Middle East

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Stephen Oehem

Stephen supports some of the most progressive people, organisations & challenging initiatives globally. With a focus on value management & sustainability he is engaged by multinationals, SME’s, government entities, sovereign wealth funds, & civil society organisations internationally.  He was on the Project Board of the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building, and has been engaged with many other notable and iconic real estate projects in the region and around the world.  A longstanding sustainability advocate, Stephen has been involved in the development of sustainability systems, tools & their application(s) as well as the formation & development of 'green' organisations, councils; & numerous sustainability initiatives worldwide including, most recently, COP28 UAE in 2023. 

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Imad Damrah

Imad has a vast experience in managing and delivering assignments in the field of real estate advisory i.e., feasibility studies, market research, best use studies, business plan, financial modeling and business valuation. He also has extensive experience in real estate and hospitality sector feasibility studies covering some of the biggest projects in Saudi Arabia including: five star hotels, furnished apartments, residential resorts, commercial malls, residential cities, office towers, commercial complexes, land use, e-real estate, and real estate financing.  As the Managing Director at Colliers Saudi Arabia, Imad’s responsibilities now revolve around providing investment and development advisory in the form of feasibility studies and market reports, for a wide range of institutional and individual clients within the Kingdom.  

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Sam Issa

Sam is passionate about the use of technology to deliver better real estate and consulting services. Pioneering the use of BIM and 5D Digital City Technology in Dubai he has extensive experience in bringing in new technology into real estate organisations. This experience spans back over 20 years when architectural offices transferred from tracing paper, pen and drawing boards to CAD. With a history of successfully delivering many projects Sam can apply his management expertise at any time in the property lifecycle and at any scale of project. He has designed and delivered building renovations, residential refurbishments, new residential buildings. Managed full design and construction teams, overseen the construction of community buildings, hotels, high rise commercial and residential towers, Managed fitting out and provision of facilities management for some of largest international corporates and Airports around the world. He is regularly requested to advise governments on various real estate matters.

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James A. Kaplan

James has 37 years of global hotel and resort development and acquisition experience with a primary focus in the Asia Pacific and Middle East regions. His extensive development and transactional experience, as well as legal background, has served him well in planning, coordinating and executing hotel developments and strategic acquisitions.  James is CEO of Destination Capital which is a private equity firm focused on acquiring and repositioning distressed four-star hotels supported by IFC and the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) for its efforts in sustainability and ESG. James is active in educational philanthropy and advises public companies and family offices around the world when called upon for his hotel and leisure expertise.  James is a graduate of  the University of California Berkeley with a BA in Political Science/Asian Political Systems and Golden Gate School of Law in San Francisco with a Juris Doctor degree emphasizing real estate law. James is a member of the California Bar (currently inactive) and the Thai Institute of Directors (IOD) and he resides in Bangkok Thailand.