Mohammad Asif SOOLTANGOS, Legal Counsel &Human Resources Director

Asifhas completed abachelor degreein Law and Political Science from Paris Sorbonne University on their Abu Dhabi campus in 2012. He moved to Paris for a Masters degree in Business law in 2013 and specialized himself as a corporate lawyer with a Masters degree in2014 from the University Paris V René Descartes. Asif has also followed a diploma course in UAE labor law from the law firm Pinsent Mansons in 2018.

His professional debut was in the law firm Uteem Chambers in Mauritius where he worked mainly in corporate law and the Global Business sector (Offshore).

He joined Phoenix Precious Metals DMCC in Dubaiin 2017where he served as an in-houselegal counsel and overviewed the Human Resources Department. During his time, he has acquired extensive experience in the UAE legal and compliance framework.

His areas of expertise would be mergers & acquisition, corporate set up and structuring, cross border deals negotiation, corporate finance and overall compliance.

His sectors of predilection among others would be Precious Metals Trading, Precious Metals Mining, Precious Metal Refining, Aviation, Banking and Money Exchange Business, Security and Value in Transit.

Aslam holds a Fellowship with the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (UK) since 2006 after having graduated in 1997. He gained audit experience in Mauritius with PWC (Pricewaterhouse Coopers) and worked as a Finance Director for two vertically integrated textile manufacturing company.

In 2002, Aslam embarked on an international career with G4S in Ivory Coast acting as FD and interim MD. Within 3 years his responsibility spanned from single country to multi country as he was tasked to look after 7 countries in West Africa based out of Morocco. During that time, he also worked as FD in London with G4S Global Risks, the risk management arm of G4S. Aslam’s span of responsibility kept growing and when he left G4S early 2014, he was the Regional Finance Director for the North and West Africa clusterlooking after 13 countries, based out of Dubai.

In May 2014, Aslam joined MSS/Phoenix as CFO of the group of companies. From the time Aslam joined the group, revenue grew from circa USD10m to USD 0.5 bn in the last financial year.

Aslam’s core areas of expertise include accounting and financial management, strategic planning, business development and organisational turnaround, cross border acquisitions, new country entry, mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and due diligence with industry’s best practices, devising business strategy, systems and procedure development, and organizational planning with specialization in budgeting, forecasting and valuation techniques, creating robust strategies.

Aslam has experience in multi-faceted industries and agility to adapt to new industries by simplifying the complex. An adept of disruptive strategy.

In October 2018, Aslam was honored with second place in the “Emerging CFO of the Year” Award at the annual Naseba MENA CFO Strategies Forum in Dubai. This award celebrates notable Chief Financial Officers in the Middle East and North Africa Region (MENA) who have proven their innovative use of Information Technology, excelled in compliance with relevant laws, regulations, contractual agreements and policies, and proved strong governance over their company’s operational excellence.

Proficient and result-driven accounting professional, holding bachelor’s degree major in Accountancy, offering 7-year experience in Financial and Management Accounting. Well-organized and resourceful, capable of coordinating schedules and managing closings. Effective communicator and relationship-builder with top strengths in multi-tasking and prioritization.

Worked with MSS-Phoenix group in the last 7 years where she mainly handled financial statements consolidation, intercompany balance reconciliations, compliance and external audits, and VAT return filings.