What Zand’s Founding Board Shows About Choosing Independent Directors in Dubai

Four days before Zand announced that it had received its banking licence and begun onboarding customers, the Dubai bank announced its board. Its 1 July 2022 release named directors representing shareholders and three it described as independent. One was Raja Al Mazrouei, then executive vice president of DIFC FinTech Hive. Co-founder and then CEO Olivier Crespin said the board’s collective leadership experience would support the company’s approach to digital banking. The release gives a founder something specific to examine. Zand drew on several kinds of experience at the point when plans for a new bank had to become an operating business. Zand’s July 2022 board announcement Zand’s newsroom chronology

Crespin’s public comments describe the value he saw in the board as a whole. They leave each director’s contribution to future decisions open. That distinction is useful for a UAE founder considering a similar appointment. Begin with the decisions the board will face and the experience it will need to question management’s proposals. Then assess whether a candidate can bring that experience to the table and exercise judgement when a founder or shareholder takes a different view.

Why the launch board drew on different kinds of experience

Alongside Al Mazrouei, the 2022 release identified Emirates commercial executive Adnan Abdulfattah Kazim Abdulfattah and investor Talha Al-Hashimi as independent directors. It separately identified Mohamed Alabbar as chairman and shareholder and named several directors who represented investors. That mix put people with experience in fintech, large-scale customer operations and investment on a board preparing for the launch of a digital bank. A fintech accelerator executive could bring a different set of questions to a product proposal than an operator accustomed to serving customers across several channels. These are examples of what the backgrounds could contribute. The release does not assign each director a private brief. Zand’s account of the directors’ backgrounds

Zand’s current public leadership page names Michael Chan as CEO and lists Al Mazrouei among its board members. Its newsroom records Chan’s appointment in November 2022. The 2022 board release gives the original classification and Crespin’s views at launch. The current roster establishes who is listed today. It does not use the same classifications for the directors in that list. A founder reviewing a board’s composition can make the same distinction when reading public examples. An appointment announcement tells you what the organisation said at the time. The latest roster tells you who it names today, and may leave other details to a separate disclosure. Zand’s current leadership page Zand’s newsroom chronology

Start with the decisions the company is about to face

Imagine a Dubai software founder who has built an early product with two large customers. The next decisions concern whether to support a wider range of clients, spend money on delivery capacity or keep serving a narrow segment until the product is easier to deploy. A director with extensive fundraising experience may ask strong questions about what the company can afford. An operator who has brought several customers through implementation may recognise problems in the founder’s assumptions about training and support. Both perspectives can help. The board seat is easier to define once the founder identifies which decision is poorly tested by the people already in the room.

Look back at three decisions the board discussed and one that will come up in the next quarter. Write down which assumptions went unchallenged, who asked for more evidence and which information arrived too late. The exercise can show a difference between a gap in expertise and a gap in how management prepares decisions. If no one has worked through a complicated deployment, consider an operator. If the board already has the right experience but receives papers on the morning of the meeting, fix the information flow as part of the appointment. A strong director still needs time to prepare.

For a UAE fintech founder, one place to hear how people from different disciplines approach industry problems is a local event. DIFC’s November 2026 Dubai FinTech Summit brought banking, capital markets and technology leaders together. A panel or introduction can help a founder identify the sort of experience to look for. For an appointment decision, follow up with a specific discussion about how the candidate would approach an issue relevant to the business. DIFC’s account of day two of the Dubai FinTech Summit

A reel co-published by Dubai FinTech Summit and DIFC shows delegates gathered during the 2026 summit’s UAE Flag Day observance.

Ask how a candidate would challenge a plausible proposal

Give the candidate a short, fictionalised decision paper before an interview. A company might be considering a UAE distribution agreement that brings an attractive sales forecast but leaves unclear who handles service failures. State what management wants, give the facts that support it and include a few gaps. Ask what the candidate would want to know before the board took a decision. A good conversation might reveal that the founder and the candidate agree on the opportunity while seeing different exposures in the proposed contract or implementation.

