Responsible Investors

We are leading the charge towards a healthier, more connected population with easy access to world-class care.

Who We Are

Nexus Gulf is a premier specialized healthcare investment and development platform in the KSA and the wider GCC region. Backed by deep sector expertise, a proven track record in building and operating healthcare businesses globally, and an extensive network of international clinical partners, Nexus is shaping the future of healthcare in the region.

Nexus Gulf is part of Safanad and is its first investment in KSA under Safanad Healthcare. Safanad is a SEC and DFSA regulated global principal investor which has deployed over $10bn across its Healthcare, Education, Digital Infra, and Real Estate platforms in the US and UK, with ambitious growth plans in the Kingdom and broader GCC.

In strategic partnership with Safanad, Nexus brings together world-class healthcare investment capabilities with on-the-ground operational expertise to develop, operate, and scale high-quality specialized healthcare businesses in the region.

As a strategic partner of choice to international healthcare groups, we bridge global expertise with local market knowledge, combining institutional-grade standards of professionalism with a hands-on operational attitude, to ensure that every investment we make delivers both sustainable impact and exceptional returns. 

Commitment

Our commitment to accelerate sustainable growth through quality, socially and environmentally responsible investments
and to develop the local knowledge economy is what drives us.

Our goal is to enable the development of a globally recognized healthcare system. Nexus Gulf Healthcare actively supports Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030, and other strategic Government policies across the region that encourage investment and participation in developing and delivering integrated healthcare services.

Vision

To be the leading specialized healthcare investment and development platform in the region, pioneering innovative, scalable, and impactful healthcare solutions that elevate standards of care and drive sustainable growth.

Mission

To build and scale world-class specialized healthcare businesses in KSA and the wider GCC region, delivering high-quality patient care while creating value for investors, operators, and healthcare stakeholders.

Core Values

Partnership. We collaborate with leading global and regional healthcare providers to bring expertise and best practices to the region.

Integrity. We operate with transparency and accountability in all aspects of our work.

Excellence. We adhere to the highest standards in healthcare investment, operations, and patient care.

Impact-Driven. We focus on investments that deliver measurable improvements in healthcare access, quality, and outcomes.

Innovation. We leverage global expertise and insights to shape the future of healthcare in the region.

Sami Al Angari

Chairman

An experienced business leader, Mr. Alangari is Vice Chairman and CEO of Algihaz Holding, a multi-sector, multi-billion Saudi Riyal, 46-year-old business headquartered in Saudi Arabia. Mr. Alangari has a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals and has diversified Algihaz to be one of the leading Holding groups in Saudi Arabia investing in renewable energy. Through Mr. Alangari’s stewardship, Algihaz Holding has a growing international investment portfolio across six sectors: Infrastructure, Renewable Energy, Healthcare, Experiential, Advanced Technology and Real Estate.

We created Nexus Gulf Healthcare on the belief that it is our responsibility as a key player in the Saudi private market to use our capabilities to the benefit of Saudi society, helping to improve the standard of care for our people. We have set out ambitious goals and are well on track to introducing transformative change to the national healthcare landscape.

Board of Directors

Kamal Bahamdan

Founder & CEO Safanad

Ziad Dannaoui

Partner at Safanad

Faisal Rahman

Partner at Safanad

Youssef Haidar

Founder and Executive Director

Renan Baroukh

Chief Finance & Investments Officer

Leadership Team

Youssef Haidar

Founder and Executive Director

Mr. Haidar’s career spans over 25 years in private equity, principal investing and advisory services, out of which 22 years in the MENA region. Youssef acted as lead investor and supported the regional growth of 8 leading international healthcare companies and realized multiple high profile exits in the healthcare and education fields. 

Youssef founded StonePine Capital Partners in 2016, and subsequently founded Nexus Gulf Healthcare. He continues to lead both organizations today. Mr Haidar also chairs the Investment Committee of ACE&Company; a leading investment manager based in Geneva. 

Youssef has held multiple board positions in portfolio companies he invested in including: Taaleem/Nahda University (NUB), Nexus Gulf, Al Takhasoosi Alliance, Orpea AlGihaz Healthcare, Nerhadou Pharmaceuticals, Cerba Nexus Gulf, ProVita International Medical Center, Cambridge Medical and Rehabilitation, Manzil Healthcare Services, Bourn Hall International and Ameco Medical Industries

The Saudi healthcare market is undergoing a profound transformation, creating unprecedented opportunities for international operators. At Nexus Gulf Healthcare, we recognize the immense potential to build and scale specialized healthcare businesses at speed, bringing world-class expertise to a region poised for rapid growth.

Renan Baroukh

Chief Finance & Investments Officer

Renan Baroukh has over 15 years experience in strategy, investment and CFO roles in healthcare in the Middle East, having successfully established and led the strategy and finance function of multiple healthcare companies. He played a central role in the development of Nexus Gulf’s healthcare platforms, acting as CFO, supporting the development of clinical partnerships and working closely with management teams to develop and implement their strategies.

Renan started his career in Dubai in strategy consulting at Booz & Company where he advised regional and international organizations with a particular focus on the Healthcare sector, working on large scale clinical integrations, M&A integration and population health management.

Renan holds a bachelor degree with distinction from HEC Montreal, and an MBA from Harvard Business School. 

We have designed Nexus Gulf Healthcare to abide by the highest international standards of governance and professionalism, which set us apart and have been central to attracting internationally recognized partners. As a leader in the healthcare investment and development space, we are committed to reflecting the best management practices our region has to offer.

