As Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Laith Ghaith Pharaon expertly oversees the investments, business development and ongoing operations of Orca Holding worldwide. He serves as the principal investor identifying lucrative real-estate opportunities in select international markets. Leveraging his well-respected acumen in hospitality management, he has established joint venture partnerships with world class luxury hotel and resort brands around the globe.
Mr. Pharaon’s prior experience includes and asset management and development of a hospitality portfolio of hotels and resorts across the Mercosur region of Latin America. In his early career he managed distressed real estate portfolio assets in the U.S. and administered a sizeable Latin American debt portfolio for a major New York money center.
From 1995 to 2006, Mr. Pharaon competed on an international level in Class 1 offshore powerboat racing. He was inducted in the American Power Boat Association’s (APBA) Hall of Champions, the highest honor for the sport, in 1996. Among his career wins were four Formula 1 World Championship races: U.S. Championship (1996); European and World titles (1997); Pole Position World Title (1998).
Mr. Pharaon was born September 8, 1968 in London, UK. Educated in Switzerland, he completed his studies in the United States, where he graduated from the University of Southern California.
Mr. Pharaon has his home in Punta del Este (Uruguay), and spends most of his time traveling between Barcelona (Spain), Miami (U.S.) and Singapore (Singapore), among other countries in Asia. He is fluent in English, French, Spanish and Italian.
Arnaldo Roman joined Orca Holding in 2001 as the Group’s Chief Financial Officer, overseeing its Latin American hotel branch and various real-estate development projects in the region.
Mr. Roman’s experiences include consulting, accounting, auditing, mergers and acquisitions, and international financing. Based in Miami, Arnaldo Roman’s current responsibilities include managing Orca’s active investment portfolio.
Damian Camilleri joined Orca Holding in 2017 as the Group’s Financial Controller.
Before joining Orca Holding, Damian spent around 12 years working at a Big Four audit firm in Malta at different levels within its audit function, servicing clients in different sectors, with his latest role prior to joining Orca Holding being as a Senior Manager specialising in international business group audits.
During his time in audit, Damian also gained international experience on financial services audits, spending over a year working at the network firm’s representative offices in Ireland, and more recently, in the Netherlands.
He is based in Malta and among other responsibilities, oversees the accounting and financial reporting function of the Group, with an emphasis on the Group’s Asian, European and UK portfolio of investments.
Since joining the Group in 1982, Hélène Guibert has held many successive positions and is currently the Executive Assistant to CEO, Laith Pharaon. Ms. Guibert graduated from Paris Commercial Institute BEGUE in 1980 as a Trilingual Executive Assistant fluent in English, German, and Greek. She is currently based at the Group’s European office in Paris, France.