Ruth Forbes joined IFAC’s Professional Accountants in Business (PAIB) Advisory Group in January 2024. She was nominated by the Institute of Management Accountants (IMA).

Ruth Forbes is President and CEO of FortisTCI in the Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI) and is one of the few female CEOs in the utility sector serving the Caribbean region. Under her leadership, FortisTCI is focused on achieving a supportive regulatory environment to transition to a greener, smarter energy future. 

Prior to assuming the leadership role, Mrs. Forbes was Senior Vice President of Corporate Services, Chief Financial Officer, and Company Secretary and has 17 years of experience in utilities. She has been instrumental in driving transformative change and innovation, having had oversight of several business functions, including finance, internal audit, legal, information technology, customer service, corporate communications, human resources, and supply chain management.
 
Mrs. Forbes has a Bachelor’s degree in Accounting from Barry University. She holds the Certified Management Accountant (CMA) and Certified Public Accountant (CPA) designations. Mrs. Forbes also completed the Directors Education Program and received the ICD.D designation from the Institute of Corporate Directors through the University of Toronto - Rotman School of Management.
 
She serves as a Director on the boards of FortisOntario and Fortis Belize Limited and is also a Director on the board of The Caribbean Electric Utility Services Corporation (CARILEC). She has served for almost three years as the Governor’s Appointed Member to the Public Accounts Committee of the Turks and Caicos Islands.
 
Mrs. Forbes is a devout philanthropist and founder of “Jewels Ablaze”, a not-for-profit organization that empowers and supports girls and women.

3:00 PM - 4:30 PM CET 

Charles Xuereb became a member of the Professional Accountants in Business Advisory Group in 2024. He was nominated by the Malta Institute of Accountants. He is CEO of Trident Estates Plc.

Charles started off his professional career with PricewaterhouseCoopers as an auditor.  In 1995, he joined Simonds Farsons Cisk plc (“SFC”), a company listed on the Malta Stock Exchange, as Chief Accountant of a subgroup operating franchised foods outlets (Pizza Hut©, Burger King©, KFC© and TGIF©). Subsequently, he was appointed SFC’s Group Financial Services Manager and in 2004, following the acquisition of the food importation arm, he was assigned the key task of integrating the newly acquired company’s finance systems within the Group.  He was appointed Financial Controller whilst retaining the overall finance responsibility of the franchised foods business.

In 2005, Charles was appointed SFC’s Group Chief Financial Officer (CFO) that included the responsibility for the Group’s overall financial management, direction and governance as well as the Group’s Credit Control, Information Technology and Business Services.  He also served as a member of the Group Executive Board and sat on the Board of ten companies within the SFC Group.

In 2017, he was appointed Chief Executive Officer of Trident Estates plc, a property group that was spun-off as a separate listed entity on the Malta Stock Exchange in 2018.  He spearheaded the development of Trident Park, a €66 million green office campus developed on a historic site, a landmark Art Deco industrial facility, creating a space that embraces both contemporary design and state-of-the-art technology while also preserving and even celebrating the original site’s heritage and context, developing 43% of the developable land available.

Charles is a Certified Public Accountant and a Fellow of the Malta Institute of Accountants. Elected in 2013, he is President of the Malta Association of Credit Management. He is also the Deputy Chair of the Professional Accountants in Business Group within the Malta Institute of Accountants, and forms part of the Disciplinary Appeals Pool within the said institute.

Charles holds a Bachelor of Arts Honours degree in Accountancy from the University of Malta.

The objectives of the project team are to:

Mr. Jamal Milhem has joined the IFAC PAO Development & Advisory Group (PAOD&AG) in January 2018 for the first term 2018-2020 and was reelected for the second term 2021-2023. 

Mr. Milhem is currently the Executive Director and a partner of TAGI in Palestine and a member of the TAGORG Executive Management Council from 2015-2022 (TAGI is an International Audit firm, Member of FOF and one of TAGORG firms with more than 100 offices worldwide). He has more than 30 years of experience in public accounting and advisory services in different countries in TAGI and TAGORG. In addition, he has more than 8 years of experience in higher education in different universities in Palestine related to teaching and development of accounting education programs.

Mr. Milhem has joined the Palestinian Association of Certified Public Accountants (PACPA) in 1997 (PACPA is a national PAO and an IFAC member), and he has been serving as a board member since 2003. He was elected as vice-president of PACPA from 2010 to 2016, reelected as a vice president since 2018-2020 and elected as PACPA president for the years 2021-2022. He also chaired different committees in the PACPA such as the Code of Ethics Committee and the Quality Assurance Committee. Furthermore, he has been elected as a board member of IASCA since 2011, (IASCA is an accounting organization working across the MENA region and an IFAC member). Mr. Milhem was a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, AICPA – Montana State (USA) from 2000 till 2011. Mr. Milhem also served as a member of many other national professional committees, e.g., National Team for AML and risk assessment, National Palestinian WTO Accession Team, Steering Committee for National Team for Transparency and licensing committees in the Palestinian Capital Market Authority i.e., financial analyst, financial consultant, investment consultant and IPO manager.

Mr. Milhem has earned his Bachelor’s degree in accounting and auditing in 1992, and his Master degree in business administration in 1994 from the University of Poona, Symbiosis College, India. He joined a PHD Accounting and Finance program in the Arab American University, Palestine in 2022.  He has obtained his CPA certification from the Montana State Board of Public Accountants – USA in 1998.

Mr. Qiang Zhang became the technical advisor for Liang Yang on December 2023.

He is currently serving as the senior technical staff of Accounting Regulatory Department, the Ministry of Finance, China, responsible for setting Chinese government accounting standards.

Mr. Zhang started his career in the Ministry of Finance in 2020, and he actively participated in government accounting standard reform in China.

Mr. Zhang graduated from Renmin University of China with a Ph.D in management (accounting major).

Roger is the Secretary General of the Lebanese Association of Certified Public Accountants (LACPA). A distinguished professional in accounting and academia, he boasts extensive expertise in taxation, PFM, IPSAS, and IFRS. As a seasoned higher education lecturer, he has held notable positions throughout his accomplished career at the Lebanese Ministry of Finance, including Head of Department at the VAT Directorate and Head of the IPSAS Committee. His pivotal role in formulating VAT policies in the region has left a lasting impact.

Beyond his governmental role, Roger served as the Director of the Finance Center of Excellence at Health Holding Company in Saudi Arabia, providing crucial advisory support on finance transformation. Academically, he earned a "Very Honorable" Ph.D. in Management Science from Picardie Jules Verne University with unanimous jury congratulations and holds a comprehensive array of ACCA certifications, showcasing his commitment to continuous learning.

He also holds the prestigious role of a TADAT assessor. His professional designations include Certified Internal Auditor (CIA) by The Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA). His contributions extend to literature, with numerous publications, and he has served as a Subject-Matter Expert with ACCA since 2018.

Roger became a member of IPAE in January 2024.