New hires at Deutsche Bank, Deliveroo, DCT

Deliveroo has named Vasilis Hadjiaslanis (LinkedIn) as general manager for the Middle East, where it operates in the UAE and Kuwait, according to a statement. He joins from Bolt, where he was UAE general manager and led its ride-hailing joint venture with Dubai Taxi. Before that, he spent more than seven years at Uber across the Middle East and Africa, including a stint as interim general manager for the UAE, Jordan, and Lebanon. The hire comes a year into DoorDash’s ownership, following its 2025 takeover of Deliveroo.

Deutsche Bank has moved three senior bankers into Dubai, covering debt capital markets, distressed credit, and institutional clients, Zawya reports. The new hires:

• Ilya Korobov (LinkedIn) relocated from London to run Middle East and Africa coverage as director of debt capital markets for CEEMEA, and has been at Deutsche since November 2025 after working on sovereign, bank, and corporate bond deals at Barclays;
• Adel Taleb (LinkedIn) also made the move from London to build out the bank's Distressed Products Group (DPG) in the region. Deutsche has been buying into Middle East distressed debt for years and sees more room to grow as Gulf debt markets mature, DPG Europe's Robbie Harris said. Its biggest regional bet came last year, when it bought USD 800 mn in bad loans from First Abu Dhabi Bank.
• Nitin Sawhney (LinkedIn) took over as head of the Institutional Client Group for MENA in September, joining from UBS, where he headed MENA financing. He reports to Dimos Arhodidis, Deutsche's CEEMEA co-head of investment banking and ICG.

Miral’s Mohamed Abdalla Al Zaabi (LinkedIn) is now also undersecretary of Abu Dhabi’s Department of Culture and Tourism (DCT), according to an Abu Dhabi Media Office statement. He keeps his job as managing director of Miral, the Yas Island developer, according to his LinkedIn. Al Zaabi joined Miral in 2015 and was previously its group CEO, running its leisure, entertainment, and cultural projects.