The launch of Arqaam Academy started not with a ceremony but with a test. Every one of the 25 people who began the programme on 12 October had already built a valuation, argued a recommendation, and sat through two rounds of panel interviews to win the seat. That detail sets the tone for what the firm wants the platform to be.
Inside the launch of Arqaam Academy
Arqaam Capital, the Dubai-based emerging markets investment bank whose research reaches across MENA, built the Academy to close a gap it understands from the inside. New graduates tend to arrive with theory and little feel for how the job runs hour to hour. Heba AlHusseiny, Partner, Human Capital Management at the firm, framed it as a question of time. The theory is there, she said, but the practice can take a year or more to pick up on the job. In her words, the programme gives participants “that grounding in seven weeks, taught by the people who do this work every day.”
Heba AlHusseiny, Partner, Human Capital Management at Arqaam Capital, said: “Graduates arrive in finance with strong theory but little exposure to how the work is actually done, and that gap usually takes a year or more on the job to close. The Arqaam Analyst Programme gives our participants that grounding in seven weeks, taught by the people who do this work every day. As a firm built from the region, for the region, we believe investing in young talent is how we help shape the economies of tomorrow. This first cohort marks the start of a permanent platform to develop the next generation of change makers in the region’s capital markets, with planning for the next cohort already under way.“
A cohort chosen with care
Competition for a place was real. Candidates wrote a case study, built a valuation, and defended an investment call before two interview panels. The first group represents 17 universities and business schools, among them the London School of Economics, Imperial College London, Oxford, INSEAD and Bocconi. More than 16 nationalities share the room, and selection leaned deliberately toward gender balance. For a seven-week Arqaam Analyst Programme, that is a wide net.
What the seven weeks cover
Teaching falls into two halves. The first four weeks move through three-statement modelling and valuation, from discounted cash flow to comparable companies and precedent transactions, then into mergers, acquisitions and leveraged buyouts. Sector research, live investment simulations and a module on AI in finance run alongside. The next three weeks are led by Geoff Robinson, founder of TheInvestmentAnalyst.com and a former managing director at UBS, where he led the Global Fundamental Analytics franchise and developed the UBS Research Academy.
His weeks cover advanced valuation, deal structuring, fixed income and MENA debt markets, equity research, report writing and pitchbook work. In the final week, participants present company recommendations to senior management. Classes run at the DIFC Academy in Gate Village, with sessions at Arqaam’s offices in Index Tower.
Why it matters beyond one cohort
An investment banking analyst programme in Dubai is usually run inside a global bank. Arqaam is doing it as a regional house, founded in 2007, that serves more than 1,500 institutional clients and covers over 230 listed companies. The launch of Arqaam Academy puts that research depth to work on training, not only on client coverage. Everyone who finishes earns an Academy certificate. Strong performers will be considered for full-time analyst roles, and others for internships.
For a firm that calls itself built from the region, for the region, the launch of Arqaam Academy reads as a bet that it can make its next analysts at home. Planning for the second cohort is already underway.
About Arqaam Academy
Arqaam Academy is the learning and development platform of Arqaam Capital, a regional investment bank headquartered in Dubai’s International Financial Centre. Building on the firm’s internal learning experience, the Academy brings practical industry knowledge to emerging talent and institutional partners through structured programmes, technical training and professional development.
The Academy connects learning with the realities of financial markets, drawing on the expertise of Arqaam’s practitioners to develop technical capability, commercial understanding and professional confidence.
About Arqaam Capital
Founded in 2007 and headquartered in the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), Arqaam Capital is a fully fledged institutional investment bank focused on the emerging and frontier markets of the Middle East and North Africa. With offices across four key markets: the United Arab Emirates, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the Arab Republic of Egypt and the Republic of Lebanon, the firm operates at the intersection of the GCC, the Levant and North Africa, positioned directly across the region’s principal capital corridors.
Arqaam Capital serves more than 1,500 institutional clients globally, including sovereign wealth funds, global asset managers, family offices, corporates and pension funds. It operates one of the largest research platforms in the region, with active coverage of more than 230 listed companies across MENA, giving global investors and regional principals one of the most comprehensive views of listed corporate activity in the region.
Arqaam’s capabilities span the full institutional spectrum: asset management, equities, fixed income, investment banking, equity and debt capital markets, structured debt, wealth management, electronic trading and corporate finance. The firm connects global capital to the markets others overlook, giving international allocators real access and on-the-ground insight across MENA, and giving the region’s issuers a route to global capital executed with institutional discipline.
