Robert P. Smith

Mr. Smith is the founder and managing director of the Boston-based Turan Corporation, which specializes in trading emerging markets sovereign debt and evaluating creditor claims against foreign governments.

A graduate of Bowdoin College and Boston University Law School, Mr. Smith served as a loan officer and economic liaison for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in Viet Nam, El Salvador, the Dominican Republic and Brazil. He later joined Deltec Bank of Sao Paulo, Brazil before returning to the United States in the mid-1970s where he established a law practice specializing in international debt collections.

Turan Corporation was founded as Turam (“Turkish-American”) Corporation in 1978, and soon became one of the largest privately held sovereign debt trading firms in the world. Peter Marber, the author of From Third World to World Class: The Future of Emerging Markets in the Global Economy (Perseus, 1998), credits Mr. Smith as one of four individuals who contributed "significantly to the birth of the debt market, and possibly even the entire emerging markets investment community, well ahead of Wall Street's more prominent houses."

Mr. Smith is a noted authority on developing world debt and has been cited or quoted in numerous publications including the Wall Street Journal, Africa Economic Digest, The Financial Times, International Business, and various publications of Euromoney Publications of London. From 1986-88 he wrote a monthly column, “Blocked Currency,” for the Euromoney Treasury Report. Mr. Smith is a sought-after speaker and has addressed numerous professional groups on matters relating to emerging markets.

Mr. Smith has served as a trustee of various nonprofit organizations, including the Roxbury Latin School, Caribbean Central American Action, Oxford Academy, the Fessenden School and Plimoth Plantation. He is a benefactor of the David Saul Smith Union at Bowdoin College and the Robert P. Smith Art Center and Theater at the Roxbury Latin School.

Mr. Smith and his wife, Salwa, have two children and two grandchildren and reside in Boston and New York City.

Saleh Daher, CFA

Mr. Daher was born in Goiânia, Brazil. He is a graduate in engineering from MIT (1976) and Stanford University (1978). Saleh Daher is a Chartered Financial Analyst.

In 1979, Mr. Daher joined the international division of Citibank N.A. and was later assigned to Argentina where he served as a lending officer from 1980 through 1984. In 1984, Mr. Daher joined Citicorp Investment Bank in New York in what would now be called emerging market trading and derivatives. In 1986 he became responsible for the domestic asset trading desk at Bank of Boston.

Saleh Daher joined Turan Corporation in 1988. Since that time he has been responsible for overseeing the company's highly successful trading and investment activities in emerging markets assets for both proprietary and client accounts. During 1994 and 1995, Mr. Daher was stationed in Singapore where he established an affiliate of Turan Corporation.

Mr. Daher is past trustee and treasurer of the Montrose School, Medfield, Massachusetts. Mr. Daher and his wife are the parents of two daughters. He is trilingual in English, Portuguese and Spanish and has a working knowledge of French. Reading, squash, hiking and skiing are his favorite pastimes.

Elizabeth Kalafa

Elizabeth Kalafa, a native of Nahant, Massachusets, received her Bachelor of Science degree in Business and Spanish from Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, New York in 1985.

Until 1989, she worked as an interbank broker at Garvin Guy Butler in New York City, on the swaps and options desks. She moved back to Boston at the end of 1989 and accepted a position with Turan Corporation in 1990 as a trader. She has been a vital player in the Turan team since then, providing coverage of corporate and bank clients in the US, Europe and Asia.

Mrs. Kalafa is married with two children. She is an avid runner and skier. She has completed 5 marathons, three of them Boston Marathons. When she is not working or running, she is volunteering at her parish, helping in her children’s schools or coaching junior sports teams. Her other interests are tennis, golf, ballet, the beach and reading.

Robert Towler

Mr. Towler is a native and current resident of Salem, Massachusetts. Robert Towler attended St. John’s Preparatory School, in Danvers, Massachusetts and Tufts University.

Since 2000, Mr. Towler has been responsible for Turan Corporation’s relationships with major corporations and banks in North America and Europe.

A former competitive swimmer, he is an aficionado of sports who relishes the world championships of the Boston Red Sox and the New England Patriots, and anticipates a brilliant future for the Celtics and the Boston Bruins. The outdoors, golf and softball fill up his spare time.

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