Richard Banks is a, financial communications and business development professional of more than 25 years experience. After graduating in 1988 from Oxford University with a degree in Politics, Philosophy and Economics, Richard worked with a number of media companies before joining Euromoney Institutional Investor plc in 1994 where he worked for four years primarily in their book publishing division.

On leaving Euromoney in early 1999 he founded his own business development consultancy, RMBanks & Co, which has since then worked in over 30 emerging and developed markets. He specialised in the Middle East from 2002 when he established a joint venture with Euromoney to develop their regional financial events portfolio.

From 2002 to 2016 the JV built the Euromoney brand into the most recognised high-quality large-scale strategic financial events business in the MENA region. Euromoney now runs the foremost annual financial conferences in, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, UAE, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and, of course, Saudi Arabia. Richard stepped back from leading the joint venture at the end of 2015 to focus on developing his advisory business. He remains the senior external editorial consultant to Euromoney Conferences in the Middle East and writes their conference agendas as well as chairing and moderating their regional events.

Richard now focuses on private clients as the UK and European Partner of Soling Partners – a boutique advisory firm. Soling advises international asset managers, corporations and Middle Eastern institutions on strategy, market access, capital raising and business development strategies in the GCC, US and Europe. Clients include: Santander Asset Management, Dodge & Cox, OMERS/M7 Real Estate, Northern Trust, Kamco Asset Management, EQRx, IVP, New View Capital, Oak Street Real Estate, IFM Investors, and Nikko Asset Management.

During his career Richard worked with many multilateral development institutions including the World Bank/IMF, MIGA, UNCTAD, UK Government and the European Commission. He has been responsible for creating training manuals for FDI and investment promotion in emerging markets as well as publishing, co-authoring and editing books on both financial and country investment. He is a frequent writer and contributor to regional and international publications with a focus on cross-border business, finance and investment.

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