Dr. Mattar is the Chief Executive Officer of Excella and the Chair of the Board of Governors. Excella focuses on establishing private schools offering a variety of curricula in the GCC region.

Dr. Mattar was a Managing Partner at MMK Capital, a DFSA regulated investment management and advisory firm focusing on private equity and real estate investment. He has extensive experience in asset management and investment banking focusing on the GCC region.  

Dr. Mattar formerly served as the CEO of CAPM Investment (a UAE central bank regulated investment bank) and FH Capital (a DFSA regulated investment bank), part of Finance House Group. He also oversaw Finance House’s investment book as the group CIO.

He was the Head of Research and Chief Economist of CAPM Investment and prior to that of SHUAA Capital, where he oversaw the economics and equity research covering the MENA region and was also a member of SHUAA Capital’s management committee. Dr. Mattar was the Director of Financial Markets Division at the Dubai International Financial Centre Authority (DIFC). Prior to his banking career, Dr. Mattar pursued a career as an academic, as a Professor of Finance at the American University of Beirut, the American University of Sharjah, as well as at the Center for Technology, Policy, and Industrial Development (CTPID) at MIT.

He holds a Doctorate in Risk Management from the Sloan School of Management at MIT, a Master of Science in Construction Finance from MIT, and a Bachelor of Engineering from the American University of Beirut.