Lorne Stewart Group

Leading through partnership and collaboration

Our board

Possessing rich and diverse industry knowledge through the selection of the right people is key to keeping any business at the top of its game. Our board of directors has over 200 years of combined experience in the successful management of major organisations.

Tarek Abuzayyad

Tarek Abuzayyad

Group Chairman

Tarek joined the Board of Lorne Stewart Plc in 2006 as Chairman. He has over 20 years’ experience in M&A, private equity / venture capital and asset management for families and institutions. He was formerly a partner at Stanhope Capital for eight years, focusing on Merchant Banking as well as the Middle East Region and was also a Managing Director at Berggruen Holdings, a family office / private equity firm and a Director in M&A / Corporate Finance at Credit Suisse Group and Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette in both New York and London. Tarek is currently a director of Lorne Stewart, Smit Lamnalco, MH Luxe, Initial Capital and Orient Real Estate.

He is also a member of the advisory board of the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University and of the Buck Institute for Research on Aging.

Tarek holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and an AB Economics from Stanford University


Jacob Kurian

Group Director

Jacob Kurian joined the Board of Lorne Stewart Plc in 2009 as a Director. He has over 30 years experience in accounting and finance. Having worked for KPMG in the United Kingdom and subsequently with Dresdner Bank in Australia, he joined the Rezayat Group as CFO in 1992. He is a graduate in Accounting and is an Associate Member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.


P M Mathew

Vice Chairman

P M Mathew joined the Board of Lorne Stewart Plc in 2000 as Group Finance Director. He is professionally qualified and has over 35 years experience in accounting and finance. P M Mathew previously undertook a number of senior roles and gained broad experience working with other UK companies in the Middle East (Saudi Arabia/Kuwait/UAE/Qatar) namely BET Plc and Rentokil Initial Plc. In July 2016 he was appointed Group Chief Executive Officer.


Ramesh Krishnamurthy

Group Chief Financial Officer

Ramesh is a qualified Chartered Accountant (ACA) with over 30 years of experience in related business and has held several senior positions during this period. Prior to joining Lorne Stewart, Ramesh worked as Financial Controller (Projects) with Aldar properties PJSC, Abu Dhabi, UAE. Aldar Properties PJSC is a real estate development, management and investment company with headquarters in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates with an annual revenue of £1.1bn.


Paul Hughes

Group Legal & Commercial Director

Paul joined the Board of Lorne Stewart Plc in 2012 having been with the group for over 10 years. Paul has acquired extensive commercial and legal experience in both Main Contracting and M&E Services having worked for some major construction companies. He is legally qualified and is a qualified arbitrator and adjudicator. He is a Chartered Quantity Surveyor and a fellow of the RICS, CIOB and CIArb.


Paul Briars

Chief Executive Officer, Lorne Stewart Engineering

With over 27 years’ industry experience including 13 at Director and Managing Director level, Paul Briars, as CEO of Lorne Stewart Engineering drives our Strategic Focus Themes for continued sustainable and profitable growth.

His diverse sector experience, both nationally and internationally, has given him the acumen to understand and adapt to the increasing demands of the industry with a clear focus on moving into major new markets.

With a strong track record of customer satisfaction and an extensive repeat client base, Paul influences our customer focus and harnesses long-standing client relationships. He constantly pushes the boundaries of excellence through our core values to

increase profitable growth and is committed to our continual development to ensure market-leading innovation and processes. Paul has vast experience in market sectors such as nuclear, defence, infrastructure, healthcare, and commercial markets.

Paul during his career has held senior positions at Crown House, Rotary Group & NG Bailey.

Paul believes our people are the key to our success and with his inspirational, flexible and bold approach to leadership, aligned with our core values, he is committed to successfully lead Lorne Stewart Engineering into the future.


Mark Sutcliffe

Chief Executive Officer, Lorne Stewart Facilities

Mark has been in the facilities management industry for more than two decades where he has worked in many different environments, providing facilities management and property operations across traditional FM contracts in both the public and private sectors and also public finance initiatives.

During this time Mark has had a varied career and held several senior positions in both operations and business development for large and midsize service providers including; Kellogg Brown and Root, Interserve and Bouygues, as well as working client side for a large global business.

Prior to joining the facilities industries, Mark served as a Warfare Officer in the Royal Navy. During his Naval Career Mark served in several ship appointments on Aircraft Carriers, Frigates and Minehunters and saw active operations in the Adriatic.


Inbaraj Rajakumar

Group Company Secretary

Inbaraj Rajakumar joined Lorne Stewart Plc in 2001 as Corporate Financial Systems manager and became Company Secretary in 2011 handling Corporate Reporting, Taxation and Corporate Financial Systems. He has over 25 years’ experience in accounting, finance and systems. He started his career with Larsen and Tubro Ltd, Mumbai as Internal Auditor and joined a Middle East group in 1992 as Finance Manager. He holds a first class degree in Commerce and a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England & Wales. He is also a Certified Information Systems Auditor (USA).