SPEAKER BIOGRAPHIES - Association of Corporate Counsel

Session 109: Conducting cross-border internal investigations
Elias Hayek
Chairman and President, Corporate Counsel Middle East Group
Elias J. Hayek joined Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide, Inc. in 2000. He currently
serves as Vice President, Legal for the Europe, Middle East and Africa division, based in
Dubai, UAE. In this role, Mr. Hayek is responsible for overseeing all regional legal issues
for Starwood in the Middle East and Africa, including managing all the legal issues for
the operating hotels in these regions, and advising the corporate management and
hotel management. His responsibilities also include leading the legal aspects of the
negotiation, drafting and execution of hotel management, franchise and lease agreements, arranging
contracts for branded residential and condo projects, and overseeing the acquisition and disposition of hotel
assets.
Mr. Hayek also serves as the President of the Dubai Corporate Counsel Group, the leading in-house
organization in the Middle East representing the interests of general counsel and in-house lawyers in the
region.
Prior to joining Starwood, Mr. Hayek worked in private practice in California, United States from 1995 to
2000, as a commercial/transactional attorney. Mr. Hayek holds a Juris Doctorate degree, as well as a
Bachelors of Science in Business Administration (Finance / Economics). He is a licensed member of the
attorneys’ bar of the State of California and of the U.S. Federal Courts, and is also a member of the American
Bar Association, American Corporate Counsel Association and the California Bar Association. He has been a
frequent speaker at hotel industry specific conventions and various legal seminars. He is fluent in English
and Arabic, and is conversant in French and Italian.
Armando J Tirado
General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer, ERP software, consulting services and
solutions company ShipNet AS
Having practiced since 1988 in law firms and corporate law departments, Armando now
provides legal, compliance, regulatory and strategic planning support for ShipNet AS, a
software and cloud services provider, as its General Counsel & CCO, and in addition to a
number of companies as an in-house consultant. Trained and qualified to practice law
in civil and common law jurisdictions, he has served as senior, regional and general counsel for several
multinationals, including Tyco International, FedEx and Ingram Micro, as well as with a number of startups in
the telecommunications, internet and digital media fields. His academic background includes a Juris Doctor
from Tulane Law School in New Orleans, a specialization in European law from the University Alcala de
Henares in Spain, an LLM degree from the London School of Economics, an LLM from Columbia Law School in
New York, and an LLB/civil law degree from the Andres Bello Catholic University in Caracas. He is admitted to
practice as a solicitor in England and Wales, as an attorney in three U.S. jurisdictions (New York, Florida and
Louisiana) and as a practicing lawyer in Venezuela. His current practice is evenly split between litigation and
transactional matters, with an emphasis in technology contracts and corporate compliance, foreign legal and
regulatory matters, IP / IT, telecommunications, compliance and regulatory affairs and strategic corporate
and tax long-term planning.
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