepreneurial experience in Technology, Finance Legal and Business Strategy to start-ups and entrepreneurs with the purpose of assisting them on their journey of growth. With a global reach and a strong and comprehensive network of business partners across the region, Symax rapidly scales up the companies in which it invests.
At the core is a business team with several years of investment and management experience in multiple disciplines that allows the Group to have long-term investments in several industry verticals and business areas. Symax Group is actively targeting state of the art technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, IOT and IIOT, Blockchain, E-Commerce and scalable cloud-based software applications with a view of bringing positive impact to the way people live, work, buy and play.
Symax is active in Fintech Solutions and Services investing in areas such as consulting, tokenization, proprietary trading in traditional and digital assets, and creating and bringing together communities of traders onto efficient platforms, exchanges and brokerages as well as investing into neo/digital banking sector.
The Group also invests in Food and Food-tech, Edu-Tech and Legal-tech sectors as well as specific Real Estate development projects in Europe and North America, with partnerships delivering seasoned management in the specific vertical with in-depth knowledge and expertise of the specific business area.

Siamak Sarbaz

Chairman & Group CEO

Siamak Sarbaz is the Founder of Symax and a seasoned business leader with over 30 years of international experience in Tech, Innovation, Design, and Operations across the globe. An Electronics Engineering graduate from the UK, and a graduate and Alum of Harvard Business School, Sarbaz has applied his knowledge and skills to chart a successful career as a tech entrepreneur and innovation leader in his own right. He has been an avid proponent of entrepreneurship whilst working very closely with Private Equity and Investment banks for more than a decade.

Sarbaz has always gravitated towards people, companies and ideas that aim to bring about positive change to society. He frequently invests in ideas/startups he believes will make a difference. He started his career in Software Labs of British Telecom R&D Laboratories in the UK. He is one of the pioneers of Mobile Technology and had taken up key positions as National Design Authority, in mobile ventures such as Microtel (Hutchison- Microtel, Orange, and now EE) as well as International consultancy positions in Nortel-Matra Cellular where he served as Chief Engineer of some of the largest Mobile Deployments in the world. He has worked closely with the top executives of blue-chip companies and has also put together a number of notable global technology partnerships with global leaders such as Nokia, Ericsson, HP, Amdocs and Oracle, to name a few.

Sarbaz was the Founder of Mycom Group, whose mission was inscribed in its moto “World Harmony through Better Communication”, and which he and his team grew to an internationally renowned Telecom company covering design, roll-out and operations of tens of thousands of Mobile sites and networks across the world including Far East, APAC and US , as well as developing Software suite of products covering around 70 Communication Service Providers, developed through its four R&D centers around the world. At the time of his exit Mycom’s innovative software platform was managing more than 1Billion customers of Communication Service Providers. Today, as well as continuing to be heavily involved in innovative technology investing, the Symax portfolio of investments created under his leadership has been diversified to include other sectors such as Real estate, Fintech, Legal advocacy and Superfood where Sarbaz is also an active and supportive Board member of Symax’s portfolio companies.

Fari Akhlaghi

VICE CHAIRMAN & COO

Fari Akhlaghi is a professional business leader whose experience spans a wide range of sectors including design, engineering, construction, management consultancy, and technology. With a journey of over 35 years, Akhlaghi has held Senior Executive and Directorship positions in multi-national corporations such as AECOM (USA/UAE), Black & Veatch (USA/Africa), and DEGW (UK/Europe)and has set-up, led the funding and managed major urban and industrial projects.

He has advised many governments on development matters and represented and advised global businesses such as Norton Rose Fulbright (UK), GEK TERNA (Greece), and AMMANN (Switzerland) on identifying and developing key strategic investments. Akhlaghi obtained his education in the UK, in Architecture, IT, Building Science, and Facilities Management. Parallel to his full-time professional career, he was the Founding Director of Facilities Management Graduate Centre at Sheffield Hallam University in UK where he was appointed Tarmac Professor. He was also appointed Professor at the Department of Property Development and Building Economics at the University of Natal in Durban, South Africa.