Then change one fact. Imagine the partner is now offering less favourable terms because it knows the founder needs a deal this quarter. Ask how the candidate would get management to examine that change and who else should contribute. Listen for whether the person can disagree without taking the work away from management. A director may suggest a different sequence, ask for another estimate or say which facts would justify waiting. The founder can assess whether those interventions would make the next decision clearer.

Speak to references who have seen the candidate in that kind of situation. Ask them to describe how the person behaved when a promising project started to miss targets or when a founder dismissed a concern. Find out whether the candidate followed up between meetings and gave management enough space to respond. Someone may be incisive in a public discussion and have little time to do the reading a board seat demands. Ask what preparation is realistic in a normal month and how their availability changes during a difficult period.

Make potential conflicts discussable before the first meeting

A candidate with useful local relationships may know customers, investors and suppliers the business also knows. Ask about current appointments, investment interests and commercial work early enough to consider the answers before making an offer. One potential overlap may only matter for a particular agenda item. Another may be so central to the company’s plans that the candidate would regularly be absent from its most important discussions. The founder and the chair need to understand how each would affect the job they are hiring for.

For example, a candidate may have advised a supplier whose proposal will reach the board. Ask what the relationship involved, whether it is continuing and how the board would handle that item under the company’s process. Record the answer and agree who will revisit it if the relationship changes. For a regulated company or a formal appointment, work from the applicable framework and company documents. Zand’s 2022 description reflects the classification that it published for its own board at launch. A founder in a different business needs to establish the requirements for that company and the proposed appointment.

Before offering a seat, distinguish the work the person will do from other ways of getting expertise. If the company needs someone to help management design a single project, it can set a defined piece of advisory work and clarify how the advice will be used. If the need recurs at board level and involves reviewing management’s proposals over time, a formal role may fit better. An investor representative can be an experienced director while also having a relationship the company should understand. These distinctions affect what access the person needs and how the board will consider their participation when interests overlap.

One practical test is to ask what would happen if the candidate learned something material through another role. The founder may expect the director to share useful industry knowledge. The director may have a responsibility to keep certain information confidential. Discuss the limits in advance and ask the candidate to describe how they would identify the issue without exposing material they cannot share. If their contribution depends mainly on access to a particular relationship, consider what the board would gain if that relationship ended.

Also discuss how the appointment will be explained to the team. Managers should know who can request additional information and through which channel. A director with operational experience may be tempted to give direct instructions to staff after hearing about a problem. A simple agreement on requests and follow-up lets the director learn how the operation works while leaving the team clear about who sets its priorities.

Give the new director information they can use

A founder can set up a first quarter around one upcoming decision. Share the company’s current priorities, recent decisions and the basic measures management uses to run the business. Walk through one operating process with the people responsible for it. For a software company, it could be the journey from a signed customer contract to a working installation and an accepted handover. The new director can see where the company spends time and which assumptions show up later in its forecasts. Management can ask the director which measures they would need to understand a proposed change.

For the first decision paper, lead with the choice being requested. Explain what management has already tried, which options remain and what will happen if the board waits. Set out what the founder expects to see by the next review. After the meeting, record the decision and the person responsible for the follow-up. If the director asks for more evidence, make it clear whether the question has delayed a decision or whether management can proceed with a defined condition. That clarity helps keep a probing discussion from turning into a series of inconsistent instructions to staff.

The chair and founder can assess the first few meetings against specific examples. Did the new director uncover an assumption the team could test? Did management get its papers out with enough time for questions? Did the board ask for useful evidence and come back to it? If the director has a standing conflict on the decisions they were hired to examine, check whether the role still makes sense. If the issue is a mismatch between the work and the way meetings are run, change the preparation and see what that enables.

Zand’s launch announcement documents a deliberate mix of experience and a co-founder who welcomed what the board could contribute. The useful test for a UAE founder comes before the announcement. Identify a decision the existing board is struggling to examine, find a candidate who can ask better questions about it and set up the work so that the board can act on the answers.