Khadeja Khalifa Al Zarraa joined the Qatar Financial Centre Regulatory Authority (QFCRA) as Associate Director, Legal in February 2023. She was appointed as the Director of Legal in July 2024.

Prior to joining the QFCRA, Ms Al Zarraa worked at Al-Ansari and Associates, one of Qatar’s top law firms as a bilingual attorney specializing in litigation dispute resolution, regulatory compliance, and general corporate and commercial advisory work. There, she assisted clients with establishing companies with the Ministry of Commercial & Industry and Qatar Financial Centre; administered and represented clients in a multimillion arbitration construction dispute before the ICC International Court of Arbitration and delivered legal support in employment-related matters and human resources, corporate governance and regulatory compliance.

During her tenure at Al-Ansari and Associates, Ms Al Zarraa worked on drafting and negotiating Law No. (10) of 2021 regarding the Measures for Hosting the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022

and advised the Supreme Committee Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy (SC) and FIFA on compliance and operational issues in relation to the tournament, including but not limited to accommodation, ticketing, taxation, banking and foreign exchange operations, commercial rights, trademark and data protection issues.

Prior to that, Ms Al Zarraa worked with Qatar Gas (now known as QatarGas), Al Jazeera Media Network and Qatar Sports Arbitration Foundation. She was also appointed as an arbitrator on several cases before the Qatar Sports Arbitration Foundation.

Ms Al Zarraa is a licensed attorney and counsellor at law before the court of the State of New York, USA and is a Court of Cassation attorney in Qatar. She holds a Master of Law (LL.M) in International Dispute Resolution from Fordham University, New York, USA and a Bachelor of Law (LL.B) from Qatar University.

Terence joined the QFCRA in 2022 as Associate Director and was appointed Director of Legislative Counsel in July 2024.

As head of the Legislative Counsel team, Mr Kowal is responsible for the drafting and publication of all QFCRA Rules and Regulations. His team also works in collaboration with other regulatory bodies in Qatar assisting with the drafting of new and revised Rules and Regulations for those bodies.

Mr Kowal has over 25 years of experience in legislative drafting. He has worked for the His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs and the Treasury in the UK on income tax, taxation of oil and gas revenues and personal tax credits. He then moved to the Scottish Government as Parliamentary Counsel responsible for drafting legislation in areas such as bankruptcy, property law, arbitration and the hosting of major events (the Glasgow Commonwealth Games 2014).

Following a secondment as Head of Policy and Legal in the Office of the First Minister of Scotland, Mr Kowal moved to the Welsh Government as Director in the Legislative Counsel department where he was responsible for drafting legislation on taxation of property transactions, tax infrastructure, transport and domestication of EU law following the UK’s exit from the European Union.
In addition, Mr Kowal was the lead counsel involved in drafting the Welsh Government’s legislative response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mr Kowal holds a Bachelor Of Laws (LLB) (Hons) degree and a Postgraduate Diploma in Professional Legal Practice from the University of Edinburgh in the UK and a Diploma in Executive Education from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University in the USA.

Andrew Lowe was appointed Director of Enforcement in the Policy and Enforcement division in March 2017. He joined the QFC Regulatory Authority from Standard Chartered Bank in Singapore, where he had global responsibility for the bank’s significant investigations, forensics and asset tracing cases and overall responsibility for the Standard Chartered whistleblowing channel. In addition to conducting numerous investigation cases for the bank, he established new functions and capabilities relating to anti-bribery and corruption, whistleblowing regime, data leakage

and confidential data compromise, and investigation training. Prior to Standard Chartered, Mr Lowe spent four years at the Regulatory Authority on the Legal and Regulatory Compliance team.

He holds a Bachelor of Laws (majors in Corporate and Commercial Law), from the Australian National University and a Bachelor of Science from the University of Queensland. Additionally he holds Graduate Diplomas in Legal Practice and Corporate Governance, and Graduate Certification in Applied Finance and Investment (FINISIA).

Shaun Swan joined the QFC Regulatory Authority in August 2007 as Associate Director and was appointed Director of Policy in January 2015. His role involves the oversight and management of the Policy department and delivery of the department work programme. Another key aspect of Mr Swan’s job at the Regulatory Authority involves ongoing cross-divisional collaboration and engagement. In many cases, the department’s work also extends out to collaboration with State agencies such as the Qatar Central Bank, Qatar Financial Markets Authority and the National Anti-Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing Committee.

In his time at the QFC Regulatory Authority, Mr Swan has worked on the design and

implementation of Regulatory Authority rules across a wide range of financial sectors and regulatory initiatives. Projects of note include regulatory rules for Prudential Banking, Collective Investments Schemes, AML/CFT and Training and Competency.

Mr Swan holds a Bachelor’s degree in social sciences from Nottingham University (UK) and a Master’s degree in Banking from Bangor University (UK). Prior to working at the QFC Regulatory Authority, he held policy positions at the Financial Services Authority, the Financial Services Compensation Scheme and Deloitte’s regulatory consulting division.

Maryam Mohammed is currently the Director of International Cooperation at the QFCRA. She joined the QFCRA in 2009 as part of the Graduate programme in the Policy and Enforcement division.
 

With over 15 years of experience at the QFCRA, Ms Mohammed has experience in policy development, with a particular focus on international organisations and cooperation. Her role involves the oversight and management of the International Cooperation team, which focuses on the Regulatory Authority’s membership and participation in international organisations, management of regulatory requests from foreign regulators and negotiation of cooperation agreements. Additionally, Ms Mohammed works on the development and implementation of consumer education programmes such as Global Money Week and World Investor Week.

In 2017, Ms Mohammed was seconded to PwC’s Dubai’s financial services consulting team where she provided advise on the development of a financial centre in Asia. She also gained consulting experience during her MBA, through providing strategic advice to the senior management of one of the largest retail companies in Guangzhou, China.

Ms Mohammed holds a BA in Politics from Kingston University in the United Kingdom and a Master in Business Administration from ESSEC Business School in France and Singapore.