Naguib Kheraj cut his teeth at the sharp end of investment banking, joining Salomon Brothers, the US investment bank, in London in 1986 after reading a degree in economics at Churchill College, Cambridge.

His career began in the corporate finance department and in 1993 he was appointed chief financial officer for the bank in Europe, a position he held until 1996 when he joined Robert Fleming as co-head of global capital markets.