Zest ADGM Entity Appoints Zeid Barghouti as Senior Executive Officer

Zest Equity, a digital transactional infrastructure company powering private-market transactions, today announced the appointment of Zeid Barghouti as Senior Executive Officer of its FSRA-regulated entity, ZE Transaction Solutions Limited (“Zest ADGM”).

Barghouti, Senior Executive Officer of the ADGM-based entity since its inception, leads business development and partnerships at Zest Equity, driving commercial growth across the firm’s SPV platform and overseeing the regulated entity through which the firm’s escrow and arranging services are delivered from the ADGM.

As Head of Business Development and Partnerships, Barghouti leads commercial growth across Zest Equity as a group, with responsibility for strategic partnerships, client relationships, and market expansion across MENA. In his new role as Senior Executive Officer, he oversees Zest ADGM and will support the continued development of its escrow and transaction facilitation solutions for private markets.

Barghouti brings an established record in regulated financial services across the Gulf region. Prior to Zest Equity, he served as Senior Executive Officer at Capital Investments DIFC Ltd, and held senior treasury and financial institutions roles within Capital Bank Group. He holds an MBA from the University of Manchester and a BSc in Business Management from the University of Surrey.

The appointment reflects Zest Equity’s commitment to building institutional-grade leadership as the company scales its digital transactional infrastructure across private markets. Since its founding, Zest Equity as a group has digitized more than USD 230 million in transactions across over 200 deals, and has received authorisation from the FSRA for Zest ADGM to offer both its Zest Arrange and Zest Escrow products.

“Zeid has been instrumental to the commercial development of Zest Equity, and the regulatory remit he now assumes is the natural next step as we scale the digital infrastructure underpinning private-market transactions,” said Zuhair Shamma, Co-founder and CEO of Zest Equity. “His combination of regulatory experience and commercial acumen is exactly what this stage of the business demands. His leadership will be central as we scale the institutional infrastructure private markets require.”

“Zest Equity occupies a distinctive position in the regional private markets landscape and Zest is a genuine foundation for institutional growth in the region’s private markets,” said Barghouti. “I look forward to contributing further to its development and to the firm’s broader commercial expansion across the region’s private-market ecosystem.”

Zest ADGM is regulated by the Financial Services Regulatory Authority of the Abu Dhabi Global Market, and delivers the firm’s payment services and arranging deals in investment services to clients across MENA and beyond.