Michael Gale - Group CEO & Director
Michael brings over 40 years of global experience in investing, venture capital, asset management and technology.
He commenced his career as a technology distributor in Asia Pacific, contributing significantly to the regional success of major US brands including Apple and Macromedia, and was at the forefront of the industry’s penetration of China in the late 1980s.
Michael spent two decades in Silicon Valley during the 1990s and 2000s as a venture investor and builder. He founded one of the first venture catalysts and the “Silicon Valley Lighthouse” which successfully brought many international companies into the Silicon Valley ecosystem. He worked through the dot-com boom and collapse and then the 2008 Global Financial Crisis.
In the 2010s significant interest in technology investment by Abu Dhabi investors brought Michael to the region. He began advising several large family investors from Abu Dhabi and Jeddah across broad asset classes and built a regulated asset management company in Zurich.
The emergence of Abu Dhabi as a global financial center created the opportunity to launch the first locally based GCC-focused investment bank – a vision that gave rise to Al Liwan.