"We don't do passive investments and even though our investments are broadly spread, there is a common thread. That thread is that we invest in individuals, not corporate groups. Most of the people and businesses we help want access to the Middle East and what they see in Corniche is not a traditional funder, but a long term partner with contacts and expertise in America, Europe and throughout the Middle East. In nearly all our investments, we go in ourselves and help individual entrepreneurs by improving banking relationships, providing them with business advice and helping them grow. Using our contacts as well as our legal, financial expertise, we are an active equity partner."
Hani Farsi, Chief Executive Officer
"At Corniche our aim is not just wealth preservation but wealth creation. By combining our experience in the European and Middle Eastern markets with many years of legal, banking and trading expertise, Corniche constitutes a proactive private equity partner."
Wayne Harburn, Chief Operating Officer
"While being an active private equity player, Corniche benefits from its family office structure with no disconnect between the investor and the decision maker. Corniche has a very efficient decision making process and can react quickly to new market and investment trends."
Vincent Chevance, Managing Director
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Hani Farsi, Chief Executive Officer
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Wayne Harburn, Chief Operating Officer
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Vincent Chevance, Managing Director
Until the age of 15 lived in Jeddah but travelled widely with his father; thereafter Hani Farsi went to South Kent College Connecticut and then attended the American University in Washington DC, graduating with a BA/ Masters in International Affairs. He continues to play an active role at his alma mater and has served on the board of trustees since 1996. Upon graduation he worked in the Washington office of Amnesty International and then moved to London in 1993 to catalogue the family art collection and begin management of the family's assets. From 1993 until 2000 he sat on the board of the Donmar Warehouse Theatre, personally subsidizing the acclaimed London Theatre and saving it from closure until Lottery funding was allocated. From 1998 he invested in the burgeoning field of London restaurants and membership clubs, building up the largest shareholding in the Soho House Group, before selling to Richard Caring, Caprice Ltd, in the summer of 2007. Hani Farsi became a British citizen in 2003.
Educated in Australia, Wayne Harburn worked on the Sydney Futures Exchange then moved to New York at the beginning of the 1990s, where he worked as an oil broker for two years before setting up the Singapore office of Spectron Energy in 1992. Thereafter he worked for AIG in Hong Kong and London making markets in energy related products around the world. In 1998 he became head of European trading at BNP Paribas and before joining Corniche he was global head of Commodities for ABN Amro. While at Paribas he met Vincent Chevance and the two have been working together for over ten years, bringing the benefits of an unrivalled partnership to Corniche, which he joined as COO in 2007.
Born and educated in Paris, Vincent Chevance studied law at ASSAS then attended La Sorbonne for post graduate studies, upon completion of which he moved to New York, where he studied law at Fordham University, passing the New York Bar examinations. He started his career in derivatives law and then moved to derivatives structuring while at Paribas in NY in early 1994. In 1999 he moved to London to start the European commodity derivatives team for BNP Paribas and in 2003 he and Wayne Harburn were asked to co-head the Global Commodity Derivatives team for ABN Amro. He joined Corniche as Managing Director in 2007.
