IMF | METAC

Prior to joining METAC in September 2021, Holger Floerkemeier was Deputy Director of the Joint Vienna Institute (JVI). From 2013 to 2017, he worked as Deputy Division Chief in the IMF’s Institute for Capacity Development, leading the Regional Technical Assistance Center (RTAC) team. Having joined the International Monetary Fund in 2002, he has held positions in the African, the European, and the Middle East and Central Asian Departments, working on IMF-supported programs and surveillance relations in close to 20 member countries. Before joining the IMF, he was an assistant professor for statistics and empirical economic research at University of Freiburg, Germany, and worked in several roles in the market research field. Holger is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA).

Mr. Djamel Bouhabel, joined METAC in February 2022. He has more than 25 years experience in customs administration and international trade. Before joining METAC, he served in different technical and managerial positions at the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) for more than 22 years. Djamel’s professional experience covers multiple facets of customs administration, including, commercial import processing, tariff classification, customs valuation and transfer pricing, rules of origin, drawbacks, exonerations, audit, and investigations. He has significant experience as an international expert in customs and trade facilitation. He delivered technical assistance on customs reform and modernization projects in more than a dozen countries in Africa, the Caribbean, and the MENA region. Djamel has experience in developing, reviewing, and updating commercial compliance verification manuals, programs, and standard operational procedures (SOPs). As a certified training specialist, he delivered training in a wide range of technical customs issues. Djamel has a master’s level education in economics and finance.

Ms. Nehmat Hantas, a Lebanese national, joined METAC in January 2022. She has 25 years of professional experience in banking supervision with the Banking Control Commission of Lebanon (BCCL). Prior to joining METAC, she was leading the offsite supervision division at BCCL. She has also established, in 2014, the macro-prudential and regulation department at BCCL. During her career in supervision, she played an active role in the development of supervisory tools, methodologies, local regulatory frameworks, and implementation supervisory guidelines in line with Basel, FSB, and IFRS standards and other international supervisory best practices. She was a member in core committees related to financial stability, supervisory strategy, and bank restructuring. She was also a speaker in several trainings delivered to supervisors in Lebanon and in the region. Nehmat holds a master’s degree in money and banking from the American University of Beirut.

Mr. Benoit Wiest joined METAC on October 1, 2019. He has 15 years of experience in various PFM areas. Previously, he was an economist at the IMF’s Fiscal Affairs Department, where he coordinated and delivered PFM TA in Africa and South East Asia. He also held the position of IMF fiscal economist for Côte d’Ivoire. Before he joined the IMF, Mr. Wiest held various positions at the Financial Audit team at the French Court of Accounts, and was an auditor in the private sector. He holds a master’s degree in PFM from Paris-Dauphine university and is an alumnus of Sciences-Po Paris and Paris 2 Panthéon–Assas.

Mr. Jonas Frank, a German national, joined METAC on November 1, 2019. He has 20 years of professional experience on a wide range of PFM issues. Previously, he was Deputy Head of the Macroeconomic Support Division at the Swiss Secretariat of Economic Affairs, overseeing operations in MENA, Eastern Europe, and Central Asia. He also worked for ten years at the World Bank, focusing on public investment management and fiscal decentralization, and co-led the Decentralization and Subnational Finance Thematic Group. Mr. Frank holds a Doctorate in Economics and Social Sciences from the University of Potsdam (Germany).

Ms. Fadia Sakr, a Lebanese national, joined METAC on September 14, 2020. She has more than 19 years of professional experience in revenue administration, of which 17 with the tax administration of Lebanon, and covering a wide range of taxation issues, including tax policy design, compliance, audit, and strategic planning. In the past two years, Ms. Sakr was a resident expert with the Tax Authority of the Sultanate of Oman, where she helped in the regulatory and legislative areas, organisation structure, development of information technology to support tax procedures, development of risk management strategies, and providing training to staff of the Authority. In addition, Ms. Sakr brings to METAC important communication skills as she has worked with parliamentarians and bilateral and international organisations, has a deep knowledge of the MENA region, has private sector experience working part-time for big consulting firms on tax reforms in the GCC region, and language skills as she is fluent in Arabic, French and English.

Mr. Issam Alsammak, a Canadian national with over 15 years of experience in national accounts, has been METAC’s resident advisor on Real Sector Statistics since October 2018. Prior to joining METAC, Mr. Alsammak was Assistant Director at Statistics Canada’s Industry Accounts Division, were he was primarily responsible for the compilation of the annual national and regional supply and use tables; the reconciliation of the income and expenditure accounts with the benchmark estimates; and the development of other statistical products such as Canada’s transportation satellite account. Mr. Alsammak professional experience also included delivering technical assistance to countries in the Caribbean as part of a Canada-funded project to advance national accounts statistics in the region. Mr. Alsammak is a graduate of McGill University in Montreal, Canada.

Mr. Peter El Sharoni enjoys more than 18 years of experience in the fields of AML/CFT and banking supervision, He comes from the Middle East and North Africa Financial Action Task Force (MENAFATF) where he was an Executive Officer for Policy Development and Quality Assurance.  He was mainly responsible for overseeing and contributing to the work related to the development and review of the AML/CFT policies and ensuring quality and consistency of AML/CFT mutual evaluation reports, follow-up reports and technical documents. He also worked as a Short-Term Expert for the IMF and provided technical assistance to several countries in the Middle East.  He previously held the position of Assistant Manager in the Research and Strategic Analysis Department at the Egyptian Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Combating Unit (EMLCU) which was preceded by other roles at the EMLCU and the Central Bank of Egypt. He is also an instructor and speaker in various fora since 2005 and was an author of a number of specialized AML/CFT training programs. Peter holds both CBA (Certified Bank Auditor) and CAMS (Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist) certificates.