Arif Naqvi is a private equity non-conformist. Sitting on top of a global buyout empire that spans territories including Palestine, Peru, Sri Lanka and Pakistan, his firm, Abraaj Group, is the world’s largest emerging markets specialist.

Ask almost any Middle Eastern private equity executive to describe Naqvi, and the word "pioneer" will be used. Naqvi engineered the Middle East's largest leveraged buyout to date - Abraaj's $1.4bn acquisition of Egyptian Fertilizers Company in 2007 - and retains a fearlessness about reshaping the traditional private equity model to fit new frontiers.