Professor Nassib G. Ziadé as new CEO of the Bahrain Chamber for Dispute Resolution
1 October 2013
The Board of Trustees of the Bahrain Chamber for Dispute Resolution (BCDR-AAA) announced the appointment of Nassib G. Ziadé as the Chamber’s new Chief Executive Officer (CEO), effective 1 October 2013.
A dual Lebanese and Chilean national, Prof. Ziadé has more than 15 years of executive management experience in the administration of international legal proceedings as well as in the development of regional and international tribunals. He is an expert in private and public international law, international arbitration, international investment law, international administrative law, and the law of conflicts of interest. Between 2011 and 2013, Prof. Ziadé served as the Director of the Dubai International Arbitration Centre (DIAC). Between 2007 and 2011, he was the Deputy Secretary-General of the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), and between April 2008 and June 2009 was also the Acting Secretary-General of ICSID.
Prof. Ziadé previously served as the Executive Secretary of the World Bank Administrative Tribunal from 1997 to 2007. In 1998, he was appointed as a member of the World Bank’s Grievance Process Review Committee, which reviewed and reformed the World Bank’s Internal Conflict Resolution System. In 2002, Prof. Ziadé advised the Government of Bahrain on the establishment of its Constitutional Court. He has also advised several international organizations on the establishment and functioning of their international administrative tribunals.
Shaikha Haya Bint Rashed Al Khalifa, Chair of the BCDR-AAA’s Board of Trustees, said: “Along with the entire Board, I would like to welcome Nassib Ziadé to his new role as CEO of the BCDR-AAA. He has extensive experience in the management and development of international tribunals. He will be a tremendous asset to the Chamber as it embarks on its next phase of development and growth as the region’s leading centre for the provision of ADR solutions.” Richard Naimark, Senior Vice President of the American Arbitration Association (AAA), said: “It is our honor to continue our partnership in BCDR-AAA with our long-term, respected colleague Nassib Ziadé. We are confident that our combined efforts will continue to stand for the highest quality services in ADR.”
Following the announcement, Prof. Ziadé made the following observations: “The BCDR-AAA is widely regarded as one of the region’s foremost centres of commercial arbitration and mediation. I am delighted to join such a distinguished institution, and I am looking forward tremendously to leading the Chamber’s next wave of expansion.” In describing his mandate, Prof. Ziadé stated the following: “A key focus of mine will be to bring international cases to Bahrain and to ensure that we deliver ADR services in accordance with the highest international standards. I will also be introducing a BCDR-AAA law journal which will serve as an invaluable educational resource for practitioners in the areas of international arbitration and international law.” Prof. Ziadé concluded: “The BCDR-AAA has the right ingredients for success, given Bahrain’s adoption of the UNCITRAL Model Law on International Commercial Arbitration, Bahrain’s legal assurances of immunity to arbitrators, the absence of restrictions on foreign lawyers appearing in arbitrations, and the fact that the BCDR-AAA is not controlled by any organization which could impede its operations.”
Prof. Ziadé is a member of the Court of the London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA) and a Vice-Chairman of the Advisory Committee of the Cairo Regional Centre for International Commercial Arbitration (CRCICA). He is a member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA), a member of the Panels of Arbitrators and Conciliators of ICSID, and a Council member of the International Federation of Commercial Arbitration Institutions (IFCAI). He has also served as a member of the Conflicts of Interest Subcommittee of the International Bar Association (IBA) Arbitration Committee since 2012.
Prof. Ziadé has published extensively in the fields of international law and arbitration law. He has organized several high-profile international colloquia and is a frequent speaker on a diverse range of legal topics at conferences in the Arab world, Europe, Latin America and the United States. He has been a Visiting Professor at the University of Miami School of Law since 2010. He was a Professor at the Faculty of Law of Saint-Joseph University’s Dubai campus in 2013, and a Visiting Professor at the University of Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne in 2011. Prof. Ziadé is a member of the Advisory Council of the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law at the University of Cambridge. He delivered a course in 2012 at The Hague Academy of International Law on “the independence of arbitral bodies established in the framework of international organizations.” In 2013, he conducted a workshop on arbitration at the Paris Academy for Arbitration Law. He is a former Editor-in-Chief of the ICSID Review—Foreign Investment Law Journal, a long-standing member of the Editorial Advisory Committee of International Legal Materials, and a member of the Editorial Committee of the International Journal of Arab Arbitration.
Prof. Ziadé studied private and public law, as well as international law, administrative and political science, and business administration at Saint-Joseph (French) University in Beirut, the American University of Beirut, Cambridge University and the University of Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne. He is fluent in Arabic, English and French, and he has a working knowledge of Spanish.
Since its launch in 2010, the BCDR-AAA has provided international, regional and domestic commercial and governmental users contracting in the Gulf and beyond with comprehensive services for the rapid and effective resolution of commercial disputes. Its work was reinforced by a ruling in December 2012 that a judgment awarded by the Chamber is equivalent to a national court judgment and is enforceable in New York.