Elissar Farah Antonios is Chief Executive Officer of Citi UAE and Cluster Head for Levant & Iraq. A seasoned international banker, with 29 years experience in the financial industry and the region, Elissar leads Citi’s largest and most diverse franchise in the Middle East and Africa. Elissar joined Citi in 2005 as Head of Private Banking in Abu Dhabi and later served as CEO for Citibank Lebanon. In December 2015 she was appointed as CEO of Citibank UAE, and her responsibilities recently expanded to becoming the Cluster Head for UAE, Levant & Iraq. Her banking career started in 1990 in the London office of Republic National Bank of New York as a Management Associate covering the Wealth Management Middle East Desk. She then spent several years with Credit Agricole Indosuez (CALYON) in Abu Dhabi and Dubai and with ABN AMRO Private Bank covering both Abu Dhabi and Egypt. Her MBA is from Imperial College in London where her thesis dealt with predicting turning points in foreign exchange. She has a Bachelor degree in Mathematics from American University in Beirut and is fluent in Arabic, English and French.