Capital Markets & Investments

Aamir Mecklai, Managing Director, Global Healthcare Investment Banking at Bank of America Merrill Lynch
Arda Ural, PhD, Partner and Americas Industry Market Leader for Life Sciences and Healthcare at Ernst & Young LLP
Nathan Ajiashvili, Co-Chair, New York Corporate Department at Latham & Watkins LLP
Angus Grant, Executive Vice President, Business Development at Teva Pharmaceuticals

Hotel Ownership Fireside Chat: Changing Dynamics of the Meetings and Events Industry

Addressing the state of the current market landscape, Investment opportunities during lower volume movement periods, Public vs. Private deal trends, and Industry value drivers

Speakers

Aamir Mecklai

Aamir Mecklai, Managing Director, Global Healthcare Investment Banking at Bank of America Merrill Lynch

Aamir Mecklai is a Managing Director within the BofA Securities Global Healthcare Group, based in New York. Aamir specializes in the pharmaceutical and biotech sector.

Aamir has been with BofA Securities for 13 years and his investment banking experience includes extensive work with both private as well as publicly listed biopharma and biotech companies on mergers & acquisitions, initial public offerings and other equity-linked financings.

Previously Aamir was with Pfizer for 10 years in the global manufacturing / operations division responsible for active pharmaceutical ingredient production.

Aamir holds a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from MIT and an MBA from Kellogg School of Management (Northwestern University).

Arda Ural

Arda Ural is the Leader for Americas Health Sciences and Wellness Industry Markets at EY, assisting life sciences and healthcare professionals across America. He previously led EY’s Life Sciences Transactions Advisory Services and served various leadership roles in EY's east region.

With nearly 30 years of experience in pharma, biotech and med tech sector, Arda has a solid background in general management, strategy, marketing, and M&A. In his past roles, he was a Managing Director at a top strategy firm and held leadership positions at Becton Dickinson and biotech start-up, Eyetech.

Starting his career with Pfizer in Istanbul, he moved to New York to work in product commercialization and new product development. An industry expert, Arda is a regular speaker at conferences and has published over 50 works on the life sciences industry

Nathan Ajiashvili

Nathan Ajiashvili, Co-Chair of the New York Corporate Department, advises companies and financial institutions on a range of public and private financings, as well as domestic and foreign entities in corporate securities matters. Mr. Ajiashvili applies a hands-on approach to help clients successfully navigate financings and transactions at every stage of their life cycles. He offers particular experience in transactions involving the life sciences and tech industries. His work spans dozens of initial public offerings (IPOs), including a number of dual listings involving diverse jurisdictions.

Mr. Ajiashvili complements his breadth of IPO work with various types of financing transactions, such as high yield debt offerings, public and private equity offerings, leveraged buyouts, debt exchange offers, tender offers, and consent solicitations. A trusted strategic advisor, Mr. Ajiashvili also counsels clients on general corporate and securities matters, including corporate governance issues, public company reporting obligations, and stock exchange rules and requirements.

Angus Grant

Angus Grant, Ph.D., joined Teva Pharmaceuticals, August 1st, 2023, as EVP BD. Angus previously served as Chief Business Executive at BeiGene since June 2020. Collectively, Angus brings more than 25 years of experience across multiple key functions in the biotech industry, including business development, corporate strategy, mergers, investing, alliance management, research and development, and regulatory affairs. Dr. Grant has overseen the end-to-end process for strategy and partnering, driving external innovation, collaborations and investments to bring impactful medicines to patients around the world. He is committed to partnering with the best minds in academia, biotech and pharma to bring the highest quality and most innovative therapies globally with partners who share a patient-centric vision and unwavering commitment to transformational science.