The QFC Regulatory Authority appointed Dr Mohammed Abdel-Aziz Al-Kulaifi to be a CDRS Independent Adjudicator in December 2017.

Dr Al-Kulaifi has been the Dean of the College of Law, Qatar University, and Associate Professor of Commercial Law, College of Law, Qatar University since 2011. He earned his LL.B from Qatar University and his LL.M and JSD from the University of California, Berkeley in the United States. He has published a number of reviewed scientific articles in the field of commercial law on topics such as bankruptcy and the acquisition of commercial companies. Dr Al-Kulaifi has taught several law courses at Qatar University including Principles of Commercial Law, Alternative Dispute Resolution, Commercial Papers and Banking Transactions. He was a recipient of the HH the Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani Award at Education Excellence Day (PhD Category) in 2012, as well as a fellowship from the Institute of International and Regional Studies at Georgetown University in Qatar for the academic year 2013-2014.

Dr Al-Kulaifi has taught several law courses at Qatar University including Principles of Commercial Law, Alternative Dispute Resolution, Commercial Papers and Banking Transactions. He was a recipient of the HH the Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani Award at Education Excellence Day (PhD Category) in 2012, as well as a fellowship from the Institute of International and Regional Studies at Georgetown University in Qatar for the academic year 2013-2014.

He was a Visiting Professor at Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar. He also participated in several academic and specialised committees including the Permanent Committee for Legislative affairs in the council of ministers and the Permanent International Law of the Sea in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In addition to his academic work, Dr Al-Kulaifi is a lawyer at the Law Office of Abdulaziz Al-Kulaifi as well as a legal consultant for several governmental and private authorities.

The QFC Regulatory Authority appointed Professor Robin Callender Smith to be a CDRS Independent Adjudicator in September 2013.

Professor Robin Callender Smith is an international arbitrator, mediator and adjudicator at ARBITA, his London Chambers. He specialises in financial, regulatory and privacy arbitration. He is a Member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitration, a CEDR-qualified Mediator and a Panel Adjudicator for the Society of Computers and the Law (SCL). He was a member of the UK energy regulator Ofgem’s independent Enforcement Decisions Panel and a non-executive member of the UK’s Chartered Insurance Institute. He was also formerly Deputy Chairman of the Regulatory Decisions Committee of the Financial Conduct Authority. He worked as a Tribunal Judge for ten years and is Honorary Professor of Media Law at Queen Mary, University of London (QMUL), where he completed his PhD. 

He is the author of Celebrity and Royal Privacy, the Media and the Law (Sweet & Maxwell 2015) and an Editor of Sweet & Maxwell’s Encyclopedia of Data Protection and Privacy. He has spent over 40 years as a media lawyer for national newspapers and ten years in the City of London dealing with significant financial takeovers and mergers as well as issues relating to compliance, corporate governance and professional standards in the financial services sector. Professor Callender Smith has been a barrister for over 45 years and is a former elected member of the UK Bar Council and Gray’s Inn Barristers’ Committee. He is a Vice President of London Youth, London’s largest youth charity.