Barakat joins from Credit Suisse Abu Dhabi where he was director of private banking and head of the Abu Dhabi representative office. Prior to this he worked at Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank as head of wealth management group where his responsibilities included heading wealth management product development.

In his new role, effective 25 July, Barakat will be based in Dubai and report to Tamer Rashad, head of Middle East at Merrill Lynch Wealth Management. He will be responsible for helping to grow Merrill Lynch’s UAE wealth management business and further enhancing the offering to clients.

The appointment of Barakat follows the recent hires of Leila Alameddine as market manager for Levant, Shereen Ghobrial as regional sales manager and Utku Balik as business strategy and initiatives execution manager.

Merrill Lynch Wealth Management’s Middle East team operates in Bahrain, Beirut, Dubai, Geneva, London, Monte Carlo and Riyadh.