Elaine Jones
Chair-UAE
Elaine Jones FRICS, is Chairman of Direct Debit Systems UAE, supporting and promoting the company from its initial concept to today’s fully integrated platform with the UAE Central Bank. This is the Parent Company of the newly established UK company.
Elaine keenly supports the use of technology to improve and simplify business operations and personal finance management.
In 1985 Elaine Co-Founded and subsequently grew Asteco Property Management to become the largest private multi – disciplinary property services company in the Emirates. Elaine sold Asteco to an Abu Dhabi semi government related entity in 2021.
With over 43 years of regional property market experience Elaine has, as a thought leader on emerging UAE real estate trends, been an integral and influential part of the dynamic property industry.
Elaine was elected as an Eminent Fellow of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors in 2012, the first in the Middle East.
Ummair Butt
Founder of Direct Debit
Ummair has over 23 years of experience working in and managing various businesses. He started off as an accountant for a London-based buying group where he contributed towards the Bacstel-IP platform from an industry perspective in early 2000.
Ummair started Direct Debit System LLC in UAE in 2017, with the innovative idea that a new direct debit service in the UAE must be aggregated & that APIs must be standardized. The fintech was listed in the top 24 most innovative start-ups in the UAE Government-run Innovation Fund, competing against over 800 competing pitches from around the world.
Dr. Vince Cook
Non Executive Director
Dr. Vince Cook, brings over 30 years of executive leadership experience across the financial sector, spanning retail, corporate and commercial banking, investment banking, and wealth management.
Vince’s career is defined by transformative leadership and international impact. As Managing Director for the Gulf at Barclays, he played a key role in shaping the bank’s regional strategy. He later drove Qatar National Bank’s ascent to prominence as General Manager before founding and leading the Islamic Bank of Asia in Singapore, demonstrating his ability to build a financial operation from the ground up. Most notably, he served as CEO of the National Bank of Fujairah in the UAE for nearly 15 years, steering it to significant success in an evolving financial landscape.
Beyond the financial sector, Vince is deeply engaged in corporate governance, education, and sustainability. He serves as a board member of Dubai English Speaking Schools, the UAE’s longest-established British curriculum institution, and previously held the position of President of the Board of Trustees. His commitment to advancing sustainable solutions is reflected in his role as Chairman of Sustainable Energies Scotland Ltd.
In recognition of his contributions to UK-UAE business relations and the British community in Dubai, Vince was awarded an MBE in King Charles III’s inaugural New Year’s Honours list. He holds a Doctorate in Business Administration from the University of Liverpool and is a member of the UK’s Institute of Directors.
Ahrar Naqvi
Executive Director
Ahrar Naqvi is the CEO of Ebryx, a company with presence and customers in the US, Canada, the Middle East, Europe and Pakistan. Ebryx’s R&D services power some of the world’s leading cybersecurity products and its consulting and managed security services protect organizations from leading tech startups to Fortune 500 companies. Ebryx is an innovator in Zero Trust technology for critical infrastructure protection. Before Ebryx, Ahrar held Silicon Valley based engineering leadership roles including EVP Engineering at Palmchip, a System on a Chip platform company; Chief Architect of a VoIP softswitch at Veraz Networks and a telecom product architect at Oracle. Ahrar has an MS in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University.