Akhlaghi is an experienced facilitator and problem solver. He is an accomplished public speaker on development and other areas of particular interest to him. He has convened leaders’ workshops on sustainable economic development at several World Economic Forum events and facilitated strategic planning interactions at the highest levels of governments and corporations throughout his career.

Mauro Romano

Board Member & SVP Corporate Development

Mauro Romano is SVP and Member of the Board at Symax Group. With long standing successful track record in business development, Mauro has guided various endeavours in Europe and the MENA region to fruition, working with establishments and firms across Europe, UK, USA, UAE, KSA, India, Peru, among others.

Mauro’s experience includes working with the Dubai Gold and Commodities Exchange, London Stock Exchange Group and The Bank of New York. Aside from working with such esteemed institutions, Mauro is also an entrepreneur at heart. In 2018, he co-founded ArabClicks (Morexa DMCC), in Dubai, UAE, the first Arabic performance marketing network. ArabClicks was effective in boosting online traffic to sites like Amazon, Noon, Emirates Airlines, Adidas, and many more.

Mauro obtained a BA and MS in Economics and International Markets at Parthenope University in Naples, Italy. He later pursued an MA in Quantitative Finance and Risk Management at Bocconi University in Milan, Italy. In 2017, Mauro took part in the Senior Executive Leadership Program Middle East at Harvard Business School in Boston, US. Mauro’s interests cover real estate investment, consumer goods, financial strategy and forecasting, start-up investments, and spends his me-time reading, swimming, and traveling.

Peyman Adl

Senior Director- Operational Support

Peyman Adl has over thirty years of experience in academia and Business specializing in the development and deployment of leading-edge software and systems and their application to real-world problems. In his most recent roles, he has been responsible for leading Digital Transformation and execution of Sales Strategies and transition to Software as a Service.

He has worked with growth companies to introduce innovative technologies and has lead and run operations of companies in various Geographies in the areas of Systems and Software. He has worked in the UK, Europe, Middle East, APAC, West Africa. He has multiple patents in electronics and signals processing and has led large European Research projects bringing together Industry and academic teams together at the forefront of technology.

He continues working closely with researchers on the application of AI and Big Data to Financial and Industrial Systems. A graduate of Oxford Brookes University and Brunel University, he holds a PhD in Engineering. He currently lives in the UK and enjoys cycling and contributes and raises funds for cancer charities through his cycling.

Javid Kondkari

Director- Finance

Javid Kondkari is a dedicated and detail-oriented Financial Analyst committed to teamwork that leads to success. Javid has Twenty years of experience in key areas of accounting, finance, financial analysis, financial modelling, business valuation, business performance analysis, budgeting, and implementation of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems.

He has worked in various sectors throughout the past 20 years in India and MENA region, and also has worked closely with businesses in other parts of the world, mainly Europe and USA. Javid has implemented and streamlined cutting-edge data management procedures, improving the operational efficiency of the companies.

His diversified experience includes working in various positions in large multinational organizations such as Unilever, Motorola, and MYCOMOSI. Javid obtained a Bachelor’s Degree from University of Mumbai, with specialization in Financial Accounting, Financial Management and Auditing.

Nada ElMawi

Senior Manager- Legal

Nada ElMawi heads the legal division and related affairs of the Symax Group in UAE. She has over 10 years of experience in legal matters related to banking and finance including financial crimes and fraud, as well as real-estate related disputes and litigation. She advises international and local Banks and Financial Houses on their various disputes and has represented multiple international clients, on complex cross-border fraud and criminal cases.

Nada is very familiar with legal enforcement of foreign and GCC judgements and has also represented clients regarding their ratification and annulment matters related to arbitral awards. She has participated in legal mediation and arbitrage meetings in UAE, Egypt, UK, GCC, Thailand, Germany and USA as well as the Levants and India, to name a few.

As a believer in sustainability and contribution to the community, Nada has participated in conducting awareness campaigns at Dubai Foundation and Hemaya Organization for Protection of Children and Women and Promo tion of Emirates Human Rights.

Nada has graduated with two separate Batchelor Degrees, one in Finance and another one in Law from UAE and has attended and obtained a Certificate from Harvard Business School in Negotiation.