Kamal Bahamdan

Founder & CEO Safanand

Kamal Abdullah Bahamdan is an entrepreneur and investor with a 25-year career establishing and growing businesses around the world. Simultaneous to his business career, Kamal is a competitive athlete. 

He is a five-time Olympic equestrian and bronze medal winner in the London 2012 Olympic Games. Across his professional and sporting endeavors, Kamal is driven by a relentless focus on lifelong learning, excellence, and a determination to push beyond boundaries. His success has been complemented by his ability to attract the very best talent and build industry-leading teams that support him in executing his vision be it in business, sport, or philanthropy.

Currently, Kamal is the Vice Chairman of the Bahamdan Group and Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Safanad, a New-York based, global principal-led investment house established in 2009. Throughout his career, Kamal has created numerous world-class platforms across education, healthcare, financial services, technology, telecommunications, and digital infrastructure, among others. He has a rigorous approach to investing that starts with assessing unfolding macro trends and their resulting micro dislocations. He then identifies opportunities to address business and social challenges that have emerged. With an owner-operator mindset, he brings the ecosystems, networks, and key talent to bear to build scalable platforms. Kamal has leveraged this approach to launch greenfield and start-up ventures, assemble and scale businesses through a buy and build approach, and manage challenging and complex turnaround and restructuring situations across the US, Europe, Asia, and Middle East. He has replicated this success time and again including during some of the most turbulent market events of the past three decades.

Most recently, under his leadership, Safanad has executed over $10 billion in transactions and established multiple market-leading platforms. These include a fast growing K-12 education company with over 50,000 students worldwide, which was established to capture opportunities from increasing demand for high-quality private education globally, the UK’s largest care home operator, which was acquired as part of a restructuring process, turned around and scaled, and a leading US-based datacenter operator that was built after identifying the need for co-location datacenter operators and then executing additional bolt-on acquisitions to grow the business. He has also led sizable investments that have created multiple operationally-intensive real estate platforms across the US.

Prior to Safanad, Kamal was the CEO of the Bahamdan Group, a family-owned global investment group with a 70-year history of investing in the Middle East and global markets, and previously co-founded the Washington, DC-based private equity firm BV Group.

At the Bahamdan Group, Kamal led a major turnaround of an industrial and consumer goods portfolio which included a water bottling company, repositioning the business from significant distress into a market leader, acquired, turned around, and significantly expanded a petrol station chain by increasing the sophistication in its real estate strategy and adding quality adjacent services and retail before exiting to one of the world’s largest energy companies, and created a telecommunications company in the first wave of the industry’s liberalization, before leading a complex nine-way merger and exiting to Saudi Arabia’s leading mobile operator. He also built one of the largest private school operators in the Kingdom and. served as an early investor in the world’s largest online education company supporting the company’s expansion into MENA through the launch of the region’s first online school.

Similarly, at the BV Group, Kamal led the early identification of numerous greenfield and buy-and-build opportunities across real estate, technology, education and other areas in the US, Europe, and Asia. Key among these include the 2002 launch of a $1.0B property-focused real estate fund to acquire US government real estate and capitalize on the rapid growth in the size and scale of the federal government, investment in a credit research firm that was transformed into a market leader, seizing on the emergence of the tech industry and impact of increasing data on society, and investing early in a higher education company that has served millions of students in response to a growing need for high-quality and affordable university education globally.

Beyond making investments across his businesses into social-impact sectors for more than 20 years, Kamal is an education philanthropist. With an aim to giving children the best chance to succeed, he is dedicated to supporting early childhood development through his contributions to numerous initiatives and related organizations in the Middle East and globally. In 2022, he endowed the Bahamdan Professorship for Early Childhood Well-Being at Boston University, his alma matter, supporting greater research and innovation in the field, and serves on the Wheelock College of Education’s Dean’s Advisory Board.

He is also an active participant in global forums focused on enhancing quality and access to education including serving as a member of the B20 Taskforce on Education and Employment for both the 2020 G20 meeting in Saudi Arabia and 2021 meeting in Italy. Kamal is also a member of the Swedish-Saudi Business Council’s Education Committee.

In 2006, Kamal was recognized as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum and holds a BSc in Manufacturing Engineering from Boston University.

Ziad Dannaoui

Partner at Safanad

Ziad Dannaoui is a Senior Partner at Safanad and a member of the firm’s Investment and Executive Committees.

Prior to assuming his current role in 2016, Mr. Dannaoui served as the Head of Investments for Safanad and was responsible for overseeing all investment activities.. Prior to joining Safanad, Mr. Dannaoui was the Head of Investments at Bahamdan Group and was previously a Managing Partner of a Middle East Law Firm.

Mr. Dannaoui holds an LL.M. degree from the James E. Rogers School of Law and an LL.B. degree from the Holy Spirit University School of Law.

Faisal Rahman

Partner at Safanad

Faisal Rehman is responsible for overseeing all global transaction activity and financing solutions for Safanad. Faisal is based in Dubai and spends significant time in our Riyadh, London, and New York offices. 

Faisal’s career spans 20 years at Deutsche Bank where he worked in the Sydney, London, Riyadh, and Dubai offices of the bank across Corporate Finance Advisory, Leveraged Finance, Equity & Debt Capital Markets and cross-asset class Securities Origination. Faisal was most recently Managing Partner at the Softbank Vision Fund, where he oversaw all MENA investments, global debt capital markets, and was a key transaction execution and structuring partner for Softbank. He serves on the Board of multiple US, UK and GCC technology companies. Faisal also serves on the Advisory Board of the Dubai Chamber of Digital Economy. He is a graduate of the LSE and a chartered account.