Hamed Merah has been appointed chief executive officer for the Saudi Center for Commercial Arbitration (SCCA) in March 2018. Merah holds an MSc and Ph.D. from the Higher Judicial Institute of Imam Muhammad bin Saud University in Riyadh. He has also acquired professional certificates in compliance, governance, capital market and insurance. His career started back in 2004 at Bank Al-Bilad when he was Shariah board secretariat department manager. However, he left the job after four years. In 2009 he joined Jadwa Investment as an investment banking associate. At Solidarity Saudi Takaful Co., Merah worked as the Shariah affairs manager from 2011 to 2012, and then as a Shariah and compliance consultant from 2012 to 2014. He was also secretary-general in the accounting and auditing organization for Islamic financial institutions from 2014 to 2018. He has participated in a number of specialized conferences, seminars and workshops in Islamic banking, finance and Takaful. The SCCA is organizing its first international conference, SCCA18, in Riyadh on Oct. 15 and 16, in partnership with the International Center for Dispute Resolution, affiliated with the American Arbitration Association. Merah said that during the event experts will discuss institutional arbitration and its role in achieving Vision 2030. The conference will review best practices related to institutional arbitration within various arbitral institutions, and tackle the most notable practical experiments for alternatives to dispute and challenge settlement facing the region.