Farah Foustok is the Chief Executive Officer of Lazard Gulf Ltd. based in Dubai. She began working in the investment field in 1994. Prior to joining Lazard in 2014, she was Chief Executive Officer and Chief Investment Officer of ING Investment Management Middle East from 2008.
Previously, she was the Head of Asset Management at NBD Investment Bank. Farah was a senior fund manager at EFG-Hermes prior to NBD IB, responsible for managing GCC and MENA funds and portfolios. Farah spent five years at Deutsche Bank in London, in Equity Strategy. She has also worked at Morgan Stanley within Equity Sales, followed by three years in commercial real estate advisory in Europe. Farah also has Private Equity exposure through a private venture in Argentina and an internet start-up in the UK.
In 2012 Farah was elected as the chairperson of the board for the UAE Financial Services Association. In 2013, Farah co-founded the first non-profit female mentoring program in the DIFC, Dubai; Reach. In 2015 Farah co-founded and chaired the Steering Committee for the MENA chapter of the 30% club to develop & promote female leadership in the region. In 2019, Farah was awarded International Investment Woman of the Year by Women in Investment Awards, London. Farah is a finance leaders fellow of the Aspen Institute. In January 2020, Farah launched TARA, speed mentoring NGO platform to connect the Education sector to the Corporate world and develop future female leaders.
Farah holds an MBA from Imperial College London and a BSc Hons in Mathematics from King’s College, London.