Nabil Wilf

Biochemistry, genetics, molecular biology and protein engineering could not be further removed from corporate and investment banking. And yet, four years after completing his PhD in Molecular Biology at the University of Cambridge, Nabil Wilf reported for duty as one of RMB’s Class Of recruits – eager to learn all there is to know about the world of corporate and investment banking.

Nabil Wilf may not exactly fit the profile of a typical banker, but he is the perfect fit for what the Founder of the Programme, Paul Harris, had in mind when he created the RMB Class Of Programme in 1993. Paul was clear that the more unusual these candidates’ qualifications and work experience were, the better suited they would be for the Programme. Enters Mr Wilf.

Nabil’s CV on LinkedIn is nothing short of impressive. A PhD from Cambridge; a Post-Doctoral Research Fellowship at the Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge; and a Fulbright scholarship to Kuwait from the US State Department are just a few of his many awards and accolades as a leading molecular biology researcher.

Added to the list of impressive accolades is his incredible achievement of becoming proficient in the Arabic language, facilitated by four months of intensive study in Damascus, Syria – all in preparation for his Fulbright scholarship in Kuwait. Subsequently, he carried out research on the views of Kuwaiti youth to women’s rights and presented the outcomes of his research at the Kuwaiti Law Society in Arabic. His love for languages is still alive as he does translations from Arabic to English on an ongoing basis.

Curious mind

Being the first of three children born in Kuwait City to a structural engineer and research specialist, Nabil naturally opted to pursue a career in research.  His curiosity about understanding how things work – particularly from the eyepiece of a microscope, paved the way for his career as a microbiologist and researcher – starting in the United States and later at Cambridge in the UK.

As an undergraduate researcher at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, he was particularly fascinated by the role of the bacterial RNA-binding protein, Hfq, in stress response and virulence in several bacterial species. Nabil explains in layman’s terms that while DNA is the genetic material of all cellular organisms, RNA functions as an information carrier or messenger with multiple roles.  This field of study also became the topic of his PhD dissertation in Molecular Biology at the University of Cambridge. His research showed that eliminating the Hfq protein in a species of the bacteria, Serratia, turns off its ability to cause infections. This contributed to the evidence that Hfq is an attractive target for drug development to prevent infections by bacteria that use this protein.

(Re)searching new opportunities

The day Nabil met and married his Namibian-born wife, another avenue opened up for him to pursue new opportunities and discover new worlds. The couple had the option to return to the United States or to explore Africa. The latter won him over when he was offered a post-Doctoral Research Fellow position at the CSIR in Pretoria.

It was during this time that he transitioned from studying bacteria to stem cells. He led a project to screen a library of micro RNAs in mouse embryonic stem cells to identify factors that lead to cell differentiation. Stem cells have the potential to differentiate into any cell in the body, therefore holding the therapeutic potential to repair or replace damaged tissue and organs, such as in a spinal cord injury or heart disease.

His friendship with RMB Class Of alumni and fellow follower of the Bahá'í Faith, Farzam Ehsani, planted the Class Of seed and Nabil realised he had to grab the opportunity to work for one of Africa’s leading corporate and investment banks.

Nabil has gained broad experience across the bank from spending time in Resource Finance, Global Markets, Leveraged Finance, and is currently learning the ropes of being a Transactor in the Infrastructure Finance department of the Investment Banking division. He loves RMB’s unique culture and the freedom the Programme gives him to do rotations in different departments of the bank. He enjoys the bird’s eye view from the bank and applying his analytical skills to the financial services industry.

Analysing the health of businesses

While Nabil’s world has changed quite radically from microscopes to corporate banking, he does see the correlation. Instead of analysing scientific data to learn about bacteria and stem cells, he now analyses the financial data of companies to glean insights about the health of their businesses.